המנוע חם.

In Hebrew, the verb to be is usually not stated in the present tense.

So Hebrew says:

• המנוע חם rather than
• המנוע הוא חם

This is completely normal. In past and future, though, Hebrew does use forms of to be:

• המנוע היה חם = the engine was hot
• המנוע יהיה חם = the engine will be hot

The prefix ה־ is the Hebrew definite article, meaning the.

So:

• מנוע = engine
• המנוע = the engine

In fully pointed Hebrew, this would be written הַמָּנוֹעַ.

In Hebrew, adjectives normally come after the noun they describe.

So Hebrew uses:

• המנוע חם

not the English-style order hot engine.

In this sentence, חם is functioning as the predicate adjective: it tells you something about the engine.

Because here חם is part of the predicate, not part of the noun phrase.

There is an important difference between:

• המנוע חם = the engine is hot
• המנוע החם = the hot engine

In המנוע חם, חם is saying something about the engine, so it does not take the definite article.

In המנוע החם, חם is directly modifying המנוע inside a noun phrase, so it does take ה־ to match the definite noun.

Hebrew adjectives agree with the noun in gender and number.

מנוע is masculine singular, so the adjective also appears in the masculine singular form:

• masculine singular: חם

Other forms are:

• feminine singular: חמה
• masculine plural: חמים
• feminine plural: חמות

So if the noun changed, the adjective would change too.

חם is pronounced approximately kham or cham.

The letter ח is not the English h. It is a harsher sound made in the back of the throat, like:

• the ch in Scottish loch
• the ch in German Bach

So חם is not ham in the English sense.

A good approximation is ha-ma-no-a.

A few helpful points:

• ה־ is pronounced ha- here
• מנוע has several vowel sounds, so say it clearly in syllables
• the final ע usually does not get a strong consonant sound in modern Israeli Hebrew, but it can affect the vowel flow

So saying it slowly as ha-ma-no-a is a good start.

With niqqud, it is:

הַמָּנוֹעַ חַם

A few notes:

• הַ = the article the
• מָּנוֹעַ = engine
• חַם = hot

In everyday modern Hebrew, Hebrew is normally written without these vowel marks, so המנוע חם is the standard spelling you will usually see.