קראתי ביקורת טובה על הסרט, אבל אחותי קראה ביקורת פחות טובה עליו.

Because the verb changes in the past tense according to the subject.

• קראתי = I read
• קראה = she read

In this sentence:

• קראתי matches the speaker, I
• קראה matches אחותי = my sister, which is feminine singular

So Hebrew past tense agrees with the person and often with gender.

In the Hebrew past tense, first person singular does not change for gender.

So both a man and a woman say:

• קראתי = I read

Gender shows up in forms like he read vs. she read:

• קרא = he read
• קראה = she read

Hebrew often adds possessive endings directly to nouns.

• אחות = sister
• אחותי = my sister

The ending ־י means my.

This is very common in Hebrew:

• ספרי = my book
• אחי = my brother
• שמי = my name

So Hebrew does not need a separate word like my here.

Because in Hebrew, adjectives usually come after the noun.

So:

• ביקורת = review / criticism
• טובה = good

Together:

• ביקורת טובה = a good review

This is the normal Hebrew word order:

• noun + adjective

Unlike English, which usually has:

• adjective + noun

Because ביקורת is a feminine singular noun, and the adjective must agree with it.

• masculine singular: טוב
• feminine singular: טובה

So:

• סרט טוב = a good movie
• ביקורת טובה = a good review

Hebrew adjectives usually agree with the noun in gender and number.

It can mean either, depending on context.

In this sentence, it clearly means review, because it is something someone read about a movie:

• קראתי ביקורת על הסרט = I read a review of/about the movie

But in other contexts, ביקורת can also mean:

• criticism
• critique
• review

So learners should think of it as a flexible word whose exact meaning depends on the situation.

Because Hebrew has no indefinite article. There is no separate word for a / an.

So:

• ביקורת טובה can mean a good review

If Hebrew wants to say the good review, it uses ה־:

• הביקורת הטובה = the good review

So the absence of ה־ usually makes the noun indefinite.

פחות means less or fewer, depending on context.

Before an adjective, it means less:

• פחות טובה = less good

Since טובה is feminine singular, it still agrees with ביקורת.

So the phrase is built like this:

• פחות = less
• טובה = good (feminine singular)

Together:

• ביקורת פחות טובה = a less good review / a not-as-good review

In natural English, this is often translated more smoothly as:

• a worse review
• a less favorable review

But the Hebrew structure is literally less good.

Because Hebrew often uses a pronoun suffix to avoid repeating the noun.

• על הסרט = about the movie
• עליו = about it / about him

Here, עליו refers back to הסרט.

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

• I read a good review about the movie, but my sister read a less good review about it.

So עליו helps the sentence sound less repetitive.

It is a preposition plus a pronoun ending.

• על = on / about
• ־יו = him / it (masculine singular)

So:

• עליו = on him / about him / about it

In this sentence it means about it, referring to הסרט, which is masculine singular.

Hebrew often attaches pronouns directly to prepositions:

• עליי = about me / on me
• עליך = about you / on you
• עליה = about her / on her
• עליהם = about them / on them

Because every Hebrew noun has grammatical gender.

• סרט is masculine
• so the pronoun that refers to it must also be masculine singular

That is why Hebrew uses:

• עליו = about it / about him

If the noun were feminine, Hebrew would use עליה instead.

This gender agreement is grammatical, not necessarily about biological sex.

Yes, the order is quite normal and helps show what modifies what.

The structure is:

• ביקורת = review
• פחות טובה = less good
• עליו = about it

So the whole phrase means:

• a less good review about it

Hebrew commonly places the descriptive part right after the noun, and then adds the prepositional phrase.

If you moved things around too much, the sentence could sound unnatural or harder to process.

In most cases, yes.

• אבל = but

It is a very common conjunction used to contrast two clauses:

• קראתי... אבל אחותי קראה...
• I read... but my sister read...

In speech, אבל is extremely common. In more formal Hebrew, you may also see other contrast words, but אבל is the basic everyday word for but.

Then the verb would need to change to the masculine singular past form.

You would get:

• קראתי ביקורת טובה על הסרט, אבל אחי קרא ביקורת פחות טובה עליו.

Notice the changes:

• אחותי → אחי = my sister → my brother
• קראה → קרא = she read → he read

This is a good example of how Hebrew past tense agrees with the gender of the subject in third person singular.