מצאנו אבן קטנה.

מצאנו means we found.

It breaks down like this:

• מצא = the verb stem found
• ־נו = the ending we

So מצאנו is the past tense, first person plural form of the verb למצוא (to find).

A useful pattern to notice:

• מצאתי = I found
• מצאת = you found
• מצאנו = we found

In Hebrew, the verb itself often already tells you who the subject is.

So in מצאנו, the ending ־נו already means we, which is why Hebrew does not need a separate pronoun here.

Hebrew can add אנחנו for emphasis, but it is not necessary:

• אנחנו מצאנו אבן קטנה = we found a small stone

Without אנחנו, the sentence is still complete and natural.

Because in Hebrew, adjectives usually come after the noun they describe.

So:

• אבן קטנה = a small stone
• literally: stone small

This is normal Hebrew word order.
English says small stone, but Hebrew says stone small.

More examples:

• בית גדול = big house
• ילדה חכמה = smart girl

Because the adjective has to agree with the noun in gender and number.

Here, אבן is a feminine singular noun, so the adjective must also be feminine singular:

• masculine singular: קטן
• feminine singular: קטנה

So:

• אבן קטנה = small stone
• not אבן קטן

This agreement is very important in Hebrew adjectives.

You mostly learn it as part of the noun.

אבן is a feminine noun, even though it does not end in ־ה in its basic dictionary form. That can feel surprising to English speakers, because gender in Hebrew is grammatical and does not always follow a simple shape rule.

A good habit is to learn new nouns together with their gender:

• אבן = stone, feminine
• ספר = book, masculine

Once you know אבן is feminine, the adjective קטנה makes sense.

Because את is used before a definite direct object, and אבן here is indefinite.

This sentence says a small stone, not the small stone.

So:

• מצאנו אבן קטנה = we found a small stone
• מצאנו את האבן הקטנה = we found the small stone

That is why את is not used in the original sentence.

You would say:

מצאנו את האבן הקטנה.

Here is what changed:

• אבן became האבן = the stone
• קטנה became הקטנה = the small
• את appears before the definite direct object

In Hebrew, when a noun has the, the adjective usually gets the too:

• האבן הקטנה = the small stone

It is one noun phrase: אבן קטנה = a small stone.

The adjective קטנה directly describes אבן, so together they function like one unit.

In the full sentence:

• מצאנו = verb
• אבן קטנה = direct object noun phrase

So the structure is basically:

• found-we + a small stone

A common pronunciation is:

ma-TSA-nu EH-ven k'ta-NA

Word by word:

• מצאנו = ma-TSA-nu
• אבן = EH-ven
• קטנה = k'ta-NA

The stress is usually:

• מצאנו → on TSA
• קטנה → on the last syllable NA

The dictionary form is usually given as the masculine singular adjective:

קטן = small

From that, the other forms are built:

• קטן = masculine singular
• קטנה = feminine singular
• קטנים = masculine plural
• קטנות = feminine plural

So קטנה is just the feminine singular form that matches אבן.

Yes, in many contexts קטנה can be translated as small or little.

The exact English choice depends on style and context:

• small stone is the most direct translation
• little stone can sound more natural in some situations

But grammatically, the Hebrew simply means that the stone is small.

The sentence is:

מצאנו אבן קטנה

That is:

• verb: מצאנו = we found
• object: אבן קטנה = a small stone

So the word order here is basically Verb + Object.

Hebrew often allows some flexibility in word order, but this sentence is perfectly normal and straightforward.

The root is מ־צ־א.

This root is connected with finding.

From the same root, you can get forms like:

• למצוא = to find
• מצא = he found
• מצאנו = we found

Recognizing roots is very useful in Hebrew, because many related words are built from the same three root letters.