בסוף השבוע קראתי את כל הספר.

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Breakdown of בסוף השבוע קראתי את כל הספר.

• את: direct object marker
• לקרוא: to read
• סוף שבוע: weekend

Questions & Answers about בסוף השבוע קראתי את כל הספר.

What does בסוף השבוע literally mean, and why is it translated as over the weekend?

Literally, בסוף השבוע breaks down as:

• ב־ = in / at / on
• סוף = end
• השבוע = the week

So the literal sense is at the end of the week. In modern Hebrew, though, סוף השבוע is also the normal way to say the weekend, so בסוף השבוע often means on the weekend or over the weekend.

Why does השבוע have ה־, but סוף does not?

This is because סוף השבוע is a construct chain (called סמיכות in Hebrew).

In this structure:

• the first noun is סוף = end of
• the second noun is השבוע = the week

Together: סוף השבוע = the end of the week / the weekend

In Hebrew construct chains, the definiteness is usually shown on the second noun, not the first. So you say:

• סוף השבוע = the weekend
  not
• הסוף השבוע

Why is there no word for I? Shouldn’t it say אני קראתי?