Questions & Answers about אל תצחקי עליה כשהיא מהססת; פשוט תני לה עוד דקה.
Because the sentence is speaking to one female person.
In Hebrew, commands and command-like forms usually show gender and number. Here:
- תצחקי = you (feminine singular) will laugh / laugh in a negative command structure
- תני = give! addressed to one woman
If you were speaking to a man, you would say:
- אל תצחק עליה... פשוט תן לה עוד דקה.
If you were speaking to more than one woman:
- אל תצחקנה עליה... פשוט תנו לה עוד דקה.
(In modern spoken Hebrew, plural feminine forms are often replaced by the masculine plural.)
Because אל is the normal word used for a negative command in Hebrew.
So:
- אל תצחקי = don’t laugh
- לא צחקתי = I didn’t laugh
- לא צוחקים = people don’t laugh / we don’t laugh
A very common pattern is:
- אל + future form
So although תצחקי is formally a future-tense form, after אל it functions as “don’t laugh.”