יש לי רק עשרים דקות לפני השיעור.

In everyday Hebrew, possession is usually expressed with יש + ל־ + person rather than with a separate verb meaning to have.

So:

יש לי = literally there is to me
Idiomatic meaning: I have

That is why יש לי רק עשרים דקות means I only have twenty minutes.

A useful pattern:

• יש לי = I have
• אין לי = I do not have
• היה לי = I had
• יהיה לי = I will have

לי is the preposition ל־ meaning to / for, combined with the pronoun me.

So:

• ל־ = to, for
• לי = to me / for me

In this sentence, יש לי literally means there is to me, which Hebrew uses for I have.

Other related forms:

• לך = to you
• לו = to him
• לה = to her
• לנו = to us

Because לי already tells you who the possessor is: to me, so the idea of I is already clear.

Hebrew often leaves out subject pronouns when they are unnecessary.
So יש לי רק עשרים דקות sounds natural.

You could add אני for emphasis, but it would sound marked, something like:

אני, יש לי רק עשרים דקות...

That would suggest contrast or strong emphasis, not the neutral default.

Because רק means only / just, and here it limits the amount of time.

So:

יש לי רק עשרים דקות = I have only twenty minutes

Placing רק right before the thing it modifies is very common in Hebrew. Here it modifies עשרים דקות.

The sentence order is natural and clear:

• יש לי = I have
• רק = only
• עשרים דקות = twenty minutes
• לפני השיעור = before the lesson/class

Because with numbers 11 and higher, the counted noun is normally plural in Hebrew.

So:

• דקה אחת = one minute
• שתי דקות = two minutes
• עשרים דקות = twenty minutes

That is why דקות is plural here.

In this sentence, you do not need to worry about gender agreement with עשרים.

דקות is a feminine plural noun, but the tens such as עשרים, שלושים, ארבעים are generally the same form regardless of the noun’s gender.

So עשרים דקות is correct.

Gender becomes more noticeable with smaller numbers, especially 1–10, and also in numbers like 21, 22, etc.

Here לפני means before in a time sense.

So:

לפני השיעור = before the lesson / before class

Hebrew לפני can also mean in front of in a physical sense, but context makes the meaning clear.

Examples:

• לפני השיעור = before the lesson
• לפני הבית = in front of the house

Because השיעור means the lesson / the class.

The preposition לפני stays separate, and the definite article ה־ remains on the noun:

• שיעור = a lesson / class
• השיעור = the lesson / class
• לפני השיעור = before the lesson / class

This is different from prepositions like ב־, כ־, and ל־, which often combine with ה־ in spelling.

It can mean either one, depending on context.

Common possibilities:

• lesson
• class
• sometimes even session

So לפני השיעור could naturally mean:

• before the lesson
• before class

If the meaning has already been given to the learner, both are good things to keep in mind.

Yes, Hebrew allows some flexibility, but the given order is very natural.

The original sentence:

יש לי רק עשרים דקות לפני השיעור

is a neutral, standard way to say it.

You could also say:

לפני השיעור יש לי רק עשרים דקות

This puts more emphasis on the time frame before the lesson.

But the original version is probably the best one for a learner to use first.

A simple pronunciation guide is:

yesh li rak esrim dakot lifnei ha-shiur

A few stress notes:

• עשרים = esRIM
• דקות = daKOT
• לפני = lifNEI
• השיעור = ha-shiUR

So the rhythm is roughly:

yesh li rak esRIM daKOT lifNEI ha-shiUR