Questions & Answers about יש לי רק 20 דקות לפני הפגישה.
What is the literal word-for-word structure of יש לי רק 20 דקות לפני הפגישה?
A very literal breakdown is:
- יש = there is / there are
- לי = to me
- רק = only
- 20 דקות = 20 minutes
- לפני הפגישה = before the meeting
So the sentence is literally something like There are to me only 20 minutes before the meeting.
That sounds strange in English, but it is a normal Hebrew way to express possession.
Why does Hebrew say יש לי instead of using a verb meaning have?
In the present tense, Hebrew usually does not use a normal verb for to have the way English does.
Instead, Hebrew uses an existence structure:
- יש לי = I have / there is to me
- אין לי = I do not have / there is not to me
So יש לי רק 20 דקות is the normal Hebrew way to say I only have 20 minutes.
What exactly does לי mean, and why is it one word?