"הם אוכלים ארוחת צהריים לפני שהם רוקדים."

Translation: They eat lunch before they dance.

[Snommelp]

Oh hey, I remember לפני from Biblical Hebrew! It's a fun one to pull the roots out of :-)

[AnCatDubh]

Do I smell stomach cramps…?

No because there’s no such thing as the smell of stomach cramps duh

[Leshonim]

Is "They have lunch before they dance" an incorrect translation?

[Ani_sofer]

Not technically incorrect, but it does actually say "eat" in the Hebrew. But going the other direction, I guess there wouldn't be any other good option for translating the English "have lunch" besides "לאכול ארוחת צהריים"

[Aharoni42]

Why is it שהם here and not just הם?

[Ani_sofer]

When you use a preposition that tells "when," it will appear with ש if it comes before a verb, and without ש if it appears before a noun only. Examples:

I left before the party. יצאתי לפני המסיבה

I left before he arrived. יצאתי לפני שהוא הגיע

We will wait until he comes. נחכה עד שהוא יבוא

We will wait until tomorrow. נחכה עד מחר

He came after lunch. הוא הגיע אחרי ארוחת צהריים

He came after we ate lunch. הוא הגיע אחרי שאכלנו ארוחת צהריים

Hope that is clear.

[owlinthebox]

Thanks for the explanation and examples :)

[DaveSmith456703]

You are book! - nice explanation Thanks

[Gerardd88]

Could someone remind me the names for the meals? It will be easier to remember them like that than by finding them randomly in sentences.

[Ani_sofer]

Breakfast ארוחת בוקר

Lunch ארוחת צהריים

Supper/dinner ארוחת ערב

They are literally just "morning meal," "noon meal" and "evening meal."

[Gerardd88]

Thanks a lot :)

[CarinaPaula]

If you are on the Memrise Hebrew Duolingo course you can refer to the word lists for each skill.

[yaakov553]

So, are there both "leefnei" and "lefnai"? Because the first one is how I hear in this example, and the second one is how I have heard in a song already, meaning "before me".

[danny912421]

The word לפני meaning "before, in front of" is a preposition which is pronounced "lifnéi". This is how the word is pronounced here.

Like many other prepositions and adverbs, you can add pronominal suffixes to it, and in that case it would be לפניי, meaning "before me, in front of me" and it would be pronounced "lefanáy". You can also do that for all the other persons - לפניך - "before you", לפנינו - "before us" and so on. Here you can look at the complete list:
https://www.pealim.com/dict/6016-lifnei/

[Rableshoni]

I am a learner but seeing at the construction of the word a think there are both

[6MTL7]

I heard it was sounded like "tshoraim" instead of "tsahariim." Which one is correct?

[danny912421]

Well, he is pronouncing it "tsohorayim", which is the usual way of pronouncing it. Another correct way of pronouncing it is "tsahorayim". On the other hand "tsaharayim" is wrong.

[yochris1]

Not too wise IMO !!

[VforBBforV]

Vomit on the dancefloor!