Learn Hardcore Hebrew: במרכז הקהילתי החדש יש אולם גדול, ולכן אפשר לעשות שם גם שיעורים וגם פגישות. - In the new community center there is a big hall, so it is possible to have both lessons and meetings there.

Word

במרכז הקהילתי החדש יש אולם גדול, ולכן אפשר לעשות שם גם שיעורים וגם פגישות.

Meaning

In the new community center there is a big hall, so it is possible to have both lessons and meetings there.

Part of speech

sentence

Pronunciation

Course

Lesson

Breakdown of במרכז הקהילתי החדש יש אולם גדול, ולכן אפשר לעשות שם גם שיעורים וגם פגישות.

Why is במרכז one word? Is that in the center or in a center?

It is the preposition ב־ (in / at) attached to מרכז (center).

When ב־ comes before a definite noun, it usually absorbs ה־ (the):

So here it means in the center / at the center.

In unpointed Hebrew, במרכז can sometimes look ambiguous, but in this sentence the rest of the noun phrase makes it clearly definite:

Those definite adjectives show that the whole phrase is the new community center.

Why does Hebrew say מרכז קהילתי for community center instead of using two nouns like English?

English often uses noun + noun compounds, like community center.

Hebrew often prefers a noun + adjective pattern instead. So:

So מרכז קהילתי is literally something like a communal center, which is the normal Hebrew way to say community center.

The adjective קהילתי comes from קהילה (community).