כשהגשם נגמר, אפילו הסמטה הישנה ליד המזרקה נראית יפה יותר מתחת לשמיים הכחולים.

כש means when, and in Hebrew it is often attached directly to the following word as a prefix. So כשהגשם is literally when-the-rain.

What is happening here is:

כש + הגשם = כשהגשם

This is very normal in Hebrew. English keeps when separate, but Hebrew often joins short function words like this.

Hebrew often uses the definite article with natural phenomena more than English does. So הגשם literally means the rain, but in context it can simply mean rain in a general sense.

This is similar to how Hebrew may say השמש for the sun or השלג for snow in situations where English might be less definite.

So כשהגשם נגמר is a natural way to say when the rain stopped / ended.

נגמר is the past tense, masculine singular form of the verb להיגמר, meaning to end, to be finished, or in this context to stop.

It matches הגשם, which is grammatically masculine singular.

So:

• הגשם = masculine singular
• נגמר = masculine singular past

That agreement is why the form is נגמר.

אפילו means even.

It adds emphasis: not only do nice things look better after the rain, but even the old alley looks nicer.

Its placement before הסמטה הישנה is very natural, because it highlights that noun phrase:

אפילו הסמטה הישנה = even the old alley

In Hebrew, adjectives usually come after the noun, unlike in English.

So:

• סמטה ישנה = an old alley
• הסמטה הישנה = the old alley

This is one of the biggest word-order differences from English. Hebrew normally says:

noun + adjective

not

adjective + noun

Because when a noun is definite in Hebrew, its adjective usually becomes definite too.

So:

• סמטה ישנה = an old alley
• הסמטה הישנה = the old alley

This is called definiteness agreement. If the noun has ה־, the adjective usually has ה־ as well.

The same thing happens later in the sentence with:

השמיים הכחולים = the blue skies

Both the noun and the adjective are definite.

Because its subject is הסמטה, and סמטה is a feminine noun.

נראית is the feminine singular present-tense form of להיראות, meaning to appear, to look, or to seem.

So the agreement is:

• הסמטה = feminine singular
• נראית = feminine singular

If the subject were masculine, you would expect נראה instead.

Good question. The adjective יפה is written the same way for masculine singular and feminine singular in unpointed Hebrew, but the pronunciation differs:

• masculine singular: yafé
• feminine singular: yafá

Since הסמטה is feminine, the intended form here is feminine in pronunciation, even though the spelling stays יפה.

So in this sentence it is understood as feminine because it describes הסמטה.

Hebrew usually forms the comparative with:

adjective + יותר

So:

• יפה = beautiful
• יפה יותר = more beautiful

This is simpler than English, because Hebrew does not usually change the adjective itself into a comparative form the way English does with words like prettier or older.

Yes, both are possible in modern Hebrew, and both can mean more beautiful.

However, יפה יותר is very common and sounds perfectly natural here. It is often slightly more neutral or standard in feel.

So the sentence’s phrasing is completely normal.

ליד is a preposition meaning next to, beside, or near.

So:

• ליד = beside / near
• המזרקה = the fountain

Together:

ליד המזרקה = beside the fountain

Unlike a prefix preposition such as ב־ or ל־, ליד is a full separate word, so it is not attached to the noun.

מתחת ל־ means under or beneath.

So:

• מתחת ל־ = under / beneath
• השמיים הכחולים = the blue skies

When ל־ comes before a word with ה־, they combine:

ל + השמיים = לשמיים

So:

מתחת לשמיים הכחולים = beneath the blue skies

This kind of contraction is very common in Hebrew.

שמיים is one of those Hebrew words that looks plural and behaves grammatically as plural, even though in English sky is usually singular.

Because שמיים is grammatically masculine plural, the adjective must match it:

• השמיים = masculine plural definite
• הכחולים = masculine plural definite

So Hebrew says:

השמיים הכחולים

literally the blue skies

even where English might simply say the blue sky or the blue skies, depending on style.

The sentence has two main parts:

1. כשהגשם נגמר = when the rain ended/stopped

2. אפילו הסמטה הישנה ליד המזרקה נראית יפה יותר מתחת לשמיים הכחולים = the main clause

A rough structure is:

When X happened, Y looks more beautiful

More specifically:

• time clause: כשהגשם נגמר
• subject: אפילו הסמטה הישנה ליד המזרקה
• verb: נראית
• complement: יפה יותר
• extra phrase: מתחת לשמיים הכחולים

So the sentence is built very logically, even if the Hebrew word order differs from English in a few places.