היום אנחנו מכינים פסטה עם רוטב ועוף לארוחת ערב.

Putting היום at the beginning is very natural in Hebrew when you want to set the time first: Today, we’re making...

Hebrew word order is fairly flexible, so you could also say:

אנחנו מכינים היום פסטה עם רוטב ועוף לארוחת ערב.

That would still be correct. Starting with היום just gives today a little more prominence.

Yes. אנחנו מכינים means we make / we are making / we prepare / we are preparing, depending on context.

Hebrew present tense often uses a form that looks like a participle, so מכינים can cover both:

• we make
• we are making

In this sentence, English would usually translate it as we’re making or we’re preparing.

Hebrew often leaves subject pronouns out when the verb already makes the subject clear.

So you could say:

היום מכינים פסטה עם רוטב ועוף לארוחת ערב.

However, adding אנחנו is completely natural and can make the sentence clearer or a bit more emphatic: we are making it.

So:

• היום אנחנו מכינים... = clear, explicit we
• היום מכינים... = also possible, more dropped-subject style

Because מכינים is the masculine plural present form.

In Hebrew, plural groups use:

• מכינים for masculine plural or mixed-gender plural
• מכינות for feminine plural

So if the speakers are:

• all male, or mixed / unspecified: אנחנו מכינים
• all female: אנחנו מכינות

This is very common in Hebrew grammar: masculine plural is the default for mixed groups.

Because את is used before a definite direct object.

Here, פסטה is indefinite: pasta, not the pasta. So there is no את.

Compare:

• אנחנו מכינים פסטה = We’re making pasta
• אנחנו מכינים את הפסטה = We’re making the pasta

A native English speaker often wants to add את before any direct object, but in Hebrew it only goes with a definite one.

Because they are being used indefinitely:

• פסטה = pasta
• רוטב = sauce
• עוף = chicken

Not:

• הפסטה = the pasta
• הרוטב = the sauce
• העוף = the chicken

The sentence is talking about what is being made for dinner in a general sense, not specific previously mentioned items.

In this sentence, עוף most naturally means chicken as food.

The word עוף can mean:

• poultry / fowl in a broader sense
• chicken meat in everyday food contexts

Here, because the sentence is about making food, a learner should understand עוף as chicken.

Because Hebrew, like English, does not need to repeat the preposition before every item in a list.

So:

• עם רוטב ועוף = with sauce and chicken

This works just like English with sauce and chicken, not necessarily with sauce and with chicken.

You could repeat it for emphasis:

• עם רוטב ועם עוף

But the version in your sentence is more natural and streamlined.

Literally, it is something like for an evening meal.

Breakdown:

• ל־ = for
• ארוחת = meal of ...
• ערב = evening

Together, לארוחת ערב is the standard way to say for dinner.

So although English uses one word, dinner, Hebrew uses the phrase meal of evening.

Because ארוחת is the construct form of ארוחה.

Hebrew uses a special form called the construct state when one noun is linked to another noun, like X of Y.

So:

• ארוחה = a meal
• ארוחת ערב = evening meal / dinner

This is very common in Hebrew. A few similar patterns are:

• בית = house
• בית ספר = school, literally house of book
• מיץ = juice
• מיץ תפוזים = orange juice, literally juice of oranges

So ארוחת signals that another noun is coming after it.

Yes, but it would mean something different.

• בערב = in the evening
• לארוחת ערב = for dinner

So:

היום אנחנו מכינים פסטה עם רוטב ועוף בערב
means something like Today we’re making pasta with sauce and chicken in the evening

while

היום אנחנו מכינים פסטה עם רוטב ועוף לארוחת ערב
means Today we’re making pasta with sauce and chicken for dinner

One gives the time, and the other gives the purpose/meal occasion.

It is not completely fixed. Hebrew allows some movement for emphasis or style.

For example, all of these are possible:

• היום אנחנו מכינים פסטה עם רוטב ועוף לארוחת ערב
• אנחנו מכינים היום פסטה עם רוטב ועוף לארוחת ערב
• לארוחת ערב אנחנו מכינים היום פסטה עם רוטב ועוף

They all mean roughly the same thing, but the focus shifts a little:

• starting with היום emphasizes today
• starting with לארוחת ערב emphasizes for dinner

So the original sentence is natural, but not the only possible order.