בעלת הבית רוצה להשכיר את הדירה מהר, אבל היא לא רוצה למכור אותה.

Literally, בעלת הבית means the female owner of the house/home. In context, it often means landlady, female homeowner, or the woman in charge of the home.

It is also a very common Hebrew grammar pattern called a construct phrase (smikhut), where two nouns are linked together:

• בעלת = female owner of
• הבית = the house/home

So it is both a vocabulary item and a useful grammar pattern.

Because the person being described is a woman. Hebrew marks gender much more often than English.

Compare:

• בעל הבית = male owner / landlord
• בעלת הבית = female owner / landlady

That feminine gender also matches the rest of the sentence, such as היא and the feminine reading of רוצה.

Because this is a construct phrase. In Hebrew construct phrases, definiteness is usually shown on the second noun, not the first.

So:

• בעלת הבית = the female owner of the house

The ה־ on הבית makes the whole phrase definite. You normally would not say הבעלת הבית.

In unpointed Hebrew, רוצה is spelled the same for both:

• he wants = rotze
• she wants = rotza

The spelling is identical, so you use context to know which one it is. Here the subject is בעלת הבית and later the sentence uses היא, so it must be the feminine reading: she wants.

The ל־ here marks the infinitive, like English to:

• להשכיר = to rent out
• למכור = to sell

After רוצה (wants), Hebrew commonly uses an infinitive:

• רוצה להשכיר = wants to rent out
• לא רוצה למכור = does not want to sell

This is a very important distinction:

• לשכור = to rent something for yourself
• להשכיר = to rent out something to someone else

So in this sentence, בעלת הבית רוצה להשכיר את הדירה means she wants someone else to rent the apartment from her.

את marks a definite direct object. It usually does not get translated into English.

Since הדירה means the apartment and is definite, Hebrew uses את:

• להשכיר את הדירה

If the noun were indefinite, את would usually not appear:

• להשכיר דירה = to rent out an apartment

מהר means quickly here. Depending on context, it can sometimes mean soon, but in this sentence quickly is the natural meaning.

Its position after את הדירה is normal Hebrew word order:

• להשכיר את הדירה מהר = to rent out the apartment quickly

Sometimes Hebrew can omit subject pronouns, but here היא is very natural because it gives clarity and a bit of contrast:

• אבל היא לא רוצה... = but she doesn’t want...

Since the sentence contrasts two intentions of the same woman, using היא helps make that contrast clearer.

אותה means her or it as a direct object, depending on context. Here it means it, referring back to הדירה.

The important point is that Hebrew object pronouns agree in gender with the noun they replace:

• דירה is feminine
• so it becomes אותה

If the noun were masculine, Hebrew would use אותו instead.

Yes. Hebrew could say:

אבל היא לא רוצה למכור את הדירה

That would also be correct. Using אותה simply avoids repeating הדירה and sounds natural, just like English often says sell it instead of sell the apartment again.

A simple transliteration is:

ba'alat ha-bayit rotza lehaskir et ha-dira מהר, aval hi lo rotza limkor otah

More neatly, with everything transliterated:

ba'alat ha-bayit rotza lehaskir et ha-dira maher, aval hi lo rotza limkor otah

A few useful pronunciation notes:

• רוצה here is read rotza because the subject is feminine
• להשכיר is lehaskir
• למכור is limkor
• אותה is otah