אם את רוצה לשאול שאלה, תצביעי קודם.

Because the sentence is addressed to one female.

• את = you (singular, feminine)
• אתה = you (singular, masculine)

Hebrew usually marks gender in the second person, so when speaking directly to someone, the form changes depending on whether that person is male or female.

The written form is רוצה, and in this sentence it means want for you, feminine singular.

With the pronoun את, the adjective/participle form used is:

• את רוצה = you (fem.) want
• אתה רוצה = you (masc.) want

In modern Hebrew, רוצה is commonly used to express wanting, even though historically it is a participle form. So את רוצה לשאול... is the normal way to say if you want to ask...

Here, אם means if.

So:

• אם את רוצה... = If you want...

Be careful not to confuse this with other similar-looking Hebrew words:

• אִם = if
• אֵם = mother

They are spelled slightly differently in fully pointed Hebrew, but in normal everyday writing they may both appear without vowels.

It may feel repetitive to an English speaker because both words come from the same Hebrew root: ש־א־ל.

• לשאול = to ask
• שאלה = a question

But this is completely normal in Hebrew, just like ask a question is normal in English. Even though the words are related, the phrase is standard and natural.

לשאול is the infinitive form, meaning to ask.

The ל־ at the beginning often corresponds to English to before a verb:

• לשאול = to ask
• ללכת = to go
• לכתוב = to write

So:

• רוצה לשאול = want to ask

תצביעי is the feminine singular command form: raise your hand / point (depending on context).

In modern spoken Hebrew, commands are often built from forms that look similar to future-tense forms, especially in everyday speech. For this verb, תצביעי is the normal way to tell one woman or girl:

• תצביעי = raise your hand / point (to a female)

Related forms:

• תצביע = command to one male
• תצביעו = command to more than one person

In this sentence, because the addressee is feminine singular, תצביעי matches את.

Not always. The basic verb להצביע can mean things like:

• to point
• to indicate
• to vote
• in classroom context, to raise your hand

In this sentence, because it says If you want to ask a question..., the natural meaning is raise your hand first.

So the exact English translation depends on context.

קודם here means first or before that.

So:

• תצביעי קודם = raise your hand first

It tells the listener to do that action before asking the question.

In other contexts, קודם can also mean earlier or previously, depending on the sentence.

The comma separates the if-clause from the main command.

• אם את רוצה לשאול שאלה = If you want to ask a question
• תצביעי קודם = raise your hand first

This is similar to English punctuation:

• If you want to ask a question, raise your hand first.

It is direct but neutral, and it is addressed to one female in a normal spoken or instructional context, such as a classroom.

It is not especially formal. A teacher speaking to a girl could naturally say this.
If speaking to a boy, it would be:

• אם אתה רוצה לשאול שאלה, תצביע קודם.

If speaking to a group, the forms would change again.

It would be:

אם אתה רוצה לשאול שאלה, תצביע קודם.

Changes:

• את → אתה
• תצביעי → תצביע

The rest stays the same.

A common pronunciation would be:

Im at rotza lish'ol she'ela, tatsbi'i קודם.

More carefully broken down:

• אם — im
• את — at
• רוצה — rotza
• לשאול — lish'ol
• שאלה — she'ela
• תצביעי — tatsbi'i
• קודם — kodem

Learners often notice the little pause or break in לשאול and שאלה, because of the consonant א, which can separate vowels slightly in pronunciation.