בסוף הוא ויתר על הוויכוח, כי לא היה לו מספיק זמן כדי להסביר את עצמו.

Here בסוף means in the end / eventually / finally.

It can sometimes literally mean at the end of something, depending on context, but in this sentence it means that after some process, this is what ended up happening.

A very close alternative is לבסוף, which is a bit more formal. In everyday Hebrew, בסוף is extremely common.

Yes. ויתר is the 3rd person masculine singular past form of the verb לוותר.

So:

• הוא ויתר = he gave up / he conceded
• dictionary form: לוותר

Because the subject is הוא, the verb appears in the masculine singular past form.

Because לוותר normally goes with the preposition על when you mean give up on, forgo, or concede something.

So:

• ויתר על הוויכוח = he gave up on the argument
• ויתר על ההזדמנות = he gave up the opportunity
• ויתר על הקינוח = he gave up dessert

This is just the standard pattern of the verb, so it is something you learn together with the verb: לוותר על...

הוויכוח means the argument, the dispute, or sometimes the debate, depending on context.

The basic noun is ויכוח / וויכוח = argument, dispute, debate.

With the definite article ה־, it becomes הוויכוח = the argument.

In this sentence, it most naturally refers to a disagreement or verbal dispute.

This is a spelling question from modern Hebrew orthography.

In unpointed Hebrew, ו can represent either a consonant (v) or part of a vowel spelling. To make the v sound clearer, modern Hebrew often uses double ו inside a word.

So in words like וויכוח, the doubled ו helps show that this is a consonant sound, not just a vowel letter.

You do not need to worry too much about the spelling rule at first; the important thing is to recognize the word as argument / dispute and pronounce it roughly as ha-vi-KU-aḥ.

Because Hebrew usually expresses possession with a structure like there was / there is to someone.

So:

• יש לו = he has
  literally: there is to him
• אין לו = he doesn’t have
• היה לו = he had
• לא היה לו = he didn’t have

So לא היה לו מספיק זמן literally looks something like there wasn’t enough time to him, but the natural English meaning is he didn’t have enough time.

This is a very important Hebrew pattern.

Because מספיק often works like enough in English and commonly comes before the noun in everyday Hebrew:

• מספיק זמן = enough time
• מספיק כסף = enough money
• מספיק מקום = enough room

A form like זמן מספיק can sound more formal, literary, or less natural in ordinary speech. For most learners, מספיק + noun is the safest pattern to use.

כדי means in order to.

So:

• כדי להסביר את עצמו = in order to explain himself

It introduces a purpose clause. It tells you what the time was needed for.

Hebrew can sometimes omit כדי and simply use ל־ + infinitive:

• לא היה לו מספיק זמן להסביר את עצמו

That also works. But כדי makes the purpose more explicit.

Because after כדי, Hebrew normally uses the infinitive.

So the pattern is:

• כדי + infinitive
• כדי להבין = in order to understand
• כדי לעשות = in order to do
• כדי להסביר = in order to explain

That is exactly what is happening here.

Because את here is the direct object marker.

The verb להסביר takes a direct object, and עצמו is a definite/specific object meaning himself, so Hebrew uses את:

• להסביר את עצמו = to explain himself

This את is not the preposition meaning with. It is the object marker.

A very common thing for learners is to confuse the two, because they are written the same way. In this sentence, it is definitely the direct object marker.

עצמו means himself.

More exactly, in את עצמו, it is the reflexive form used as the object:

• את עצמי = myself
• את עצמך = yourself
• את עצמו = himself
• את עצמה = herself
• את עצמנו = ourselves

So להסביר את עצמו literally means to explain himself or to explain himself clearly.

Not necessarily. Like in English, it can mean more than just giving an explanation.

Depending on context, it can imply:

• explain himself
• make himself understood
• clarify what he meant
• justify himself

In this sentence, the idea is that he did not have enough time to properly say what he meant and defend his position.

Because לא היה לו is already a complete and natural Hebrew possession structure.

Once the sentence has already introduced הוא, Hebrew does not need to repeat the subject pronoun. In fact, כי הוא לא היה לו would sound wrong here.

So the natural wording is:

• כי לא היה לו מספיק זמן...

Hebrew often leaves out subject pronouns when they are unnecessary, especially when the meaning is already clear from context.

Yes. כי is a very common and natural way to say because.

Other options exist, such as:

• מפני ש־
• בגלל ש־
• מאחר ש־

But כי is simple, common, and perfectly natural here.

So כי לא היה לו מספיק זמן = because he didn’t have enough time.