היא החמיאה לי על העברית שלי, ואני אמרתי לה שלא קינאתי בה אלא רק שמחתי בשבילה.

Because the subject is היא (she), so the verb has to be feminine singular in the past tense.

• הוא החמיא = he complimented
• היא החמיאה = she complimented

This verb is להחמיא (to compliment), and in the past tense Hebrew marks gender in the 3rd person.

Both of these are indirect object forms with the preposition ל־ (to).

• החמיאה לי = she complimented me
• אמרתי לה = I said to her

In Hebrew, many verbs that involve speaking or directing something toward someone use ל־.

So:

• להחמיא למישהו = to compliment someone
• לומר למישהו = to say to someone

The verb להחמיא often works with the pattern:

להחמיא למישהו על משהו = to compliment someone on something

So here:

• החמיאה לי = she complimented me
• על העברית שלי = about / on my Hebrew

This is just the normal Hebrew pattern for saying what the compliment was about.

In normal Hebrew, when you use a noun with a separate possessive word like שלי, the noun is often made definite with ה־.

So:

• העברית שלי = my Hebrew

This is the most natural everyday form here.

Without ה־, עברית שלי can sound less standard, less definite, or more stylistically marked depending on context. For a learner, העברית שלי is the form to expect.

Hebrew often allows the subject pronoun to be omitted, because the verb already shows the person.

So both are possible:

• ואמרתי לה
• ואני אמרתי לה

Adding אני gives a little more contrast or emphasis, something like:

• and I said to her...
• as for me, I told her...

Here it helps mark the shift from she complimented me to I said to her.

שלא is basically ש־ + לא.

• ש־ = that
• לא = not

So after אמרתי לה it introduces what was said:

• אמרתי לה שלא קינאתי בה = I told her that I wasn’t envious / jealous of her

This is a very common structure in Hebrew after verbs of saying, thinking, knowing, etc.

Because לקנא is a verb that normally takes the preposition ב־.

So the pattern is:

לקנא ב־מישהו / מישהי = to be jealous of / envious of someone

Examples:

• אני מקנא בו = I’m jealous of him / envious of him
• אני מקנאה בה = I’m jealous of her / envious of her

So קינאתי בה is simply the correct grammar for this verb.

It can cover both ideas, and the exact English choice depends on context.

In this sentence, קינאתי בה is probably closest to I envied her or I was jealous of her. Hebrew לקנא ב־ is broader than the English distinction some speakers make between jealousy and envy.

So as a learner, the important thing is:

• לקנא ב־מישהו = to feel that kind of jealous/envious feeling toward someone

After a negative statement, אלא means something like but rather / except that instead.

So:

• לא קינאתי בה אלא שמחתי בשבילה = I wasn’t jealous of her; rather, I was happy for her

Adding רק gives extra emphasis:

• אלא רק שמחתי בשבילה = but was only happy for her

So אלא רק makes the contrast stronger. It says: not this feeling, only that one.

Because they come from different prepositions.

• בה = ב־ + היא → in her / of her / with her, depending on the verb
  Here it is used because לקנא requires ב־
• בשבילה = בשביל + ה־suffix = for her

So:

• קינאתי בה = I was jealous of her
• שמחתי בשבילה = I was happy for her

They both refer to the same woman, but the grammar is different because the verbs and expressions require different prepositions.

To say happy for someone, Hebrew commonly uses לשמוח בשביל מישהו.

So:

• שמחתי בשבילה = I was happy for her

By contrast, שמחתי לה is not the normal way to say this. The idiomatic expression is with בשביל.

A useful pattern to remember is:

• אני שמח/שמחה בשבילך = I’m happy for you
• אנחנו שמחים בשבילם = we’re happy for them

Not from this sentence.

The first-person past forms:

• אמרתי
• קינאתי
• שמחתי

are the same for both male and female speakers.

What we can tell is:

• היא = the person who complimented is female
• לה / בה / בשבילה = the person being referred to later is also female

But the speaker’s own gender is not marked here.