בעברית חשוב לדעת אם מילה היא זכר או נקבה.

בעברית means in Hebrew.

It is made from:

• ב־ = in
• עברית = Hebrew

So Hebrew often attaches short prepositions directly to the following word.
That is why you see בעברית rather than two separate words.

A few similar examples:

• בבית = in a house / at home
• בספר = in a book
• באנגלית = in English

The word עברית is the Hebrew word for Hebrew and is grammatically feminine in form. Many language names in Hebrew are feminine, especially ones ending in ־ית.

Examples:

• עברית = Hebrew
• אנגלית = English
• צרפתית = French

That does not mean the language is biologically female, of course. It just means the noun belongs to the feminine grammatical pattern.

This is a very common question.

חשוב means important, and here it appears in the masculine singular default form because the sentence uses an impersonal construction:

• חשוב לדעת... = It is important to know...

In English, we use it is important.
In Hebrew, this type of statement often uses the masculine singular adjective as a kind of neutral/default form.

So even though עברית is feminine, חשוב is not describing עברית here. It is describing the whole idea to know whether..., and that kind of expression usually stays in masculine singular.

לדעת is the infinitive to know.

It comes from the root י־ד־ע, which is related to knowing.

So:

• חשוב לדעת = important to know / it is important to know

The ל־ at the beginning often marks the infinitive in Hebrew, similar to English to:

• ללמוד = to learn
• לכתוב = to write
• לדעת = to know

Here אם means whether.

In English, we often say:

• It is important to know whether a word is masculine or feminine.

Hebrew uses אם for this kind of indirect yes/no choice:

• לדעת אם... = to know whether...

The same word אם can also mean if in other contexts, so learners often need to decide from the sentence meaning.

היא means she / it.

Here it refers back to מילה (word), which is a feminine noun in Hebrew. Because מילה is feminine, the pronoun that refers to it is also feminine:

• מילה = word
• היא = it / she

So:

• מילה היא זכר או נקבה = a word is masculine or feminine

In English, we would usually say it, but Hebrew uses grammatical gender, so the pronoun must match the noun’s gender.

מילה is simply a noun that belongs to the feminine gender in Hebrew.

Many feminine singular nouns end in:

• ־ה
• ־ת

So the ending of מילה makes it look feminine, and indeed it is feminine.

Because it is feminine, other words referring to it also become feminine when needed, such as:

• מילה יפה = a beautiful word
• המילה הזאת = this word

This is an excellent thing to notice.

The noun מילה itself is grammatically feminine. But the sentence is not saying that the noun מילה is masculine. It is talking about any word as an item of vocabulary and saying that each word has a grammatical gender category.

So:

• מילה = the general word word (which happens to be feminine)
• זכר או נקבה = masculine or feminine as a grammatical classification

In other words, the container word מילה is feminine, but the specific word being discussed might be masculine or feminine.

Example:

• שולחן = table → masculine
• דלת = door → feminine

Both are still called מילה because they are words.

They mean:

• זכר = masculine
• נקבה = feminine

These are the standard grammatical terms for noun gender in Hebrew.

They can also mean male and female in other contexts, but in this sentence they are clearly about grammatical gender, not biological sex.

This matters in Hebrew because adjectives, pronouns, verbs, and numbers often change form depending on whether a noun is masculine or feminine.

Hebrew does not have a separate word for a / an.

So:

• מילה can mean a word or simply word, depending on context.

If Hebrew wants to say the word, it usually adds ה־:

• המילה = the word

In your sentence, מילה is indefinite, so a word is the natural translation.

Because here זכר and נקבה are being used like predicate nouns after היא:

• מילה היא זכר או נקבה

This is like saying:

• The answer is yes or no
• The animal is a cat
• The word is masculine or feminine

Hebrew often leaves such predicate nouns without the definite article unless there is a reason to make them definite.

So זכר או נקבה means masculine or feminine, not the masculine or the feminine.

The sentence breaks down like this:

• בעברית = in Hebrew
• חשוב לדעת = it is important to know
• אם מילה היא זכר או נקבה = whether a word is masculine or feminine

So the full structure is:

In Hebrew, it is important to know whether a word is masculine or feminine.

A useful pattern to remember is:

• חשוב + infinitive
• חשוב לדעת
• חשוב לזכור
• חשוב להבין

These all mean:

• it is important to know
• it is important to remember
• it is important to understand

Yes, it is very natural.

Hebrew often begins with a setting or topic expression like בעברית (in Hebrew), and then gives the main statement:

• בעברית חשוב לדעת...

This sounds normal and idiomatic.
You could also express the idea in other ways, but this version is clear and natural for learners to know.

Hebrew often does not need a dummy subject like English it.

English says:

• It is important to know...

Hebrew simply says:

• חשוב לדעת...
• literally: important to know...

This is a very common difference between the two languages. Hebrew often allows a sentence to begin directly with an adjective or verb where English would require it or some other subject.