הילדים הולכים לבית הספר בבוקר.

In Hebrew, ה־ at the beginning of a noun is the definite article, meaning the.

• ילדים = children
• הילדים = the children

So הילדים is specifically the children.

הולכים is the masculine plural form of going / walking.

It matches הילדים, which is a plural masculine noun.

So:

• הילד הולך = the boy goes / is going
• הילדים הולכים = the children go / are going

In Hebrew present tense, the verb form often looks like what English would translate as either go, are going, or walk, depending on context.

Hebrew verbs must agree with the subject in gender and number.

Since הילדים is:

• plural
• masculine

the verb also has to be masculine plural:

• הולך = masculine singular
• הולכת = feminine singular
• הולכים = masculine plural
• הולכות = feminine plural

That is why the sentence uses הולכים.

לבית הספר can be broken down like this:

• ל־ = to
• בית = house of
• הספר = the school / the book? Here, in this expression, it means the school

Together, בית הספר is the standard Hebrew expression for school, literally the house of the book/learning.

So:

• לבית הספר = to school / to the school

Even though English usually just says to school, Hebrew uses this fixed noun phrase.

This is because בית הספר is a construct phrase (called smikhut in Hebrew).

In a construct phrase:

• the first noun changes into a linked form
• the definiteness is usually marked on the second noun

So:

• בית ספר = a school
• בית הספר = the school

Even though only הספר has ה־, the whole phrase becomes definite.

That is why you get לבית הספר and not להבית הספר.

In Hebrew, some prepositions attach directly to the following word as prefixes.

The preposition ל־ means to and is usually attached to the noun:

• לבית הספר = to school / to the school

This is very common in Hebrew. Other common attached prepositions are:

• ב־ = in / at
• כ־ = like / as
• מ־ = from

So Hebrew often uses one written word where English uses two.

In Hebrew present tense, there is usually no separate verb meaning "am / is / are".

So Hebrew says literally something closer to:

• the children going to school in the morning

But in natural English, that becomes:

• The children are going to school in the morning or
• The children go to school in the morning

Hebrew present tense often relies on context instead of using a separate word for are.

It can mean any of these depending on context.

The root idea is go / walk. In a sentence like this, הולכים לבית הספר can naturally mean:

• go to school
• are going to school
• sometimes walk to school

Usually context tells you which meaning is intended. If the sentence is just a general statement, English often translates it as go to school. If it is describing what is happening now, it may be are going to school.

בבוקר means in the morning.

It breaks down as:

• ב־ = in / at
• בוקר = morning

Because of how Hebrew combines the preposition ב־ with the definite article ה־, ב + ה + בוקר becomes בבוקר.

So literally it is in the morning.

Compare:

• בוקר = morning
• בבוקר = in the morning

This happens because two elements combine:

• ב־ = in
• הבוקר = the morning

When ב־ attaches to a definite noun with ה־, the ה־ usually disappears and the form becomes a doubled-looking consonant:

• ב + הבוקר → בבוקר

The same thing happens with other prepositions too:

• ל + הבית → לבית
• כ + החורף → כחורף in some patterns

So בבוקר is the normal combined form of in the morning.

Hebrew word order is flexible, but this order is very natural:

• subject: הילדים
• verb: הולכים
• destination: לבית הספר
• time expression: בבוקר

So the sentence flows as:

The children go to school in the morning.

You could move elements around for emphasis, but this version is standard and natural.

Yes, it could.

Because הולכים can mean both go and are walking / are going, the sentence can be interpreted in more than one way depending on context.

Possible English translations include:

• The children go to school in the morning.
• The children are going to school in the morning.
• The children are walking to school in the morning.

If the surrounding context is missing, more than one translation may be reasonable.

The verb would need to agree with the feminine subject.

For example:

• הילדות הולכות לבית הספר בבוקר. = The girls go/are going to school in the morning.

Compare:

• הילדים הולכים = masculine plural
• הילדות הולכות = feminine plural

Hebrew agreement is very important, so learners should always check both gender and number.

In normal modern Hebrew, בית ספר is the standard word for school.

Literally, it comes from older elements meaning something like house of the book or house of learning, but learners should treat בית ספר as a fixed expression meaning school.

So in this sentence, לבית הספר should simply be understood as to school.