בכל פעם שיש לנו ישיבה ארוכה, אני מביאה איתי מים ומחברת.

Every time we have a long meeting, I bring water and a notebook with me.

Breakdown of בכל פעם שיש לנו ישיבה ארוכה, אני מביאה איתי מים ומחברת.

• אני: I
• יש: there is
• מים: water
• ו: and

Questions & Answers about בכל פעם שיש לנו ישיבה ארוכה, אני מביאה איתי מים ומחברת.

Why does the sentence start with בכל פעם ש־? What does that pattern mean?

בכל פעם ש־ means every time that... / whenever...

It is made of:

• בכל = in every / each
• פעם = time, occasion
• ש־ = that / when

So בכל פעם שיש לנו... literally means every time that we have..., and naturally in English that is often whenever we have...

A shorter version you may also hear is כל פעם ש־, which also means every time / whenever.

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What is the function of שיש in בכל פעם שיש לנו?

Here שיש is really ש־ + יש:

• ש־ = that / when
• יש = there is / there are / have

So:

• שיש לנו ישיבה ארוכה = that we have a long meeting
• literally: that there is to us a long meeting

This is a very common Hebrew structure. Hebrew often expresses to have with יש ל־:

• יש לי = I have
• יש לך = you have
• יש לנו = we have

So שיש לנו means that we have.

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Why does Hebrew use יש לנו for we have instead of a verb meaning have?