אם השחקן החדש יבוא מוקדם, נתחיל את המשחק בזמן.

אם means if. It introduces a condition:

• אם השחקן החדש יבוא מוקדם = if the new player comes early

It works much like English if at the beginning of a conditional sentence.

In Hebrew, when you talk about a real future condition, it is very common to use the future tense in both parts of the sentence:

• אם ... יבוא = if ... comes / will come
• נתחיל = we will start

So Hebrew says, literally, something like:

• If the new player will come early, we will start the game on time

Even though English usually says if he comes, not if he will come, Hebrew normally uses the future here.

יבוא means he will come.

It comes from the verb לבוא = to come.

This is the 3rd person masculine singular future form:

• אני אבוא = I will come
• אתה תבוא = you will come
• הוא יבוא = he will come
• אנחנו נבוא = we will come

So here יבוא matches השחקן החדש because player is masculine singular.

In Hebrew, adjectives usually come after the noun they describe.

So:

• שחקן חדש = a new player
• השחקן החדש = the new player

This is the normal order:

• noun first
• adjective second

So השחקן החדש is exactly the expected Hebrew word order.

Because in Hebrew, when a noun is definite (the...), its adjective also usually becomes definite.

So:

• שחקן חדש = a new player
• השחקן החדש = the new player

Both words get ה־ because the whole phrase is definite.

This is very common in Hebrew adjective phrases.

את is the marker of a definite direct object.

Here:

• נתחיל = we will start
• את המשחק = the game

Because המשחק means the game (a definite object), Hebrew adds את before it.

Compare:

• נתחיל משחק = we will start a game
• נתחיל את המשחק = we will start the game

Important: את does not mean with here. It is just a grammatical marker showing that the definite noun is the direct object.

Yes, מוקדם is basically an adjective meaning early, but Hebrew often uses adjectives in a way that English would translate as an adverb.

So:

• הוא יבוא מוקדם = he will come early

Hebrew does this a lot. Instead of a separate adverb form, an adjective can often serve the same function.

בזמן means on time.

So:

• נתחיל את המשחק בזמן = we will start the game on time

This is a common expression.

It is different from מוקדם:

• מוקדם = early
• בזמן = on time

So the sentence does not say they will start early. It says they will start at the proper time.

Yes. Hebrew can also put the main clause first and the if clause second.

For example:

• נתחיל את המשחק בזמן אם השחקן החדש יבוא מוקדם.

This still means:

• We’ll start the game on time if the new player comes early.

When the אם clause comes first, a pause or comma is very natural, just like in English.

נתחיל is the future form of להתחיל = to begin / to start, and it means we will start.

Since the sentence talks about something that will happen in the future, Hebrew uses the future tense:

• נתחיל = we will start

This form matches we:

• אני אתחיל = I will start
• אתה תתחיל = you will start
• הוא יתחיל = he will start
• אנחנו נתחיל = we will start

So נתחיל is the correct form for we.

Yes, learners often notice that יבוא is pronounced roughly ya-VO.

The middle letter is ב, and the final א is usually not strongly pronounced as a full consonant in modern Hebrew. So the word sounds like two syllables.

Also, this verb is somewhat irregular compared with many simpler future forms, so it is worth memorizing:

• אבוא, תבוא, יבוא, נבוא

Many learners remember it as a common pattern for the verb לבוא.