המורה שאלה אם המילה הזאת היא פועל או שם עצם.

Because the subject is המורה, and in this sentence המורה is understood to be a female teacher.

Hebrew past-tense verbs agree with the subject in gender and number:

• שאל = he asked
• שאלה = she asked

So המורה שאלה means the teacher asked, with the verb showing that the teacher is female.

Not by itself, necessarily. מורה can refer to either a male or a female teacher in everyday Hebrew.

What tells you it is female here is the verb:

• המורה שאל = the teacher asked, and the teacher is male
• המורה שאלה = the teacher asked, and the teacher is female

So the noun מורה is the same, but the verb reveals the gender.

Here אם means if in the sense of whether.

So:

• שאלה אם... = she asked whether...

This is very common in Hebrew when introducing an indirect yes/no question.

For example:

• אני לא יודע אם הוא בבית = I don’t know if / whether he is at home
• היא שאלה אם זה נכון = she asked if / whether it is correct

In Hebrew, demonstratives like this usually come after the noun.

So:

• המילה הזאת = this word
• literally, something like the word this

This is normal Hebrew word order.

Compare:

• הספר הזה = this book
• הילדה הזאת = this girl
• הבית הזה = this house

Because מילה is a feminine noun.

The demonstrative has to agree with the noun in gender:

• masculine singular: הזה
• feminine singular: הזאת

So:

• ספר is masculine → הספר הזה = this book
• מילה is feminine → המילה הזאת = this word

היא means she / it, but here it functions like a present-tense linker, similar to is in English.

Hebrew usually does not use a present-tense verb for to be, but when the sentence identifies or classifies something, a pronoun like הוא or היא is often used.

So:

• המילה הזאת היא פועל = this word is a verb

Since מילה is feminine, Hebrew uses היא.

Sometimes yes, but in this kind of sentence it is very natural to include it.

Hebrew often omits to be in the present tense, but when one noun is being identified as another noun, the pronoun is commonly used for clarity:

• המילה הזאת פועל sounds awkward or incomplete to many speakers
• המילה הזאת היא פועל is the natural form

So for learners, it is best to keep היא in sentences like this.

Because היא agrees with המילה, not with פועל.

The subject is המילה הזאת, and מילה is feminine, so the pronoun is feminine:

• המילה הזאת היא...

The word פועל here is just the category being assigned: a verb. Its own grammatical gender does not control the pronoun.

This is similar to saying in English:

• The girl is a doctor Even if doctor has no gender, girl is still the subject.

The prefix ה- is the definite article, meaning the.

So:

• המורה = the teacher
• המילה = the word

But פועל and שם עצם appear without ה- because the sentence is asking about category membership:

• is it a verb or a noun?

In English we usually say a verb / a noun, and Hebrew often uses the bare noun for this idea.

In grammar, פועל means verb.

Outside grammar, the same root is related to action or doing. Hebrew grammatical terms often reflect the basic meaning of the word:

• פועל is something connected with action

So in this sentence:

• פועל = verb

שם עצם is the Hebrew term for noun.

Literally:

• שם = name
• עצם = thing / substance / object / essence, depending on context

As a grammatical term, שם עצם simply means noun, and you should learn it as a fixed expression.

או means or.

So:

• פועל או שם עצם = a verb or a noun

It connects the two alternatives the teacher is asking about.

Yes, very normal.

The sentence is built like this:

• המורה שאלה = the teacher asked
• אם = whether / if
• המילה הזאת היא פועל או שם עצם = this word is a verb or a noun

So the structure is:

• main clause + indirect question

That is a very common Hebrew pattern.

Yes. In modern Hebrew, both are used:

• המילה הזאת
• המילה הזו

Both mean this word.

In many contexts, הזאת sounds a bit more formal or careful, while הזו is also very common in everyday speech. A learner should recognize both.

Only the verb would need to change:

• המורה שאל אם המילה הזאת היא פועל או שם עצם.

Here:

• שאל = he asked
• שאלה = she asked

The rest of the sentence stays the same.