אני לא יודעת מה קרה במשרד היום.

Because יודעת is the feminine singular form, so the speaker is female.

• אני לא יודעת = said by a woman
• אני לא יודע = said by a man

Hebrew present-tense forms often show gender, even in the first person.

יודעת is the present-tense feminine singular form of the verb לדעת (to know).

So the pattern is:

• אני יודע = I know / I am knowing, masculine
• אני יודעת = I know / I am knowing, feminine

In this sentence, it works as I know in the present.

Hebrew does not use a helping verb like English do in sentences such as I do not know.

English:

• I do not know

Hebrew:

• אני לא יודעת

Literally, it is more like:

• I not know

That is completely normal in Hebrew.

In simple Hebrew sentences, לא usually comes before the verb or predicate to negate it.

So:

• אני יודעת = I know
• אני לא יודעת = I do not know

This is the standard way to make a sentence negative.

קרה is the past tense, third person masculine singular form of לקרות (to happen).

So:

• קרה = happened

In the sentence מה קרה, it means what happened.

This is very common after מה (what).

In phrases like מה קרה (what happened), Hebrew normally uses the verb in the masculine singular form. You can think of it as the default form here.

So even though English just says what happened, Hebrew uses:

• מה קרה

This is the standard expression learners should get used to.

Because this sentence contains an indirect question:

• I don't know what happened

In Hebrew, indirect questions are introduced directly by words like:

• מה = what
• מי = who
• איפה = where
• למה = why

So:

• אני לא יודעת מה קרה = I don’t know what happened

If you say מה שקרה, that usually means something more like what happened / that which happened as a noun phrase, not the same structure as an indirect question.

Because the preposition ב־ (in / at) attaches directly to the noun.

Also, when ב־ is attached to a word with ה־ (the), they often combine:

• ב + המשרד → במשרד

So במשרד means:

• in the office
• at the office

Both are possible in English depending on context.

It can mean either one.

Hebrew ב־ often covers both English in and at, depending on context.

So במשרד could be translated as:

• in the office
• at the office

In this sentence, at the office may sound more natural in English, but in the office is also possible.

היום is the normal Hebrew word for today.

Even though it looks like the day literally, in modern Hebrew it functions as the regular word for today.

So:

• היום = today

This is just a vocabulary item you should memorize as a whole.

Hebrew word order is fairly flexible, and time expressions like היום can often appear in different places.

This sentence ends with:

• במשרד היום = at the office today

That is natural Hebrew.

You could also hear other word orders, such as putting היום earlier, depending on emphasis. For example, moving היום forward can make today feel more prominent.

Sometimes yes, but usually it is better to keep it here.

In Hebrew past and future verbs clearly show person, so subject pronouns are often omitted. But in the present tense, forms like יודעת show gender and number, not person as clearly as English learners might expect.

So אני is commonly included for clarity:

• אני לא יודעת = clear and natural

In conversation, the pronoun might sometimes be dropped if the context is obvious, but learners should generally keep it.

It is usually pronounced approximately yo-DA-at.

A few notes:

• The stress is on the middle syllable: DA
• The final ת is pronounced as t
• The ע in modern Hebrew is often very weak or almost silent for many speakers, but it can create a slight break in the word

So a useful learner pronunciation is:

• yo-DA-at

Not in this structure.

Because מה קרה is an indirect question, you normally say:

• אני לא יודעת מה קרה

If you insert ש־ before מה, it would sound unnatural here.

In general:

• ש־ often means that
• מה introduces what

So here Hebrew goes straight from לא יודעת to מה קרה.

It is completely normal, natural, everyday Hebrew.

Nothing in it sounds especially literary or formal. A native speaker could easily say this in daily conversation.

A male speaker would simply change one word:

• אני לא יודע מה קרה במשרד היום