לא משנה אם נחזור באוטובוס או במונית, העיקר שלא נהיה עייפות מחר.

לא משנה is a very common Hebrew expression meaning it doesn’t matter.

Literally, משנה comes from the verb לשנות / לשנות משהו in the sense of to make a difference / to matter here. So לא משנה means doesn’t matter.

Hebrew often leaves out an explicit subject in this kind of impersonal expression, so:

• לא משנה אם... = It doesn’t matter if...
• זה לא משנה אם... is also possible, but לא משנה אם... is more natural and common in everyday speech.

So the sentence starts in a very idiomatic way.

Because the sentence is talking about a future possibility: whether we return by bus or by taxi.

In Hebrew, after אם meaning if / whether, you often use the future tense when the situation is in the future:

• אם נחזור = if / whether we return
• אם נלך = if / whether we go
• אם נאחר = if / whether we’re late

So אם נחזור באוטובוס או במונית means whether we go back by bus or by taxi.

A present tense form like אם חוזרים would sound less appropriate here unless you were talking more generally or colloquially in a different kind of context.

נחזור is the 1st person plural future form of the verb לחזור.

• dictionary form: לחזור = to return / to go back
• נחזור = we will return / we will go back

The נ־ at the beginning is the normal marker for we in many future-tense forms.

Examples:

• נלך = we will go
• נשב = we will sit
• נחזור = we will return

So in this sentence, אם נחזור means if/whether we return.

The prefix ב־ basically means in / at / on, but in many travel expressions it corresponds to English by.

So:

• באוטובוס = by bus
• במונית = by taxi

This is normal Hebrew usage. English says by bus, but Hebrew uses ב־ with the vehicle.

A few more examples:

• ברכבת = by train
• במטוס = by plane
• באוטו = by car

So even though ב־ often literally means in or at, here the natural translation is by.

Good question: in unpointed Hebrew spelling, באוטובוס can look the same in both cases.

It can represent either:

• בְּאוטובוס = in/on a bus or by bus
• בָּאוטובוס = in/on the bus

Without vowel marks, the writing is identical: באוטובוס.

Here, the context clearly means by bus, not on the bus in a specific bus. The same thing applies to במונית.

So the meaning comes from context, not from the spelling alone.

או means or.

So:

• אם נחזור באוטובוס או במונית = whether we return by bus or by taxi

This is a standard A or B structure in Hebrew, just like in English.

העיקר literally means the main thing or the important thing.

In natural English, it often corresponds to:

• the main thing is...
• what matters is...
• as long as... (depending on context)

So here:

• העיקר שלא נהיה עייפות מחר
  = the main thing is that we won’t be tired tomorrow

This is a very common word in spoken and written Hebrew.

Examples:

• העיקר שאתה בסדר = the main thing is that you’re okay
• העיקר להגיע בזמן = the main thing is to arrive on time

Because ש־ here introduces the content of what matters.

Compare:

• העיקר שלא נהיה עייפות מחר
• literally: the main thing [is] that we not be tired tomorrow

The ש־ means that. Then לא makes it negative. Together, שלא means that not.

This is very common after words like העיקר:

• העיקר שלא תאחר = the main thing is that you won’t be late
• העיקר שלא ישכחו = the main thing is that they won’t forget

So שלא is not a single negative word like don’t; it is really:

• ש־ = that
• לא = not

נהיה is the 1st person plural future form of להיות (to be).

• להיות = to be
• נהיה = we will be

So:

• שלא נהיה עייפות מחר = that we won’t be tired tomorrow

This is one of the most common future forms in Hebrew, since להיות is extremely frequent.

עייפות is the feminine plural form of tired.

So:

• עייף = tired (masculine singular)
• עייפה = tired (feminine singular)
• עייפים = tired (masculine plural / mixed plural)
• עייפות = tired (feminine plural)

That means this sentence is speaking about we as an all-female group.

So:

• שלא נהיה עייפות = so that we (women) won’t be tired

If the speakers were male or mixed-gender, Hebrew would normally use:

• שלא נהיה עייפים

This is an important agreement point in Hebrew: adjectives must agree with the subject in gender and number.

No. מחר means tomorrow, and Hebrew is fairly flexible about where time expressions go.

This sentence has:

• שלא נהיה עייפות מחר

But you could also say:

• שמחר לא נהיה עייפות
• העיקר שמחר לא נהיה עייפות

The original version sounds very natural, though. Putting מחר at the end is simple and common.

Yes, very natural.

It has two common spoken patterns:

1. לא משנה אם... = it doesn’t matter whether...
2. העיקר ש... / העיקר שלא... = the main thing is that...

So the sentence is built like this:

• לא משנה אם נחזור באוטובוס או במונית
  = It doesn’t matter whether we return by bus or by taxi

• העיקר שלא נהיה עייפות מחר
  = The main thing is that we won’t be tired tomorrow

This is exactly the kind of sentence you might hear in everyday conversation.

Sometimes, yes.

A very natural English rendering of the second half could be:

• as long as we’re not tired tomorrow
• the main thing is that we’re not tired tomorrow

Both capture the idea.

So the whole sentence could be translated naturally in English as something like:

• It doesn’t matter whether we go back by bus or by taxi, as long as we’re not tired tomorrow.

That is not a word-for-word translation, but it is a very natural equivalent.

The comma separates the two main parts of the sentence:

1. לא משנה אם נחזור באוטובוס או במונית
2. העיקר שלא נהיה עייפות מחר

It helps show the pause between:

• the it doesn’t matter part and
• the the important thing is... part

In English, you would also usually separate these two clauses with a comma, so the punctuation works similarly here.