חכי רגע; אני רוצה לקחת מים לפני שאנחנו יוצאות.

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Breakdown of חכי רגע; אני רוצה לקחת מים לפני שאנחנו יוצאות.

• מים: water
• לרצות: to want
• אנחנו: we

Questions & Answers about חכי רגע; אני רוצה לקחת מים לפני שאנחנו יוצאות.

Why is it חכי and not חכה?

Because חכי is the imperative form used when speaking to one female.

The verb is לחכות = to wait.
Imperatives agree with the person you are talking to:

• חכה = wait! (to one male)
• חכי = wait! (to one female)
• חכו = wait! (to more than one person)

So חכי רגע means wait a second when talking to a woman or girl.

What does רגע mean here?

רגע literally means a moment.

In חכי רגע, it works like English:

• wait a moment
• wait a second
• hold on a sec

So it is a very common, natural little word used to soften or complete the command.

Why is אני included before רוצה? Can Hebrew leave out subject pronouns?

Hebrew can sometimes leave out subject pronouns, but here אני is very natural and helpful.

The form רוצה does not clearly show person by itself in the way English want does. In context, it could mean different things depending on who the subject is.

So אני רוצה clearly means I want.

Also, in unpointed Hebrew writing, רוצה can represent either:

• רוצה = rotze (masculine singular)
• רוצה = rotza (feminine singular)

So the pronoun helps identify the subject, and the rest of the sentence helps identify the gender.