אם יש זמן, נכין את הארוחה בעצמנו.

there is

Breakdown of אם יש זמן, נכין את הארוחה בעצמנו.

• את: direct object marker
• זמן: time
• אם: if

Questions & Answers about אם יש זמן, נכין את הארוחה בעצמנו.

Why isn’t there a separate word for we in נכין?

In Hebrew, the verb itself often shows who is doing the action.

נכין means we will prepare.
The נ- at the beginning marks first person plural in the future tense, so Hebrew does not need a separate word for we here.

So:

• נכין = we will prepare
• not just will prepare

If you want, you can add אנחנו for emphasis, but it is usually unnecessary:

• אם יש זמן, אנחנו נכין את הארוחה בעצמנו.

That sounds more emphatic, like we will prepare it ourselves.

Why does the sentence use אם?

אם means if.

It introduces a condition:

• אם יש זמן = if there is time
• אם יהיה זמן = if there will be time

In your sentence, אם simply starts the conditional clause.

A learner should also know that אם can sometimes mean whether in other contexts, for example:

• אני לא יודע אם הוא יבוא = I don’t know whether he will come

But in this sentence, it clearly means if.