הנעליים שלה היו מלאות בוץ, אבל היא בכל זאת נשארה לעזור לי בגינה.

In Hebrew, a very common way to say her shoes is:

הנעליים שלה

Literally, this is the shoes of her, but it functions just like her shoes in English.

A few key points:

• נעליים = shoes
• הנעליים = the shoes
• שלה = hers / of her

When Hebrew uses של-type possession, the possessed noun is usually definite if the whole phrase is definite:

• הספר שלי = my book
• הבית שלהם = their house
• הנעליים שלה = her shoes

שלה הנעליים is not the normal neutral word order. It could only appear in a marked or poetic structure, not in everyday speech.

They agree with הנעליים (the shoes), which is a plural feminine noun in Hebrew.

So the grammar matches like this:

• הנעליים = feminine plural
• היו = were (plural past form of להיות)
• מלאות = full in the feminine plural form

Compare:

• הנעליים היו מלאות בוץ = The shoes were full of mud
• הספרים היו מלאים אבק = The books were full of dust

So מלאות is used because the subject is feminine plural. If the subject were masculine plural, you would use מלאים.

After מלא / מלאה / מלאים / מלאות (full), Hebrew often uses a direct noun without the preposition ב־:

• מלא מים = full of water
• מלא אבק = full of dust
• מלאות בוץ = full of mud

That is very natural.

You may also hear forms with ב־ in some contexts, but מלא ב... is less standard in this exact pattern than the simpler מלא + noun. For a learner, מלא בוץ / מלאות בוץ is the pattern to remember.

So here:

• מלאות בוץ = full of mud

not literally full in mud, but simply the Hebrew way of expressing what English says with of.

Yes, Hebrew could omit היא here:

• אבל בכל זאת נשארה לעזור לי בגינה

That would still be grammatical.

However, adding היא is very natural and often helps by:

1. making the subject clear,
2. creating contrast,
3. sounding slightly more explicit or emphatic.

Here there is a contrast between:

• her shoes being muddy, and
• she still staying to help.

So אבל היא בכל זאת... feels very natural:
but she still / nevertheless...

Hebrew often drops subject pronouns in the past tense when the verb already shows the person, but speakers also include them whenever they want clarity or emphasis.

בכל זאת means something like:

• nevertheless
• still
• all the same
• despite that

In this sentence, it shows that even though her shoes were full of mud, she stayed to help anyway.

So:

• אבל היא בכל זאת נשארה...
  = but she nevertheless stayed...
  = but she stayed anyway...

It often appears when the second clause goes against what you might expect.

Examples:

• היה מאוחר, אבל הלכנו בכל זאת.
  It was late, but we went anyway.

• היא הייתה עייפה, ובכל זאת המשיכה לעבוד.
  She was tired, and nevertheless she kept working.

Because the subject of the second clause is היא (she), not הנעליים (the shoes).

The sentence has two different subjects:

1. הנעליים שלה היו מלאות בוץ
   Subject: her shoes → plural

2. אבל היא בכל זאת נשארה לעזור לי בגינה
   Subject: she → singular feminine

So the verb must match היא, which is why we get:

• נשארה = she stayed / remained

If the subject were plural, then you would use נשארו.

לעזור is the infinitive form: to help.

After a verb like נשארה (stayed), Hebrew often uses an infinitive to express purpose:

• נשארה לעזור = stayed to help
• באתי לראות = I came to see
• עצרנו לאכול = we stopped to eat

So here:

• נשארה לעזור לי בגינה
  = she stayed to help me in the garden

This is very similar to English stayed to help.

Because the verb לעזור (to help) takes an indirect object with ל־ in standard Hebrew.

So Hebrew says:

• לעזור לי = to help me
• לעזור לך = to help you
• לעזור להם = to help them

This is different from English, where help takes a direct object.

Compare:

• English: help me
• Hebrew: לעזור לי (literally, to help to me)

So אותי would not be the normal form here.

בגינה means in the garden.

It comes from:

• גינה = garden
• הגינה = the garden
• ב + הגינה = in the garden

When the preposition ב־ (in) attaches to a definite noun with ה־, Hebrew usually contracts them:

• ב + ה → בַּ (written without niqqud as ב attached to the word)

So:

• בגינה = in the garden
• בבית = in the house
• בשדה = in the field

If it were in a garden, you would normally say:

• בגינה can sometimes be ambiguous in unpointed writing, but in context here it is clearly in the garden.

Because the sentence means a specific garden, בגינה is best understood as in the garden.

Yes, the word order is completely natural.

The sentence is:

הנעליים שלה היו מלאות בוץ, אבל היא בכל זאת נשארה לעזור לי בגינה.

Placing בכל זאת after the subject is very common:

• אבל היא בכל זאת נשארה...

You could also move it:

• אבל בכל זאת היא נשארה לעזור לי בגינה
• אבל היא נשארה בכל זאת לעזור לי בגינה

These are all understandable, though the original version sounds very natural and balanced.

The original order highlights:

1. she as the contrasting subject, and then
2. בכל זאת as the idea of nevertheless

So it reads very smoothly.

Yes. The verb נשאר / נשארה can mean:

• stayed
• remained

The exact English translation depends on context.

Here, because it is followed by לעזור לי בגינה (to help me in the garden), stayed is the most natural translation:

• she stayed to help me in the garden

But in another sentence it could mean remained:

• רק אחד נשאר. = Only one remained.

So this verb is broader than just one English word.

Yes: it is a good example of a Hebrew sentence with two clauses and a contrast between them.

Structure:

1. הנעליים שלה היו מלאות בוץ
   a description of the situation

2. אבל היא בכל זאת נשארה לעזור לי בגינה
   a contrasting action

This gives a very natural flow:

• condition/problem first,
• then contrast,
• then action.

It is also a nice sentence for noticing agreement:

• הנעליים → היו מלאות
• היא → נשארה

and a useful verb pattern:

• נשארה לעזור = stayed to help

So even though the meaning may be simple, the sentence contains several very common Hebrew patterns.