אני שותה רק תה חם בערב.

A common transliteration is:

Ani shote rak te cham ba-erev.

A few pronunciation notes:

• אני = ani = I
• שותה = shote = drink / am drinking
• רק = rak = only / just
• תה = te or teh = tea
• חם = cham = hot
  
  • The ch is not like chair.
  • It is the throaty sound heard in German Bach or Scottish loch.
• בערב = ba-erev = in the evening

שותה is the present-tense form of the verb לשתות = to drink.

In Hebrew present tense, the verb usually shows:

• gender
• number

but not as clearly person in the singular.

So שותה can be used with:

• אני שותה = I drink / I am drinking
• אתה שותה = you drink
• את שותה = you drink
• הוא שותה = he drinks
• היא שותה = she drinks

That is why the pronoun אני is helpful here: it makes the subject clear.

It can mean both.

Hebrew present tense often covers both:

• I drink
• I am drinking

The exact meaning comes from context.

In this sentence, because of בערב = in the evening, it usually sounds more like a habitual action:

• I drink only hot tea in the evening

If you wanted to make it clearly right now, you could add something like עכשיו = now.

Yes, Hebrew can sometimes leave subject pronouns out, but in the present tense they are often kept because the verb form alone may not clearly tell you who the subject is.

So:

• אני שותה = clear and natural
• שותה רק תה חם בערב = possible in context, but less clear on its own

In short:

• with no context, אני helps a lot
• in conversation, it may be dropped if the subject is already obvious

רק usually comes right before the part it focuses on.

Here:

• אני שותה רק תה חם בערב

most naturally means:

• I drink only hot tea in the evening
• In other words, hot tea is the only thing I drink then.

If you move רק, the meaning changes:

• רק אני שותה תה חם בערב = Only I drink hot tea in the evening
• אני שותה תה חם רק בערב = I drink hot tea only in the evening

So word placement matters.

In Hebrew, adjectives usually come after the noun.

So:

• תה חם = hot tea
• literally: tea hot

This is normal Hebrew word order.

Also, the adjective usually agrees with the noun in:

• gender
• number
• definiteness

Here:

• תה is masculine singular
• so the adjective is חם, also masculine singular

For comparison:

• תה חם = hot tea
• התה החם = the hot tea

Because את is used before a definite direct object, and תה חם here is indefinite.

So:

• אני שותה תה חם = I drink hot tea
  
  • no את
• אני שותה את התה החם = I drink the hot tea
  
  • את appears because התה החם is definite

That is a very common Hebrew rule:

• definite object → usually use את
• indefinite object → do not use את

בערב means in the evening.

It is built from:

• ב־ = in / at
• ערב = evening

In everyday Hebrew, this commonly appears as בערב.

So the structure is basically:

• ב + ערב = in the evening
• often understood as ba-erev

This same pattern appears in other time expressions:

• בבוקר = in the morning
• בלילה = at night

Hebrew word order is somewhat flexible.

This sentence uses a very natural order:

• אני = subject
• שותה = verb
• רק תה חם = object/focus phrase
• בערב = time phrase

But you can move parts around for emphasis. For example:

• בערב אני שותה רק תה חם = In the evening, I drink only hot tea.
• רק תה חם אני שותה בערב = Only hot tea do I drink in the evening.
  
  • more marked/emphatic

So the original sentence is natural and neutral, but not the only possible order.

Interestingly, in this case, no change is needed.

You can say:

• אני שותה if the speaker is male
• אני שותה if the speaker is female

So the full sentence stays the same:

• אני שותה רק תה חם בערב

The difference shows up more clearly in the plural:

• אנחנו שותים = we drink (masculine/mixed group)
• אנחנו שותות = we drink (all feminine group)

Yes, רק can mean both only and just, depending on context.

In this sentence, it is best understood as only:

• אני שותה רק תה חם בערב = I drink only hot tea in the evening

But in other contexts, רק can feel more like just:

• רק רגע = just a moment
• אני רק שואל = I’m just asking

So רק is a very common and flexible word.