הצלחת לא נשברה, אבל הספל כן נשבר.

Because in Hebrew, past-tense verbs agree with the subject in gender and number.

• צלחת is a feminine singular noun, so the verb is נשברה
• ספל is a masculine singular noun, so the verb is נשבר

English does not show this difference in broke, but Hebrew does.

Here, כן adds emphasis and contrast. It is not just the basic word yes.

In this sentence, אבל הספל כן נשבר means something like:

• but the cup did break
• but the cup actually broke
• but the cup, on the other hand, did

So כן is strengthening the positive statement after the negative one.

That is the normal way to negate a finite verb in Hebrew.

• נשברה = broke / was broken
• לא נשברה = did not break / was not broken

So לא simply goes before the verb to make it negative.

The prefix ה־ is the Hebrew definite article, equivalent to the in English.

• צלחת = a plate / plate
• הצלחת = the plate
• ספל = a cup / mug
• הספל = the cup / mug

So the sentence is talking about specific items: the plate and the cup.

Yes. Written without vowel marks, הצלחת can represent two different words:

• הַצַּלַּחַת = the plate
• הִצְלַחְתָּ = you succeeded when speaking to one male

Native speakers usually understand the intended meaning from context.

In this sentence, it must mean the plate, because it is followed by a verb agreeing with it: לא נשברה.

נשבר is from the root ש־ב־ר, related to breaking. It is in the Nifal pattern.

In this pattern, the meaning is often:

• intransitive, like broke
• or passive-like, like was broken

So:

• שבר = broke something
• נשבר = broke / got broken / was broken

In this sentence, the objects are not breaking something else. They themselves undergo the breaking, so נשבר / נשברה is the natural form.

Hebrew does not need an auxiliary verb like English often does.

English may say:

• did not break
• did break
• was broken

Hebrew can express all of that with the main verb plus context:

• לא נשברה = did not break / was not broken
• כן נשבר = did break / did in fact break

So the Hebrew sentence is more compact.

Because כן usually comes right before the part being emphasized, and here it emphasizes the verb phrase.

So:

• אבל הספל כן נשבר sounds natural and clear

It highlights the contrast with the first clause:

• the plate did not break
• but the cup did break

If you removed כן, the sentence would still be grammatical:

• הצלחת לא נשברה, אבל הספל נשבר

But it would lose some of the strong contrast.

A common pronunciation would be:

ha-tsaláchat lo nishberá, aval ha-séfel ken nishbar

A few stress notes:

• הצלחת → stress on the last syllable: tsaLÁchat
• נשברה → stress on the last syllable: nishbeRÁ
• הספל → stress on the first syllable: SÉfel
• נשבר → stress on the last syllable: nishBÁR

Yes. Hebrew נשבר / נשברה can often be understood either way in English, depending on context.

So this sentence could sound in English like:

• The plate didn’t break, but the cup did
• The plate wasn’t broken, but the cup was

In many everyday situations, both are close enough in meaning. Hebrew is not forcing exactly the same distinction that English sometimes makes between broke and was broken.