הוא חיפש פטיש ומסמר, כי הוא רצה לתלות תמונה במסדרון.

חיפש means looked for / searched for. In this sentence it is:

• past tense
• 3rd person masculine singular
• matching הוא = he

So הוא חיפש = he looked for or he was looking for, depending on context.

Because Hebrew חיפש takes a direct object.

In English, we say look for a hammer.
In Hebrew, you usually just say:

• חיפש פטיש = looked for a hammer

There is no separate word corresponding to English for here.

If the object were definite, you would usually add את:

• הוא חיפש את הפטיש = he was looking for the hammer

Because את is normally used only before a definite direct object.

Here the nouns are indefinite:

• פטיש = a hammer
• מסמר = a nail
• תמונה = a picture

So no את is needed.

Compare:

• הוא חיפש פטיש = he looked for a hammer
• הוא חיפש את הפטיש = he looked for the hammer

Hebrew has no indefinite article. There is no separate word for a or an.

So a bare noun can mean:

• פטיש = a hammer
• מסמר = a nail
• תמונה = a picture

If you want the, Hebrew does mark that:

• הפטיש = the hammer
• התמונה = the picture

Because the sentence means a hammer and a nail: one of each item.

Hebrew often uses singular nouns just as English does here:

• פטיש = a hammer
• מסמר = a nail

If it meant more than one, you would use plurals such as:

• פטישים = hammers
• מסמרים = nails

Here כי means because.

So:

• כי הוא רצה... = because he wanted...

In other contexts, כי can also mean that, so learners often meet it with more than one meaning. But in this sentence, because is the right reading.

Because Hebrew normally states the subject again in the new clause:

• הוא חיפש... כי הוא רצה...

Literally: He looked for... because he wanted...

English also often repeats he here, so this is very natural in Hebrew. You usually would not drop הוא in this sentence.

This is a very common Hebrew pattern:

• רצה = wanted
• לתלות = to hang

So:

• רצה לתלות = wanted to hang

After verbs like רצה (wanted), Hebrew usually uses the infinitive of the next verb, often with ל־ attached:

• רצה ללכת = wanted to go
• רצה לקנות = wanted to buy
• רצה לתלות = wanted to hang

לתלות is the infinitive, meaning to hang.

In this sentence, it means to hang up a picture on a wall.

Its basic dictionary form is לתלות.
So:

• הוא רצה לתלות תמונה = he wanted to hang a picture

Because ב־ is a prefix meaning in / at, and Hebrew attaches many prepositions directly to the noun.

So:

• ב־ = in
• מסדרון = hallway / corridor
• במסדרון = in the hallway

In fact, this form includes the definite article too. It comes from:

• ב + ה + מסדרון

In standard Hebrew, ב + ה contracts, so you get במסדרון rather than writing the ה separately.

Because when ב־ combines with ה־ (the), they contract into one form.

So:

• במסדרון = in the hallway

If you wanted in a hallway, you would usually say just:

• במסדרון can sometimes be ambiguous in unpointed writing, but in this sentence it is commonly understood as in the hallway
• if you wanted to be especially clear and indefinite, context usually does the job

For learners, the important thing is that ב + ה־ often becomes one attached form.

Because the meaning is a picture, not the picture.

So:

• תמונה = a picture
• התמונה = the picture

The sentence is talking about hanging a picture, not a specific already-known picture.

The sentence follows a very common Hebrew order:

• הוא חיפש פטיש ומסמר
  subject + verb + object
• כי הוא רצה לתלות תמונה במסדרון
  because + subject + wanted + infinitive + object + place

This is a very natural, standard way to say it in Hebrew.

The letter ח is a guttural sound that English does not really have.

A rough approximation is the ch in some pronunciations of Scottish loch or German Bach.

So חיפש is roughly pronounced khee-PES or chi-PES, depending on how someone explains it, but the first sound is not a normal English h.

Yes. חיפש can be translated as:

• looked for
• searched for
• sometimes simply searched

In this sentence, looked for sounds most natural in English because the objects are a hammer and a nail. But the Hebrew verb itself covers the idea of searching.