אני מקנאה בה, כי יש לה יותר זמן לקרוא.

Because the speaker is female.

In Hebrew, the present tense form of many verbs changes for gender:

• מקנא = masculine singular
• מקנאה = feminine singular

So:

• אני מקנא בה = I envy her / I’m jealous of her said by a man
• אני מקנאה בה = the same thing said by a woman

Even though אני means both I for males and females, the verb form still shows the speaker’s gender.

Because the verb לקנא usually takes the preposition ב־.

So in Hebrew, you do not normally say I envy her with a direct object the way English does. Instead, the structure is closer to:

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

That is why:

• בה = in her / of her here, after the preposition ב־

Examples:

• אני מקנא בו = I envy him
• אני מקנאה בה = I envy her
• הם מקנאים בי = They envy me

So בה is not random; it is required by the verb.

Here, בה means of her / her, as part of the expression לקנא ב־.

It is made of:

• ב־ = a preposition
• ה = her

So:

• בה = in her / of her / her depending on context

In this sentence, the natural English meaning is her:

• אני מקנאה בה = I envy her

Even though the literal structure is different from English, that is how it functions.

Hebrew usually does not use a regular verb meaning to have in everyday sentences. Instead, it uses the pattern:

• יש ל־... = there is to ... → ... has

So:

• יש לה זמן literally means something like there is time to her
• natural English: she has time

More examples:

• יש לי ספר = I have a book
• יש לך שאלה = You have a question
• יש להם כסף = They have money

So כי יש לה יותר זמן means because she has more time.

They both contain a pronoun referring to her, but they do different jobs.

• בה = in/of her after the preposition ב־
• לה = to her, used in the יש ל־ possession structure

So:

• אני מקנאה בה = I envy her
• יש לה יותר זמן = she has more time

Even though both can translate as her in English, Hebrew is showing two different grammatical relationships.

יותר means more.

So:

• יותר זמן = more time

This is the normal way to say it in Hebrew:

• יותר כסף = more money
• יותר ספרים = more books
• יותר זמן = more time

If you want, you can also add what you are comparing it to, for example:

• יותר זמן ממני = more time than me / than I have

But in your sentence, the comparison is understood from context, so יותר זמן by itself is perfectly natural.

Because after זמן in this kind of sentence, Hebrew commonly uses an infinitive to express time to do something.

So:

• זמן לקרוא = time to read
• זמן ללמוד = time to study
• זמן לנוח = time to rest

The ל־ here is part of the infinitive form:

• לקרוא = to read

So:

• יש לה יותר זמן לקרוא = she has more time to read

Using a present tense verb like קוראת here would not work the same way.

This is the most neutral and common Hebrew order.

The sentence is built like this:

• יש = there is
• לה = to her
• יותר זמן = more time
• לקרוא = to read

So the structure is basically:

• There is to her more time to read

which becomes natural English:

• She has more time to read

You may sometimes hear other orders for emphasis, such as לה יש יותר זמן, but יש לה יותר זמן is the standard unmarked version.

It can overlap with both ideas, and context decides the best English translation.

In this sentence, the meaning is closer to I envy her, because the reason is given:

• כי יש לה יותר זמן לקרוא = because she has more time to read

So the emotional idea is: I wish I had that too, which is usually envy in English.

But in many learning materials, לקנא ב־ is often introduced as to be jealous of. That is not wrong; just remember that in real use it often covers what English calls envy as well.

Yes.

מקנאה is a present tense form, and יש also expresses a present-time situation here.

So the whole sentence means something like:

• I envy her, because she has more time to read

If you wanted past or future, Hebrew would change the forms:

• קינאתי בה = I envied her
• אקנא בה = I will envy her

But your sentence is present tense throughout.

A man would say:

• אני מקנא בה, כי יש לה יותר זמן לקרוא.

The only change is:

• מקנאה → מקנא

Everything else stays the same.

So:

• female speaker: אני מקנאה בה...
• male speaker: אני מקנא בה...