אם האוטובוס איטי מדי, נוכל לקחת מונית.

Here אם means if.

It introduces a condition:

• אם האוטובוס איטי מדי = if the bus is too slow

This is a very common way to build conditional sentences in Hebrew:

• אם... , ...
• If..., then...

Hebrew often does not need a separate word for then in sentences like this.

The ה at the beginning is the Hebrew definite article, meaning the.

So:

• אוטובוס = a bus / bus
• האוטובוס = the bus

The article ה־ is attached directly to the noun, unlike English, where the is a separate word.

No, אוטובוס is a loanword, ultimately from bus / autobus.

Hebrew uses many loanwords, especially for modern objects. Even though the word is borrowed, it behaves like a normal Hebrew noun:

• it can take ה־: האוטובוס
• it has grammatical gender: it is usually treated as masculine

Because אוטובוס is masculine singular, and adjectives in Hebrew usually agree with the noun in gender and number.

So:

• אוטובוס איטי = a slow bus (masculine singular)
• מונית איטית = a slow taxi (feminine singular)

Since האוטובוס is masculine singular, the adjective is איטי.

מדי means too in the sense of excessively.

So:

• איטי מדי = too slow

In Hebrew, מדי normally comes after the adjective:

• יקר מדי = too expensive
• רחוק מדי = too far
• איטי מדי = too slow

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

נוכל is future tense, first person plural: we will be able.

From the verb יכול / יכל in the sense of can / be able to:

• אוכל = I will be able
• תוכל = you will be able
• יוכל = he will be able
• נוכל = we will be able

In English, this is often translated simply as we can, especially when the future meaning is understood from context.

So:

• נוכל לקחת מונית = we can take a taxi
• more literally: we will be able to take a taxi

Because after a modal-like verb such as can / be able to, Hebrew usually uses the infinitive of the main verb.

So:

• נוכל לקחת = we can take

Here:

• נוכל = we will be able / we can
• לקחת = to take

This is very similar to English structure:

• we can take
• we will be able to take

לקחת is the infinitive to take.

It comes from the verb לקח = he took.

You do not need to memorize all the historical spelling details at once, but it is useful to know:

• dictionary form / infinitive: לקחת = to take
• past masculine singular: לקח = he took

So in this sentence:

• נוכל לקחת מונית = we can take a taxi

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

So:

• לקחת מונית = to take a taxi
• לקחת את המונית = to take the taxi

Since the sentence means a taxi, not the taxi, there is no את.

This is a very common point for English speakers, because English does not have a separate marker like את.

Here it means a taxi.

That is because it does not have the definite article ה־:

• מונית = a taxi / taxi
• המונית = the taxi

So:

• נוכל לקחת מונית = we can take a taxi
• נוכל לקחת את המונית = we can take the taxi

מונית is a feminine noun.

You can often see this in agreement:

• מונית מהירה = a fast taxi
• המונית מהירה = the taxi is fast

Even though no adjective agrees with מונית in this sentence, it is still useful to know its gender for building your own sentences.

This is a very natural and common word order in both Hebrew and English:

• אם האוטובוס איטי מדי, נוכל לקחת מונית.
• If the bus is too slow, we can take a taxi.

You can sometimes move things around for emphasis, but this order is the most neutral and straightforward.

In standard writing, yes, the comma is normal here because the sentence begins with a subordinate clause introduced by אם.

So:

• אם האוטובוס איטי מדי, נוכל לקחת מונית.

The comma helps separate:

1. the condition
2. the main result

In casual texting, people may omit punctuation, but in proper writing the comma is appropriate.

A simple pronunciation guide is:

Im ha-otobus iti מדי, nukhal lakakhat monit.

More naturally:

• אם = im
• האוטובוס = ha-otobus
• איטי = iti
• מדי = midai
• נוכל = nukhal
• לקחת = lakakhat
• מונית = monit

Two sounds English speakers often notice:

• כ/ח in נוכל and לקחת can sound like a throaty kh
• stress in מונית is usually on the last syllable: mo-NIT

Sometimes, yes, but the meaning shifts a little.

• נוכל לקחת מונית = we can / we’ll be able to take a taxi in this situation
• יכולים לקחת מונית = we are able to take a taxi / we can take a taxi

In this sentence, נוכל sounds very natural because it refers to a possible action depending on the condition.

So if the idea is:

• If the bus is too slow, we’ll be able to / we can just take a taxi

then נוכל is a very good choice.