לפני שאנחנו שוכרים דירה, כדאי שנקרא את החוזה לאט.

לפני means before. When Hebrew wants to say before followed by a whole clause, it commonly uses ש before that clause: לפני ש... = before ... / before that ...

So לפני שאנחנו שוכרים דירה means before we rent an apartment. The ש is just connecting לפני to the clause that follows.

Because ש is usually attached directly to the next word in modern Hebrew writing.

So:

• ש + אנחנו = שאנחנו
• ש + נקרא = שנקרא

You can think of ש as a short prefix meaning something like that, when, or which, depending on the sentence.

This is very common in Hebrew, especially in everyday speech. The present tense can be used for planned or expected future actions when the context makes the time clear.

So לפני שאנחנו שוכרים דירה is natural and means before we rent an apartment.

A more explicitly future version would be לפני שנשכור דירה, and that is also correct. The sentence you have is just a bit more colloquial in feel.

Yes. לפני שנשכור דירה is perfectly correct.

The difference is mainly nuance:

• לפני שאנחנו שוכרים דירה sounds natural and conversational, with a planned-future sense.
• לפני שנשכור דירה states the future more directly.

Both mean essentially the same thing here.

כדאי means worthwhile, advisable, or a good idea.

A very common pattern is כדאי ש + future verb, which means it would be good if... or someone should...

So כדאי שנקרא means it would be good for us to read or we should read.

Hebrew can also say כדאי לקרוא את החוזה, using the infinitive לקרוא. The version with שנקרא sounds a little more personal and explicit: we should read.

Here נקרא is the first person plural future form of לקרוא: we will read.

The prefix נ- marks we in the future tense. Because the verb already contains the subject, Hebrew does not need to say אנחנו again after כדאי.

So שנקרא literally means that we will read, but in natural English it is better understood here as that we should read.

Because את marks a definite direct object.

• החוזה = the contract, so it is definite, and Hebrew uses את
• דירה = an apartment, so it is indefinite, and there is no את

Compare:

• שוכרים דירה = rent an apartment
• קוראים את החוזה = read the contract

So the presence of את depends on definiteness, not on whether the noun is the object in general.

Because the sentence is talking about renting an apartment in a general sense, so דירה is indefinite: an apartment.

But once you are in that situation, there is a specific contract involved, so Hebrew naturally says החוזה: the contract.

This works much like English:

• rent an apartment
• read the contract

Yes. לאט literally means slowly.

In this sentence, it suggests reading carefully and not rushing, which is very natural when talking about a contract. Even if English might sometimes say carefully, Hebrew לאט works well because the idea is to read in a slow, deliberate way.

Yes. Hebrew word order is fairly flexible.

For example, you could also say:

כדאי שנקרא את החוזה לאט לפני שאנחנו שוכרים דירה.

That is also grammatical. The original sentence puts the before clause first in order to set the time frame right away. That is a very natural choice.

Partly.

שוכרים is the masculine plural form, and Hebrew uses it for:

• a group of men
• a mixed group

If the speakers were all female, it would be שוכרות.

But נקרא is first person plural future, and that form does not change for gender. So we will read is נקרא whether the group is male, female, or mixed.