שמנו ניילון בועות סביב כלי החרס בשביל שהוא לא יישבר.

Here שמנו is the past tense of the verb לשים (to put / to place), in 1st person plural: we put.

A quick breakdown:

• לשים = to put
• שמתי = I put
• שמת = you put
• שם / שמה = he/she put
• שמנו = we put

A common point of confusion: שמנו can also mean our name (שם = name, -נו = our). But in this sentence, the context clearly shows it is the verb we put.

Yes. ניילון בועות is a common way to say bubble wrap in Hebrew.

Literally, it is something like:

• ניילון = nylon / plastic sheet / plastic material
• בועות = bubbles

So the phrase means bubble plastic or bubble wrap.

In everyday Hebrew, people often use practical, descriptive expressions like this rather than a special single word.

סביב means around.

So:

• סביב כלי החרס = around the clay vessel / around the pottery item

The structure is straightforward:

• שמנו ניילון בועות = we put bubble wrap
• סביב כלי החרס = around the pottery vessel

Hebrew often places this kind of prepositional phrase after the object, just as English does.

כלי החרס is a kind of construct phrase in Hebrew.

The basic pattern is:

• כלי = vessel / container / utensil / item
• חרס = clay / earthenware / pottery

Together, כלי חרס means a clay vessel / an earthenware vessel / a pottery item.

In your sentence, it is כלי החרס, with ה־ on the second word. In a Hebrew construct chain, definiteness is usually marked on the second noun, and that makes the whole phrase definite:

• כלי חרס = a clay vessel
• כלי החרס = the clay vessel

So even though the ה־ appears on חרס, the entire phrase becomes the pottery vessel.

Good question. כלי can be tricky because the form can look plural to English-speaking learners.

In this sentence, it is understood as singular: a vessel / an item / a container.

You can tell from the rest of the sentence:

• הוא = he/it (singular)
• יישבר = will break / will be broken (singular masculine)

So the sentence is talking about one item, not several.

Hebrew does have some nouns whose form can be confusing, and כלי is one of them. Context usually tells you whether it is singular or plural.

Yes. בשביל has more than one use.

It can mean:

1. for

   • זה בשבילך = this is for you

2. for the sake of / in order to / so that

   • which is the meaning here

3. Historically or in other contexts, it can also relate to a path / trail, but that is not what is happening in this sentence.

Here, בשביל שהוא לא יישבר means something like:

• so that it won’t break
• in order for it not to break

This is a very common everyday Hebrew use.

Both are possible, but they differ in style.

In this sentence:

• בשביל שהוא לא יישבר sounds natural and conversational
• it is common in spoken Hebrew

A more formal or compact version:

• כדי שלא יישבר

That version is often preferred in more formal writing.

So the difference is mostly one of register:

• בשביל ש... = very common in everyday speech
• כדי ש... / כדי שלא... = often more formal or more written

Both mean roughly so that... / in order that...

The הוא is the subject of the clause and refers back to כלי החרס.

So:

• הוא = it
• לא יישבר = won’t break

Hebrew often uses an explicit pronoun in this kind of colloquial structure:

• בשביל שהוא לא יישבר = so that it won’t break

In many cases, Hebrew can also omit the pronoun or use a different structure:

• בשביל שלא יישבר
• כדי שלא יישבר

Those are also correct.

So why include הוא?

• It makes the clause feel more like full spoken Hebrew
• It is especially common in everyday speech
• It can make the reference clearer

יישבר comes from the root ש־ב־ר, which is related to breaking.

Here it is in the נפעל pattern, which often gives a meaning like:

• be broken
• break (intransitive)

So הוא לא יישבר means:

• it won’t break
• literally, it will not be broken / it will not break

In English we usually just say it won’t break.

This is not the same as the active verb ישבור, which would mean he will break (something).

Compare:

• הוא ישבור את הכלי = he will break the vessel
• הכלי יישבר = the vessel will break

לא is the standard Hebrew word for not.

So:

• יישבר = it will break
• לא יישבר = it will not break / it won’t break

This is the normal way to negate a future verb in Hebrew.

They match כלי החרס, which is treated here as a masculine singular noun.

Hebrew verbs and pronouns usually agree with the noun they refer to in:

• gender
• number

So because כלי החרס is singular masculine here, you get:

• הוא = masculine singular it/he
• יישבר = masculine singular future form

If the noun were feminine singular, you would expect different agreement. If it were plural, the pronoun and verb would change too.

Yes, that is a very good close translation.

A slightly more natural English version would be:

• We wrapped the pottery vessel in bubble wrap so it wouldn’t break.

But the Hebrew sentence is literally built more like:

• We put bubble wrap around the pottery vessel so that it would not break.

So if you are trying to understand the Hebrew structure, your more literal translation is very helpful.