השבב קטן.

In Hebrew, the verb to be is usually not written in the present tense.

So השבב קטן is literally something like the chip small, but it means the chip is small.

This is very normal Hebrew:

• הילד עייף = The boy is tired
• הבית גדול = The house is big

In the past or future, Hebrew does use forms of to be.

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

So:

• שבב = a chip / chip
• השבב = the chip

It is attached directly to the front of the noun, instead of being written as a separate word.

A rough pronunciation is:

ha-shevAV kaTAN

A few helpful points:

• השבב = roughly ha-shevav
• קטן = roughly katan
• In both words, the stress is on the last syllable

Since the sentence is written without vowel marks, learners usually have to know the pronunciation from vocabulary or context.

In Hebrew, adjectives normally come after the noun they describe.

So Hebrew says:

• שבב קטן = literally chip small

not:

• קטן שבב

This is the normal pattern in Hebrew:

• בית גדול = big house
• ילדה חכמה = smart girl

In your sentence, קטן comes after השבב because that is the standard adjective position.

This is an important distinction.

• השבב קטן = The chip is small
• השבב הקטן = the small chip

So:

1. השבב קטן is a full sentence.
   The adjective קטן is acting like the predicate: is small.

2. השבב הקטן is just a noun phrase.
   It means the small chip, not a complete sentence by itself.

When an adjective is used directly with the noun inside a noun phrase, it usually matches the noun in definiteness:

• שבב קטן = a small chip
• השבב הקטן = the small chip

But in a sentence like השבב קטן, the adjective does not take ה־.

Because Hebrew adjectives must agree with the noun in gender and number.

Here, שבב is masculine singular, so the adjective is also masculine singular:

• קטן = masculine singular

Other forms would be:

• קטנה = feminine singular
• קטנים = masculine plural
• קטנות = feminine plural

So if the noun were feminine, you would need קטנה, not קטן.

No, not as written.

השבב קטן is understood as a sentence: The chip is small.

If you want the small chip, you would say:

• השבב הקטן

That extra ה on קטן makes a big difference.

For a simple neutral sentence like this, השבב קטן is the normal word order.

Hebrew can sometimes change word order for style, poetry, emphasis, or very formal/literary language, but a learner should treat this pattern as the standard one:

• noun + adjective in this kind of present-tense sentence

So the safest form to use is:

• השבב קטן

You know it from the structure.

Hebrew often makes a present-tense sentence by putting:

• a noun
• followed by an adjective

So השבב קטן is naturally read as:

• The chip is small

If it were just a noun phrase, you would usually expect the adjective to match definiteness:

• השבב הקטן = the small chip

That is why native speakers hear השבב קטן as a full statement.