העמית שלי אמר שהנוהל הזה נשמע רשמי מדי, אבל הוא דווקא די יעיל.

In Hebrew, one very common way to say possession is:

• noun + של
  • possessor

So:

• העמית שלי = my colleague
• literally, something like the colleague of mine

This is completely normal Hebrew. English puts my before the noun, but Hebrew often puts the possessive part after it.

Also note:

• עמית = colleague / associate
• העמית = the colleague
• שלי = my / of mine

So העמית שלי is the natural way to say my colleague.

In Hebrew, demonstratives like this and that usually come after the noun:

• הנוהל הזה = this procedure
• הספר הזה = this book
• האיש ההוא = that man

So the normal pattern is:

• the + noun + this/that

That is why you get הנוהל הזה.

If you say זה הנוהל, that usually means this is the procedure or that is the procedure, which is a different sentence structure.

The prefix ש־ means that and introduces a subordinate clause.

So:

• אמר שהנוהל הזה... = said that this procedure...

It is attached directly to the next word:

• ש + הנוהל → שהנוהל

This is extremely common in Hebrew after verbs like:

• אמר = said
• חשב = thought
• יודע = knows
• ראה = saw

Yes. נשמע here means sounds.

The verb comes from the root ש־מ־ע, related to hearing. In this kind of sentence, Hebrew uses נשמע the way English uses sounds:

• זה נשמע טוב = that sounds good
• הנוהל הזה נשמע רשמי מדי = this procedure sounds too formal

A useful thing to notice is that Hebrew can put an adjective directly after נשמע:

• נשמע רשמי
• נשמע מוזר
• נשמע טוב

You do not need a separate word for like here.

Also, נשמע is masculine singular, matching הנוהל, which is masculine singular.

Because מדי means too / overly / excessively, and in Hebrew it comes after the adjective or adverb it modifies.

So:

• רשמי מדי = too formal
• יקר מדי = too expensive
• מהר מדי = too quickly

This is different from English, where too comes before the adjective.

So the word order is:

• adjective + מדי

Here דווקא means something like:

• actually
• in fact
• contrary to what you might expect
• on the contrary

So the idea is:

It may sound overly formal, but actually it is fairly efficient.

This is a very common Hebrew use of דווקא. It often adds a sense of contrast or surprise.

Important: דווקא is a flexible word, and in other contexts it can have other shades of meaning. But in this sentence, the best sense is actually / despite that / contrary to appearances.

Yes, and that is exactly why they work well together.

• אבל = but
• דווקא = actually / contrary to expectation

So:

• אבל sets up the basic contrast between the two clauses
• דווקא strengthens the idea that the second clause goes against what you might assume from the first

So the sentence is not just:

• it sounds formal, but it is efficient

It is more like:

• it sounds too formal, but actually it is pretty efficient

That combination is very natural in Hebrew.

Here די means:

• fairly
• quite
• rather
• pretty

So די יעיל means fairly efficient or pretty efficient.

It softens the statement a bit. It is not as strong as מאוד:

• יעיל מאוד = very efficient
• די יעיל = fairly / pretty efficient

So the speaker is not saying the procedure is amazing, just that it is reasonably efficient.

It refers to הנוהל הזה.

Why?

• נוהל is masculine singular
• הוא is masculine singular

So grammatically they match.

In theory, הוא could also mean he, but in this sentence the context makes it clear that the speaker is talking about the procedure, not the colleague. The idea is:

• my colleague said the procedure sounds too formal, but it is actually fairly efficient

Hebrew uses הוא for both he and it when the noun is masculine.

Because in present-tense Hebrew, the verb to be is usually omitted.

So where English says:

• it is efficient

Hebrew often just says:

• הוא יעיל

Literally, that looks like:

• it efficient

But it is perfectly normal Hebrew and means it is efficient.

So:

• הוא דווקא די יעיל = it is actually fairly efficient

This is one of the biggest structural differences English speakers notice in Hebrew.

Because they are masculine singular adjectives, matching נוהל, which is masculine singular.

So:

• נוהל = masculine singular
• רשמי = masculine singular
• יעיל = masculine singular
• נשמע = masculine singular verb form

Hebrew adjectives usually agree with the noun in gender and number.

For example, if the noun were feminine, the forms would change:

• המדיניות הזאת נשמעת רשמית מדי, אבל היא דווקא די יעילה

So agreement is an important clue for understanding who or what the sentence is talking about.