מרוב רעש, לא שמעתי את הקדר מדבר.

מרוב is an idiomatic expression meaning because of too much..., from all the..., or due to the overwhelming amount of....

It is made from:

• מ־ = from / because of
• רוב = most / abundance

So מרוב רעש means something like because of all the noise or because there was so much noise.

It often introduces a cause that comes from excess:

• מרוב עייפות = because of extreme tiredness
• מרוב שמחה = from great joy
• מרוב לחץ = because of so much stress

Both can express a cause, but they are not exactly the same.

• בגלל הרעש = because of the noise
• מרוב רעש = because there was so much noise / because of all the noise

So מרוב adds the idea of quantity or intensity. It suggests the noise was not just present, but overwhelming.

That makes מרוב רעש feel more vivid and a little more idiomatic in this kind of sentence.

In מרוב רעש, the noun often appears without the definite article because the phrase is talking about noise in a general or mass sense, not a specific identified noise.

So:

• מרוב רעש = because of so much noise
• מרוב העייפות is much less natural in this type of expression

This is common with mass nouns and abstract nouns after מרוב:

• מרוב חום = because of the heat / because it was so hot
• מרוב פחד = from fear
• מרוב עבודה = from too much work

שמעתי is past tense, first person singular: I heard.

It comes from the verb לשמוע = to hear.

Examples:

• שמעתי = I heard
• שמעת = you heard
• שמע = he heard
• שמעה = she heard

In this sentence, לא שמעתי means I did not hear.

את marks a definite direct object.

In Hebrew, when the direct object is definite, you usually put את before it.

Here, הקדר is definite because it has ה־ (the), so Hebrew uses:

• שמעתי את הקדר = I heard the potter

Compare:

• שמעתי קדר = I heard a potter / potter(s)
  This is unusual in this context, but grammatically it would be indefinite, so no את.
• שמעתי את הקדר = I heard the potter

So את does not mean with here. It is just the direct-object marker.

הקדר means the potter.

The base noun is קַדָּר = potter, someone who makes pottery or clay vessels.

With the definite article:

• קדר = a potter
• הקדר = the potter

For a learner, this word may feel a bit literary or less common than everyday vocabulary, but it is a normal Hebrew noun.

After verbs of perception like ראה (saw), שמע (heard), and sometimes מצא (found), Hebrew often uses a participle to describe an ongoing action that was perceived.

So:

• שמעתי את הקדר מדבר = I heard the potter speaking

This structure focuses on the action as it was happening.

Compare:

• שמעתי את הקדר מדבר = I heard the potter speaking
• שמעתי שהקדר דיבר = I heard that the potter spoke / had spoken

These are different.
The first means you directly heard him in the act of speaking.
The second means you heard information that he spoke.

As for לדבר, that would normally not fit after שמעתי את הקדר in this meaning.

Formally, מדבר is the masculine singular participle, which often corresponds to the present tense in Hebrew. But here it is not simply functioning as plain present tense.

In this sentence, it acts more like speaking in English:

• שמעתי את הקדר מדבר = I heard the potter speaking

So even though the form looks like present tense, the whole sentence is still about the past because the main verb שמעתי is in the past.

This is very common in Hebrew.

Because מדבר is masculine singular, and הקדר is also masculine singular.

Hebrew participles agree in gender and number with the person doing the action.

So if the object changed, the participle would change too:

• שמעתי את האישה מדברת = I heard the woman speaking
• שמעתי את הילדים מדברים = I heard the children speaking
• שמעתי את הילדות מדברות = I heard the girls speaking

In your sentence, הקדר is one male person, so מדבר is the correct form.

Yes. This is a very natural Hebrew sentence.

The structure is:

• מרוב רעש = because of all the noise
• לא שמעתי = I didn’t hear
• את הקדר = the potter
• מדבר = speaking

Hebrew often allows some flexibility in word order, but this version is clear and idiomatic.

A slightly different order could also be possible for emphasis, but the given sentence sounds normal and standard.

The comma separates the introductory cause phrase from the main clause:

• מרוב רעש, = because of all the noise,
• לא שמעתי את הקדר מדבר. = I didn’t hear the potter speaking.

In modern Hebrew punctuation, this comma is very natural and helps readability. In some short sentences, writers may omit such commas, but here it is completely normal.

The most direct reading is I didn’t hear the potter speaking—that is, the noise prevented the speaker from hearing him.

Depending on context, English may sometimes express this as:

• I couldn’t hear the potter speaking
• I couldn’t hear the potter talk
• I couldn’t hear what the potter was saying

But strictly speaking, the Hebrew sentence focuses on perceiving the act of speaking, not necessarily on understanding the content. If the speaker wanted to emphasize understanding the words, they might say something more explicit, such as:

• לא שמעתי מה הקדר אמר = I didn’t hear what the potter said

So the original sentence is more about hearing the speech itself, not necessarily the exact words.