Breakdown of האמא שמה את התינוק בעגלה ויוצאת איתו לגינה.
Questions & Answers about האמא שמה את התינוק בעגלה ויוצאת איתו לגינה.
How do you pronounce this sentence?
A common transliteration is:
ha-ima sama et ha-tinok ba-agala ve-yotzet ito la-gina
A rough English-friendly pronunciation would be:
ha-ee-MA SA-ma et ha-tee-NOK ba-a-GA-la ve-yo-TSET ee-TO la-gee-NA
A natural translation is something like The mother puts the baby in the stroller and goes out with him to the garden/park.
What does the ה־ at the beginning of words mean?
ה־ is the Hebrew definite article, meaning the.
So:
- האמא = the mother
- התינוק = the baby
Hebrew attaches the directly to the noun instead of writing it as a separate word.
Why are the verbs שמה and יוצאת in feminine form?
Because the subject is האמא — the mother — which is feminine singular.
In the present tense, Hebrew verbs agree with the subject in gender and number.
So:
- שמה = feminine singular
- יוצאת = feminine singular
Compare:
- האמא שמה = the mother puts
- האבא שם = the father puts
- האמא יוצאת = the mother goes out
- האבא יוצא = the father goes out
Is שמה present tense or past tense?
This is a very common question, because שמה can be ambiguous.
It can mean:
- she puts / is putting in the present
- she put in the past
The form looks the same.
In this sentence, it is understood as present because of the overall context, especially with ויוצאת (and goes out / and is going out), which is clearly a present-tense form.
So here שמה means puts or is putting, not put.
What does את do in את התינוק?
את is a marker used before a definite direct object.
Here, התינוק means the baby, which is definite, so Hebrew uses את:
- שמה את התינוק = puts the baby
It does not mean with, to, or anything like that. It usually does not get translated into English at all.
A helpful contrast:
- שמה תינוק בעגלה = She puts a baby in a stroller
- שמה את התינוק בעגלה = She puts the baby in the stroller
Why is it בעגלה and not ב העגלה?
Because Hebrew often combines certain prepositions with ה־ (the).
Here:
- ב־ = in
- העגלה = the stroller
Together they become:
- בעגלה = in the stroller
This is very common in Hebrew.
The same thing happens elsewhere in the sentence:
- ל + הגינה → לגינה = to the garden
So Hebrew prefers the combined forms:
- בעגלה
- לגינה
What does עגלה mean here?
In this sentence, עגלה means stroller, pram, or baby carriage.
The word can mean other kinds of wheeled carts in other contexts, but with תינוק (baby), the meaning is clearly stroller.
So:
- בעגלה = in the stroller
What does איתו mean, and why isn’t it just עם הוא?
איתו means with him.
Hebrew usually does not say עם הוא for with him. Instead, it uses a special form of with plus a pronoun ending.
Examples:
- איתי = with me
- איתך = with you
- איתו = with him
- איתה = with her
So in this sentence:
- ויוצאת איתו = and goes out with him
The him refers to התינוק.
What exactly does יוצאת mean here?
יוצאת comes from the verb לצאת, meaning to go out, to leave, or to head out.
So:
- ויוצאת איתו לגינה literally means and goes out with him to the garden
In natural English, depending on context, you might also say:
- and takes him out to the garden
- and goes with him to the garden
The core idea is that she is leaving with him and heading to the garden.
What does גינה mean here? Is it really garden?
Literally, גינה means garden.
So:
- לגינה = to the garden
But in real-life translation, the best English word can depend on context. If this is a picture of a mother taking a baby outside, English might sometimes prefer:
- to the garden
- to the yard
- to the park
Still, the Hebrew word itself is garden.
Why doesn’t the sentence use a separate word for she?
Because Hebrew often does not need a separate subject pronoun when the subject is already stated.
Here the subject is already given:
- האמא = the mother
So there is no need to add היא (she).
English says:
- The mother puts the baby... and she goes out with him...
Hebrew can simply say:
- האמא שמה... ויוצאת...
Once the subject is clear, Hebrew often leaves the pronoun out.
What is the basic word order of this sentence?
The basic order here is:
Subject + Verb + Object + Place + and + Verb + with him + destination
Broken down:
- האמא = the mother
- שמה = puts
- את התינוק = the baby
- בעגלה = in the stroller
- ויוצאת = and goes out
- איתו = with him
- לגינה = to the garden
So the sentence is quite close to normal English order, even though some Hebrew features, like את and the attached prepositions, work differently.
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