נשארו פירורים על השולחן, כי הילדים אכלו עוגיות בסלון.

Crumbs were left on the table, because the children ate cookies in the living room.

Breakdown of נשארו פירורים על השולחן, כי הילדים אכלו עוגיות בסלון.

• שולחן: table
• ב: in
• לאכול: to eat
• כי: because

Questions & Answers about נשארו פירורים על השולחן, כי הילדים אכלו עוגיות בסלון.

Why does the sentence begin with נשארו instead of פירורים?

Hebrew often allows the verb to come before the subject, especially in past-tense narrative or descriptive sentences. So נשארו פירורים is a very natural way to say crumbs remained / there were crumbs left.

You could also say פירורים נשארו על השולחן, but that puts more emphasis on the crumbs themselves. The original word order sounds more neutral and natural here.

Why is the verb נשארו plural?

Because the subject פירורים is plural.

• פירור = a crumb
• פירורים = crumbs

In the past tense, Hebrew verbs agree with the subject in gender and number, so with a masculine plural subject you get נשארו.

What is the base form of נשארו?

The dictionary form is להישאר, meaning to remain / to stay / to be left.

In this sentence:

• נשארו = they remained / were left
• It is past tense, 3rd person plural

So literally, נשארו פירורים is something like crumbs remained.

Why use נשארו and not simply ?