מחר אני רוצה להסתפר, ולכן קבעתי תור במספרה ליד העבודה.

Tomorrow I want to get a haircut, so I made an appointment at a hair salon near work.

Breakdown of מחר אני רוצה להסתפר, ולכן קבעתי תור במספרה ליד העבודה.

• אני: I
• לרצות: to want
• ו: and
• מחר: tomorrow

Questions & Answers about מחר אני רוצה להסתפר, ולכן קבעתי תור במספרה ליד העבודה.

Why is קבעתי in the past tense if the haircut is tomorrow?

Because the appointment was made already, even though the haircut itself is in the future.

So the timeline is:

• מחר אני רוצה להסתפר = tomorrow I want to get a haircut
• ולכן קבעתי תור = therefore, I made / scheduled an appointment

This is very natural in Hebrew. English does the same thing:

• Tomorrow I want to get a haircut, so I made an appointment.

The wanting and the haircut relate to tomorrow, but the act of booking the appointment happened earlier.

What does להסתפר mean exactly, and why not just use לספר?

להסתפר means to get a haircut / to have one’s hair cut.

It comes from the root connected with hair-cutting, but the form here is important:

• לספר = to cut hair / to tell / to count, depending on context and root pronunciation/spelling history
• להסתפר = to get one’s hair cut

In other words, להסתפר is the natural verb when you mean that you are the one receiving the haircut.

So:

• אני רוצה להסתפר = I want to get a haircut

not

• אני רוצה לספר = I want to cut hair / tell / count, which would mean something else entirely

What kind of verb form is להסתפר?