אל תתני לילדה מספריים גדולים; הם חדים מדי.

Because the sentence is addressed to one female.

Hebrew marks who you are speaking to:

• תתני = you (feminine singular) will give / give!
• תיתן = she will give
• תתן is not the correct form here

In negative commands, Hebrew often uses:

• אל + future form

So:

• אל תתני = don’t give (said to one female)

If you were speaking to:

• one male: אל תיתן
• several people: אל תיתנו

In Hebrew, negative commands usually use אל plus the future form, not the regular imperative.

So:

• positive command to a woman: תני! = Give!
• negative command to a woman: אל תתני! = Don’t give!

This is very common in Hebrew:

• אל תלכי = don’t go
• אל תשכחי = don’t forget
• אל תדברי = don’t speak

So אל is the normal word used for don’t in this kind of sentence.

Both can relate to negation, but they are used differently.

• לא = ordinary not
• אל = don’t, mainly for negative commands or prohibitions

Examples:

• היא לא נותנת = she does not give
• אל תתני = don’t give

So in this sentence, לא תתני would sound wrong if the intention is a command. You need אל תתני.

Yes. לילדה literally means to the girl.

It is made of:

• ל־ = to / for
• ילדה = girl

Together:

• לילדה = to the girl

Hebrew uses ל־ for the indirect object:

• לתת למישהו משהו = to give someone something

So:

• אל תתני לילדה מספריים גדולים
  literally: Don’t give to the girl big scissors

That is normal Hebrew word order and structure.

Because מספריים here is indefinite: scissors, not the scissors.

Compare:

• מספריים = scissors
• המספריים = the scissors

So:

• אל תתני לילדה מספריים גדולים = don’t give the girl big scissors
• אל תתני לילדה את המספריים הגדולים = don’t give the girl the big scissors

Notice that when the noun is definite, the adjective must also be definite:

• המספריים הגדולים

Because in Hebrew, adjectives normally come after the noun they describe.

So:

• מספריים גדולים = big scissors
• ילדה קטנה = small girl
• ספר מעניין = interesting book

This is the standard pattern:

• noun + adjective

Great question. מספריים is grammatically treated as masculine plural, so the adjective must also be masculine plural.

That is why you get:

• מספריים גדולים
• הם חדים

not:

• מספריים גדולות
• הן חדות

This can feel surprising, because the meaning is scissors, which in English is just plural with no gender. In Hebrew, though, nouns have grammatical gender, and מספריים takes masculine plural agreement.

Yes, מספריים is one of those Hebrew nouns that are used in a plural-looking form even when referring to a single item.

Like English scissors, it is treated as plural:

• מספריים חדשים = new scissors
• המספריים האלה חדים = these scissors are sharp

The ending ־יים often looks like a dual form historically, but in modern Hebrew you can mostly think of מספריים as a fixed plural noun meaning scissors.

So even if you mean one pair of scissors, Hebrew still uses plural agreement.

Because Hebrew, like English, treats scissors as grammatically plural.

So the pronoun is plural:

• הם = they

And the adjective is plural too:

• חדים = sharp (masculine plural)

So:

• הם חדים מדי = they are too sharp

If the noun were feminine plural, you would use הן and a feminine plural adjective. But with מספריים, Hebrew uses הם חדים.

מדי means too in the sense of excessively.

In Hebrew, מדי usually comes after the adjective:

• חם מדי = too hot
• יקר מדי = too expensive
• חדים מדי = too sharp

So the order is:

• adjective + מדי

That is different from English, which puts too before the adjective.

It could, but the meaning would change.

• חדים מדי = too sharp
  This means the sharpness is excessive or a problem.
• חדים מאוד = very sharp
  This only describes a high degree, without necessarily saying it is too much.

In this sentence, מדי is important because it explains why giving the scissors to the girl is a bad idea.

Because את is only used before a definite direct object.

Here, מספריים גדולים is indefinite:

• scissors
• not the scissors

So there is no את.

Compare:

• אל תתני לילדה מספריים גדולים = don’t give the girl big scissors
• אל תתני לילדה את המספריים הגדולים = don’t give the girl the big scissors

Somewhat, but the given sentence is very natural.

Standard order here is:

• אל תתני = don’t give
• לילדה = to the girl
• מספריים גדולים = big scissors

So:

• אל תתני לילדה מספריים גדולים

You might hear variations in speech for emphasis, but this is the normal, straightforward way to say it.

The semicolon separates two closely related parts:

• אל תתני לילדה מספריים גדולים
• הם חדים מדי

In English, this is like:

• Don’t give the girl big scissors; they’re too sharp.

It shows that the second clause explains the first. A period would also work, and in everyday writing many people might just use a comma or period instead.

By itself, ילדה normally means girl.

It can refer to:

• a female child
• a girl in a general sense

In some contexts, people may use words for children more loosely, but the basic meaning here is simply girl. Since the meaning is already given, the main thing to notice grammatically is that לילדה means to the girl.

The dictionary form is לתת = to give.

This verb is irregular, so its forms are not always easy to predict at first.

Relevant forms:

• לתת = to give
• תני! = give! (to one female)
• אל תתני = don’t give (to one female)
• היא תיתן = she will give
• את תתני = you (feminine singular) will give

So if תתני looks unusual, that is because לתת is an irregular verb.

You would change only the verb form addressed to the listener:

• to a woman: אל תתני לילדה מספריים גדולים; הם חדים מדי.
• to a man: אל תיתן לילדה מספריים גדולים; הם חדים מדי.

Everything else stays the same, because:

• לילדה is still to the girl
• מספריים is still masculine plural
• הם חדים מדי still agrees with מספריים