קודם נבדוק אם יש זמן, ואחר כך נחליט מה לעשות.

In Hebrew, the future tense is often used not only for plain future events, but also for:

• planned actions
• suggestions
• instructions in a softer, more inclusive way

So קודם נבדוק... ואחר כך נחליט... literally means First we will check... and afterwards we will decide..., but in context it can sound very natural as:

• First let’s check...
• Then we’ll decide...

This is common in spoken Hebrew. The we form of the future often has that let’s... feeling.

Yes. Here קודם means first / before that / to begin with.

In this sentence, קודם introduces the first step in a sequence:

• קודם נבדוק = First, we’ll check

It is very common in everyday Hebrew. Depending on context, קודם can also mean earlier or previously, but here it clearly means first.

They mark the order of events:

• קודם = first
• אחר כך = after that / afterwards / then

So the sentence is structured as a sequence:

1. קודם נבדוק אם יש זמן
2. ואחר כך נחליט מה לעשות

The ו־ on ואחר כך simply means and, so together it means and then / and afterwards.

Yes, אם often means if, but it can also mean whether.

In this sentence:

• נבדוק אם יש זמן = we’ll check whether there is time

In English, check if... and check whether... are both common. Hebrew uses אם for this kind of clause very naturally.

So here it is not really a conditional if in the sense of if X happens, then Y. It is introducing something being checked or verified.

Hebrew commonly uses יש to mean there is / there are / have.

So:

• יש זמן = there is time
• more naturally: there’s time / we have time

Hebrew does not usually express this idea with a structure like the time is. Instead, יש is the normal way to say that something exists or is available.

So אם יש זמן literally means if there is time, but in natural English it may be if we have time.

Because the sentence is talking about time in a general sense, not a specific known time.

• זמן = time
• הזמן = the time

Here אם יש זמן means if there is time / if we have time, so the noun stays indefinite.

If you said אם יש הזמן, that would sound wrong in this context.

Literally, מה לעשות means what to do.

It is made of:

• מה = what
• לעשות = to do

So:

• נחליט מה לעשות = we’ll decide what to do

This is a very common Hebrew structure: a question word + infinitive.

Examples:

• אני לא יודע מה לומר = I don’t know what to say
• היא החליטה איפה לגור = She decided where to live

Because after מה in this kind of expression, Hebrew often uses an infinitive to express what to do, what to say, where to go, and so on.

So:

• מה לעשות = what to do
• מה לקנות = what to buy
• לאן ללכת = where to go

This works similarly to English, where we also use what + to + verb.

Yes, sometimes. For example:

• קודם נבדוק אם יש זמן, ואז נחליט מה לעשות.

This means almost the same thing: First we’ll check if there’s time, and then we’ll decide what to do.

The difference is mostly stylistic:

• ואחר כך = and afterwards / and after that
• ואז = and then

Both are natural. ואחר כך may sound slightly more explicitly sequential.

The sentence as written is very natural, but Hebrew has some flexibility.

The original:

• קודם נבדוק אם יש זמן, ואחר כך נחליט מה לעשות.

Possible variation:

• נבדוק קודם אם יש זמן, ואחר כך נחליט מה לעשות.

This also sounds natural, and puts קודם a little later in the clause.

Another variation:

• קודם נבדוק אם יש זמן ואז נחליט מה לעשות.

So the exact word order can shift a bit, but the original version is very standard and clear.

Both are 1st person plural future forms, meaning we will...

• נבדוק = we will check
  • from the root ב-ד-ק
• נחליט = we will decide
  • from the root ח-ל-ט

The prefix נ־ is a common marker of we in the future tense.

So:

• נבדוק = we will check
• נחליט = we will decide

This is useful because once you recognize that נ־ future pattern, many verbs become easier to identify.

It is neutral and very natural. It works well in both spoken and written Hebrew.

It does not sound especially formal, but it is not slangy either. You could say it in everyday conversation, in a meeting, in a message, or in general writing.

That makes it a very useful model sentence for learners.