הסלע הזה חם בשמש, אבל בצל שלו נעים לשבת.

In Hebrew, demonstratives like this and that usually come after the noun:

• הסלע הזה = this rock
• הילד ההוא = that boy

That is the normal Hebrew pattern. English says this rock, but Hebrew says, literally, the rock this.

If זה comes before a noun, it often means this is... rather than simply modifying the noun.

Because that is the normal way Hebrew forms this/that + noun phrases.

So:

• הסלע הזה = this rock
• הבית ההוא = that house

To an English speaker, this can feel like double definiteness, because both the noun and the demonstrative make it specific. But in Hebrew, this is completely standard.

Yes—from an English point of view, it feels missing, but in Hebrew that is normal.

In the present tense, Hebrew usually does not use a separate word for is / are.

So:

• הסלע הזה חם = literally this rock hot
• natural English: This rock is hot

The same thing happens later in the sentence:

• נעים לשבת = literally pleasant to sit
• natural English: it is pleasant to sit

Because חם agrees with סלע, and סלע is masculine singular.

Hebrew adjectives must agree with the noun in gender and number:

• masculine singular: חם
• feminine singular: חמה
• masculine plural: חמים
• feminine plural: חמות

So:

• סלע חם = a hot rock
• אבן חמה = a hot stone

Here, הסלע הזה חם means this rock is hot, so חם is the correct masculine singular form.

בשמש is made from:

• ב־ = in / at
• השמש = the sun

Together they contract into בשמש.

So חם בשמש means something like:

• hot in the sun
• hot when it’s under the sun
• hot in sunlight

This is a very natural Hebrew way to express the idea.

Because Hebrew often writes words without vowel marks, and different words can look identical in writing.

Without vowels, בצל can represent different things, including:

• בַּצֵּל / בְּצֵל = in the shade / in shade
• בָּצָל = onion

In this sentence, the context makes it clear that it means shade:

• the sentence talks about the sun,
• then says it is pleasant to sit there,
• and בצל שלו clearly means in its shade.

So context is doing the work here.

Yes, שלו can mean his, but it can also mean its.

Hebrew does not have a separate neuter pronoun like English it. Instead, Hebrew uses grammatical gender:

• masculine noun → שלו
• feminine noun → שלה

Since סלע is masculine, שלו here means its:

• בצל שלו = in its shade

If the noun were feminine, Hebrew would use שלה instead.

Because Hebrew combines the preposition ב־ with the definite article ה־.

So instead of writing בהצל, Hebrew contracts it. In unpointed writing, that contracted form appears as בצל.

That means בצל שלו can represent the idea in the shade of it / in its shade without writing a separate ה.

So בהצל is not the normal form here.

Yes.

Both are possible:

• בצל שלו
• בצלו

They both mean in its shade / in his shade.

The difference is mostly style:

• בצל שלו is the more analytic, everyday structure using של
• בצלו uses a suffix attached directly to the noun, and can sound a bit more compact or literary

A learner should definitely recognize both.

Here נעים is being used in an impersonal expression:

• נעים לשבת = it is pleasant to sit

This is a very common Hebrew pattern:

• קשה להבין = it is hard to understand
• נחמד לראות = it is nice to see
• אסור לעשן = it is forbidden to smoke

In these expressions, Hebrew often uses the masculine singular form as the default, so נעים does not need to agree with צל here.

If you wanted to say the shade is pleasant, that would be a different structure:

• הצל נעים

But this sentence means in its shade, it is pleasant to sit.

Because לשבת is the infinitive: to sit.

After words like נעים, Hebrew commonly uses an infinitive to describe an activity in general:

• נעים לשבת = pleasant to sit
• כיף לאכול = fun to eat
• קשה לעבוד = hard to work

This makes the statement general: sitting there is pleasant.

If Hebrew used a present-tense form instead, the meaning and structure would be different. So לשבת is exactly what you would expect here.