אחי התחיל קורס חדש, אבל אני מעדיפה חוג קטן שבו יש פחות אנשים.

אחי means my brother.

It is built from:

• אח = brother
• ־י = my

So אחי is a very common compact way to say my brother.

Hebrew also allows האח שלי, which also means my brother, but אחי is shorter and often feels a bit more natural in many contexts.

התחיל is the past tense, 3rd person masculine singular form of the verb להתחיל = to begin / to start.

So:

• הוא התחיל = he started
• אחי התחיל = my brother started

Because אחי is masculine singular, התחיל matches it.

Because the two verbs work differently in the sentence:

• התחיל = past tense
• מעדיפה = present tense

In past tense, Hebrew marks person, number, and often gender.
So התחיל means he started.

In present tense, Hebrew behaves more like adjective-like forms and marks gender and number, but not person in the same way.
So:

• אני מעדיף = I prefer (said by a male)
• אני מעדיפה = I prefer (said by a female)

Here, the speaker is female, so she says אני מעדיפה.

This is a very natural question, because both can sometimes be translated as course or class, but they are not exactly the same.

• קורס usually means a course: something more structured, often more formal, sometimes with a syllabus or a clear sequence.
• חוג usually means a club, activity group, or informal class, such as an art class, dance group, or hobby-based class.

So in this sentence, the contrast suggests something like:

• אחי התחיל קורס חדש = My brother started a new course
• אבל אני מעדיפה חוג קטן = But I prefer a small group/class/club

In Hebrew, adjectives usually come after the noun they describe.

So:

• קורס חדש = a new course
• חוג קטן = a small class/group

This is the normal word order in Hebrew.

Also, the adjective must agree with the noun in:

• gender
• number
• definiteness

Here both nouns are masculine singular, so the adjectives are also masculine singular:

• חדש
• קטן

Because the sentence is talking about a new course and a small group/class, not the new course or the small group/class.

Hebrew marks definiteness with ה־.

Compare:

• קורס חדש = a new course
• הקורס החדש = the new course

And:

• חוג קטן = a small class/group
• החוג הקטן = the small class/group

If the noun is definite, the adjective also becomes definite.

שבו means in which.

It is made from:

• ש־ = that / which
• בו = in it / in him

Together, שבו = in which.

So:

• חוג קטן שבו יש פחות אנשים = a small class/group in which there are fewer people

This is a very common Hebrew structure: a preposition combines with a relative marker.

Examples:

• שבו = in which
• שעליו = about which / on which
• שממנה = from which

Yes, sometimes you can hear or use a longer structure like שיש בו, depending on the sentence, but here שבו יש is the most direct and natural way to say in which there are.

In this sentence:

• חוג קטן שבו יש פחות אנשים = a small group/class in which there are fewer people

The word שבו already contains the idea of in it / in which, so it fits smoothly before יש.

יש means there is / there are.

Hebrew uses יש for existence, and it does not change for singular or plural.

So:

• יש אדם אחד = there is one person
• יש אנשים = there are people

That is why the sentence says:

• שבו יש פחות אנשים = in which there are fewer people

Even though אנשים is plural, יש stays the same.

פחות means less / fewer.

In modern Hebrew, פחות is commonly used with both uncountable and countable nouns, so פחות אנשים is perfectly normal and common Hebrew for fewer people.

So:

• פחות אנשים = fewer people / less people

A learner coming from English may expect a strict fewer distinction, but Hebrew does not work the same way here.

אנשים means people or men, depending on context.

Its singular is usually אדם = person.

So:

• אדם = person
• אנשים = people

This is not a regular plural pattern, so it has to be learned as a vocabulary pair.

In this sentence, אנשים simply means people.

In most cases, yes. אבל is the standard word for but.

In this sentence it connects two contrasting ideas:

• אחי התחיל קורס חדש = My brother started a new course
• אבל אני מעדיפה חוג קטן = But I prefer a small class/group

So it is a straightforward contrast word here.

Yes, it sounds natural.

The structure is:

• אחי התחיל קורס חדש
  My brother started a new course

• אבל אני מעדיפה חוג קטן
  but I prefer a small class/group

• שבו יש פחות אנשים
  in which there are fewer people

This is a very normal Hebrew sentence: simple statement + contrast + noun phrase + relative clause.

Only מעדיפה would change:

• female speaker: אני מעדיפה
• male speaker: אני מעדיף

So a male speaker would say:

אחי התחיל קורס חדש, אבל אני מעדיף חוג קטן שבו יש פחות אנשים.

Everything else stays the same.

A simple approximation is:

• מעדיפה = ma-a-DI-fa
• שבו = she-BO

And the whole sentence roughly:

A-khi hit-KHIL kurs kha-DASH, a-VAL a-NI ma-a-DI-fa khug ka-TAN she-BO yesh pa-KHOT a-na-SHIM.

A few pronunciation notes:

• ח is a throat sound with no exact English equivalent.
• The stress is usually near the end in words like חדש, קטן, אנשים.

Yes, depending on context, קטן can mean small in a general sense.

Here, because the sentence immediately adds שבו יש פחות אנשים, it clearly means small in terms of the number of people.

So the second part explains what kind of small the speaker means.