הספל נשבר, אבל הכוס לא נשברה.

Both can sometimes be translated as cup, but they are not exactly the same.

• ספל usually means a mug or a cup, often something sturdier, often with a handle.
• כוס usually means a drinking glass or cup.

So in everyday English, the exact translation may depend on context. Hebrew is making a distinction here between two different drinking vessels.

Because the verb agrees with the noun in gender.

In the past tense, Hebrew third-person verbs change according to whether the subject is masculine or feminine:

• ספל is masculine singular → נשבר
• כוס is feminine singular → נשברה

So:

• הספל נשבר = the mug broke
• הכוס לא נשברה = the glass did not break

This is a very common feature of Hebrew grammar.

Usually, you have to learn the gender of each noun as part of the word.

Some noun endings can give clues, but they are not fully reliable. For example:

• many feminine nouns end in ־ה or ־ת
• but כוס is feminine even though it does not have one of those endings

So the safest approach is:

• memorize the noun with its gender
• pay attention to how adjectives and verbs agree with it

In this sentence, the verb forms help confirm the gender:

• נשבר shows ספל is masculine
• נשברה shows כוס is feminine

Because נשבר means broke / got broken, while שבר usually means broke in the sense of someone broke something.

Compare:

• הספל נשבר = the mug broke
• הילד שבר את הספל = the boy broke the mug

So in your sentence, the objects themselves are the subjects. No person is mentioned as doing the action. That is why נשבר / נשברה is used.

This is a very common pattern in Hebrew:

• שבר = to break something
• נשבר = to break, to get broken

Yes. Both נשבר and נשברה are past-tense forms.

Specifically:

• נשבר = he/it (masculine) broke
• נשברה = she/it (feminine) broke

Since ספל and כוס are things, English uses it, but Hebrew still requires masculine or feminine agreement.

לא means not, and it is the normal way to negate verbs in Hebrew.

It comes before the verb:

• לא נשברה = did not break

Unlike English, Hebrew does not need an extra helping verb like did here. So Hebrew says, literally:

• the glass not broke

but in natural English that becomes:

• the glass did not break

This pattern works very often in Hebrew:

• לא כתבתי = I did not write
• לא הלכנו = we did not go
• לא נשברה = it did not break

ה־ is the Hebrew definite article, meaning the.

So:

• ספל = a mug / mug
• הספל = the mug

and

• כוס = a glass / glass
• הכוס = the glass

Unlike English, Hebrew attaches the directly to the word as a prefix.

Because הספל and הכוס are the subjects of the sentence, not direct objects.

Hebrew uses את before a definite direct object, for example:

• הילד שבר את הספל = the boy broke the mug

Here, את הספל is the object.

But in your sentence:

• הספל נשבר
• הכוס לא נשברה

the mug and the glass are the things that broke, so they are subjects. Subjects do not take את.

A simple pronunciation guide is:

ha-SE-fel nish-BAR, a-VAL ha-KOS lo nish-be-RA

A few notes:

• הספל = ha-SE-fel
• נשבר = nish-BAR
• אבל = a-VAL
• הכוס = ha-KOS
• לא = lo
• נשברה = nish-be-RA

The stress is important, especially in נשבר, אבל, and נשברה.

Yes, sometimes Hebrew word order can be changed for emphasis, although the version you have is very natural.

For example, you could also say:

הכוס לא נשברה, אבל הספל נשבר.

That means the same basic thing, but the emphasis is different because now the sentence starts with the glass.

Still, the original order:

• הספל נשבר, אבל הכוס לא נשברה

is a very normal, straightforward way to say it.

אבל means but.

It connects the two clauses:

• הספל נשבר
• הכוס לא נשברה

So אבל shows contrast:

• one thing broke
• the other did not

It is one of the most common Hebrew conjunctions.