אל תשכחי לקחת פנס, כי בלילה קשה לראות את הדרך.

Because the sentence is addressed to one female.

• תשכחי = you will forget / you should forget addressed to a woman or girl
• תשכח = the same form addressed to one male

In this sentence, Hebrew uses that future-form verb after אל to make a negative command, so אל תשכחי means don’t forget when speaking to a female.

If you were speaking to a male, it would be:

• אל תשכח לקחת פנס...

In Hebrew, אל plus a future-tense form is the normal way to make a negative command.

So:

• תשכחי by itself is a future form: you will forget (feminine singular)
• אל תשכחי = don’t forget

This is very common in Hebrew:

• אל תלכי = don’t go (to a female)
• אל תדאג = don’t worry (to a male)

So even though the verb form looks like future tense, with אל it functions as don’t ...

Because Hebrew, like English, often uses an infinitive after forget.

• לשכוח = to forget
• לקחת = to take

So אל תשכחי לקחת פנס is literally:

• Don’t forget to take a flashlight

This is the same idea as English:

• Don’t forget to call
• Don’t forget to bring water

In Hebrew, after verbs like forget, want, need, start, and so on, you will often see another verb in the infinitive.

In modern Hebrew, פנס usually means flashlight.

Depending on the variety of English you speak, you might naturally translate it as:

• flashlight (American English)
• torch (British English)

In older or different contexts, פנס can sometimes mean a lamp or lantern, but in everyday modern Hebrew it most often means flashlight.

כי here means because.

So the structure is:

• אל תשכחי לקחת פנס = Don’t forget to take a flashlight
• כי בלילה קשה לראות את הדרך = because at night it is hard to see the way/path

In many sentences, כי is the most common Hebrew word for because.

Because בלילה means at night or in the night.

It contains the preposition ב־ = in / at.

So:

• לילה = night
• בלילה = at night

In this word, the preposition has merged with the definite article, so it is historically like ב + ה + לילה, giving בלילה.

This is very common in time expressions:

• בבוקר = in the morning
• בערב = in the evening
• בלילה = at night

So Hebrew does not usually say just night here; it uses the prepositional form at night.

Because Hebrew often uses an impersonal expression without a dummy subject like English it.

English says:

• It is hard to see the road

Hebrew says:

• קשה לראות את הדרך
• literally: Hard to see the road

There is no need for a separate word meaning it. The adjective קשה simply introduces the idea that something is difficult.

This pattern is very common:

• קשה להבין = It is hard to understand
• קל ללמוד = It is easy to learn
• חשוב לזכור = It is important to remember

קשה is the basic singular form of the adjective hard / difficult.

In this kind of impersonal construction, Hebrew usually uses the adjective in a default singular form:

• קשה לראות = it is hard to see
• קל לשכוח = it is easy to forget

The adjective is not agreeing with a visible noun here. It is describing the whole situation or action, not a specific masculine or feminine noun in the sentence.

את is the direct object marker. It appears before a definite direct object.

Here:

• לראות = to see
• הדרך = the road / the path / the way

Since הדרך is definite because it has ה־ (the), Hebrew puts את before it:

• לראות את הדרך = to see the road/path

Important point: את is usually not translated into English. It just marks the object grammatically.

Compare:

• לראות דרך = to see a road / a way
• לראות את הדרך = to see the road / the way

Because הדרך means the road / the path / the way, not just a road / a path.

• דרך = road / path / way
• הדרך = the road / the path / the way

So the sentence is talking about a specific route or the path ahead, not just any path in general.

Also, because הדרך is definite, it requires את after לראות:

• לראות את הדרך

The root is ש־כ־ח, which relates to forgetting.

From that root you get forms like:

• לשכוח = to forget
• שכחתי = I forgot
• תשכח = you will forget (masculine singular)
• תשכחי = you will forget (feminine singular)

Recognizing roots is very helpful in Hebrew, because many related words are built from the same three consonants.

You would change the verb form from feminine singular to masculine singular:

• אל תשכח לקחת פנס, כי בלילה קשה לראות את הדרך.

Everything else stays the same.

So the contrast is:

• to a woman: אל תשכחי
• to a man: אל תשכח

That gender agreement is one of the most important things English speakers have to get used to in Hebrew.