המורה שאלה למה שמתי סימן שאלה בתוך המרכאות ולא אחריהן.

Because המורה can mean either the male teacher or the female teacher. The noun itself does not tell you the gender here, so the verb does.

• שאלה = she asked
• שאל = he asked

So המורה שאלה tells us that the teacher is female.

למה means why. It is very common in everyday Hebrew.

You may also see:

• מדוע = a more formal/literary why
• למה = the usual spoken and written everyday form

So המורה שאלה למה... is a completely natural way to say the teacher asked why...

שמתי is the past-tense, first-person singular form of the verb לשים = to put / to place.

So:

• שמתי = I put / I placed
• root idea: putting or placing something somewhere

In this sentence, it means I put a question mark somewhere.

In English, we often say asked why I put... without that, and Hebrew works similarly here.

The structure is:

• שאלה למה שמתי...
• literally: asked why I put...

Hebrew does not need an extra word between למה and שמתי. This is a normal way to form an indirect question.

Because the whole sentence is a statement about what happened, not a question being asked directly to the listener.

This is called an indirect question.

Compare:

• Direct question: למה שמת...? = Why did you put...?
• Indirect question: המורה שאלה למה שמתי... = The teacher asked why I put...

That is why the sentence ends with a period, not a question mark.

In Hebrew, question mark is normally expressed as two words:

• סימן = sign/mark
• שאלה = question

Together, סימן שאלה literally means question sign/mark, i.e. question mark.

This is the standard expression.

Because את is used before a definite direct object, and סימן שאלה here is indefinite.

Compare:

• שמתי סימן שאלה = I put a question mark
• שמתי את סימן השאלה = I put the question mark

In your sentence, it is a question mark, not the question mark, so את is not used.

בתוך means inside.

So:

• בתוך = inside
• המרכאות = the quotation marks

Together:

• בתוך המרכאות = inside the quotation marks

This is a very natural way to say that something was placed within quotation marks.

מרכאות means quotation marks. It is normally used in the plural, because quotation marks come as a pair.

So Hebrew treats it much like English:

• one set of quotation marks
• grammatically plural word

That is why later the sentence refers back to it with a plural ending in אחריהן.

Because מרכאות is plural, and אחריהן means after them.

Breakdown:

• אחרי = after
• -הן = them (feminine plural)

So:

• אחריהן = after them

Since מרכאות is treated as feminine plural, the pronoun suffix must match it.

Hebrew pronoun suffixes must agree with the noun they refer to. מרכאות is grammatically feminine plural, so the sentence uses the feminine plural suffix:

• אחריהן = after them (feminine plural)

You might also see masculine plural -הם in other contexts, but not here.

ו means and, and לא means not.

So:

• ולא = and not

Here it creates a contrast:

• inside the quotation marks
• and not after them

This is a very common Hebrew pattern for X and not Y.

Because ה is the definite article, meaning the.

In this sentence:

• המרכאות = the quotation marks
• סימן שאלה = a question mark

So the quotation marks are specific ones already being discussed, while the question mark is mentioned more generally.

Yes. The word order is very natural.

Hebrew often puts things in this kind of order:

• subject
• verb
• indirect-question word
• verb
• object
• location/comparison

So:

• המורה — subject
• שאלה — verb
• למה — why
• שמתי — I put
• סימן שאלה — a question mark
• בתוך המרכאות — inside the quotation marks
• ולא אחריהן — and not after them

It is a normal, fluent sentence.

Sometimes, yes, but בתוך is the most straightforward choice here.

For example:

• בתוך = inside
• ב־ alone can sometimes mean in, but it would be less explicit

So בתוך המרכאות clearly means inside the quotation marks, which fits the punctuation context very well.

It sounds natural and standard, leaning toward everyday Hebrew.

Especially:

• למה is the everyday word for why
• the structure is straightforward and common

Nothing in the sentence is slang, but it is not especially formal either. It is the kind of sentence you could easily hear in real life.