במקום שתזרקי בגדים, למה שלא תתרמי אותם?

Literally, במקום means in place of. In this sentence, במקום ש־... means instead of ....

So:

• במקום שתזרקי בגדים = instead of throwing away clothes

It introduces the alternative action that the speaker thinks you should avoid.

Because Hebrew often uses ש־ + a future-form verb after certain expressions when talking about a possible or intended action.

Here, שתזרקי is not really about future time in the English sense. It is just the normal Hebrew way to say something like:

• instead of you throwing away...

So even though English uses an -ing form, Hebrew uses a finite verb form here.

Yes. במקום לזרוק בגדים, למה שלא תתרמי אותם? is also completely natural.

Both patterns exist:

• במקום לזרוק...
• במקום שתזרקי...

Very roughly:

• במקום לזרוק = a little more compact, neutral
• במקום שתזרקי = a little more personal, directly tied to you

In everyday Hebrew, both are common.

Because the sentence is addressed to one woman.

Hebrew verbs change according to gender and number when speaking directly to someone.

Here:

• תזרקי = you will throw / you throw (to one female)
• תתרמי = you will donate / you donate (to one female)

If you were speaking to one man, you would say:

• במקום שתזרוק בגדים, למה שלא תתרום אותם?

למה שלא + future-form verb is a very common Hebrew pattern meaning:

• why don't you ...?
• how about ...?

So:

• למה שלא תתרמי אותם? = Why don’t you donate them?

Even though it contains לא, the whole expression is usually a suggestion, not a true negative statement.

This is an important difference.

• למה שלא תתרמי אותם? = a suggestion: Why don’t you donate them?
• למה לא תתרמי אותם? can sound more like: Why won’t you donate them? or Why not donate them? depending on tone

So למה שלא... is the more standard, natural way to make a gentle suggestion.

אותם means them, and it refers back to בגדים.

Since בגדים is masculine plural, the pronoun also has to be masculine plural:

• בגד = one garment/item of clothing
• בגדים = clothes (masculine plural)
• therefore: אותם = them (masculine plural)

If the noun were feminine plural, you would use אותן instead.

Because אותו / אותה / אותם / אותן are already the direct-object pronoun forms.

So Hebrew says:

• תתרמי את הבגדים = donate the clothes
• תתרמי אותם = donate them

You do not add another separate את before אותם.

Because בגדים without ה־ means clothes in a general sense, not specific clothes already identified.

So this sentence is talking about clothes in general:

• במקום שתזרקי בגדים... = instead of throwing away clothes...

If you meant specific clothes, you could say:

• במקום שתזרקי את הבגדים האלה... = instead of throwing away these clothes...

In this context, it means to throw away / discard clothes.

The verb לזרוק literally means to throw, but with objects like clothes, food, papers, etc., it often means to throw out or get rid of.

So here the natural English meaning is throw away clothes, not physically toss them.

Yes, it sounds natural and idiomatic.

It has a very everyday structure:

• במקום... = instead of...
• למה שלא... = why don’t you...

The tone is a suggestion. It can sound caring, practical, or mildly persuasive depending on context.

Here are the main versions:

To one man:

• במקום שתזרוק בגדים, למה שלא תתרום אותם?

To several women:

• במקום שתזרקו בגדים, למה שלא תתרמו אותם?

To several men or a mixed group:

• במקום שתזרקו בגדים, למה שלא תתרמו אותם?

Notice that in the plural, the verb forms for masculine and feminine are often the same in everyday unpointed writing.