Lesson 28: Numerals — the "reversed" system. Ordinals. Time. Dates

Part 1: WARNING — the "reversed" gender system of numbers in Hebrew

Numbers from 3 to 10 in Hebrew have TWO forms, and the choice between them follows a rule that sounds backwards to most learners.

The rule (memorize for life):

• Masculine noun → number with the -ah ending (long form): shlosha, arba'a, chamisha.
• Feminine noun → number WITHOUT -ah ("bare" form): shalosh, arba, chamesh.

Wait — but isn't -ah the typical feminine ending in Hebrew (mora "teacher (f.)", yalda "girl")?! Exactly. And yet, with numbers it's the opposite: -ah attaches to masculine numbers.

Demonstration with two examples

What we're counting	Gender of noun	Number	Translit
books (sfarim)	m.	שלושה ספרים	shlosha sfarim "three books"
girls (banot)	f.	שלוש בנות	shalosh banot "three girls"
boys (yeladim)	m.	חמישה ילדים	chamisha yeladim "five boys"
girls (banot)	f.	חמש בנות	chamesh banot "five girls"

Logic for the English speaker: in English all numbers are one form (three books / three boys / three girls — always "three"). The very idea that a number agrees in gender is already unfamiliar. And the fact that the choice is "reversed" — double the load. Don't try to "understand" — just drill pairs and say them with real nouns.

Where "reversedness" comes from — short historical note (1 paragraph, no more)

In proto-Semitic, numbers 3–10 were feminine by nature (as abstract names), and agreed with the counted noun by the principle of polar agreement: with a masculine noun — the feminine form of the number, with a feminine — the masculine. Modern Hebrew reinterpreted that system in reverse: the historically feminine form with -ah is now considered "masculine". So what looks like a feminine suffix is actually a relic of ancient "polar" agreement. You don't need to remember this; you only need to remember the rule above.

Numbers 1 and 2 — a separate story

Numbers 1 and 2 behave differently from 3–10:

• 1 behaves like an adjective: it stands after the noun and agrees in gender.

  • sefer echad "one book" (m. — echad)
  • mora achat "one teacher (f.)" (f. — achat)

• 2 has two forms depending on the gender of the noun, and stands before it. With a noun, "-ayim" shortens to shnei (m.) / shtei (f.):

  • shnei sfarim "two books" (m., full form shnayim → shnei before a noun)
  • shtei morot "two teachers" (f., shtayim → shtei before a noun)
  • Just "two" (counting without a noun): shnayim / shtayim.

Remember: echad/achat (1) and shnei/shtei (2) are agreed like English "one" (no change) but with regular m./f. distinction — the suffix -t/-ah on the feminine, as expected. Only numbers 3–10 go "reversed".

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Part 2: Full table of numbers 1–10 in both genders

#	m. — long (-ah)	Translit	f. — short (no -ah)	Translit
1	אחד	echad	אחת	achat
2	שניים / שני	shnayim / shnei	שתיים / שתי	shtayim / shtei
3	שלושה	shlosha	שלוש	shalosh
4	ארבעה	arba'a	ארבע	arba
5	חמישה	chamisha	חמש	chamesh
6	שישה	shisha	שש	shesh
7	שבעה	shiv'a	שבע	sheva
8	שמונה	shmona	שמונה	shmone
9	תשעה	tish'a	תשע	tesha
10	עשרה	asara	עשר	eser

Notice the curiosity of 8: in both genders it's written שמונה, but read differently. Masculine shmona (with -ah at the end), feminine shmone (without -ah, vowel "e"). One and the same graphic sign — two readings, chosen by the gender of the noun.

How to use in simple counting

When you're just counting ("one, two, three, four…") — without a noun, e.g., counting steps or saying your age in years as a count — you use the feminine form: achat, shtayim, shalosh, arba, chamesh, shesh, sheva, shmone, tesha, eser. It's assumed that an invisible "unit" is implied — a feminine word.

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Part 3: Numbers 11–19, 20, 30… 100, 1000

11–19

Formed by the schema "unit + esre/asar", where esre is the feminine form of "10", asar the masculine.

#	m. (with asar)	Translit	f. (with esre)	Translit
11	אחד עשר	achad asar	אחת עשרה	achat esre
12	שנים עשר	shneim asar	שתים עשרה	shteim esre
13	שלושה עשר	shlosha asar	שלוש עשרה	shlosh esre
14	ארבעה עשר	arba'a asar	ארבע עשרה	arba esre
15	חמישה עשר	chamisha asar	חמש עשרה	chamesh esre
16	שישה עשר	shisha asar	שש עשרה	shesh esre
17	שבעה עשר	shiv'a asar	שבע עשרה	shva esre
18	שמונה עשר	shmona asar	שמונה עשרה	shmone esre
19	תשעה עשר	tish'a asar	תשע עשרה	tsha esre

Reversed again: m. with "asar" (shorter), f. with "esre" (longer). Remember: asar — masculine "10", esre — feminine "10".

Tens 20–100 (one form for both genders)

Good news: tens above 10 don't distinguish gender. One form for all.

#	Hebrew	Translit
20	עשרים	esrim
30	שלושים	shloshim
40	ארבעים	arba'im
50	חמישים	chamishim
60	שישים	shishim
70	שבעים	shiv'im
80	שמונים	shmonim
90	תשעים	tish'im
100	מאה	me'a
200	מאתיים	matayim
1000	אלף	elef
2000	אלפיים	alpayim

Compound numbers

Tens are joined with units through ve- ("and"). The unit in a compound returns to its gender:

• esrim ve-echad sfarim (21 books, m.) — echad for m.
• esrim ve-achat banot (21 girls, f.) — achat for f.
• shloshim ve-shalosh banot (33 girls)
• shloshim u-shlosha sfarim (33 books; ve- before a labial becomes u-)

Rule: in a compound number, the unit at the end changes by gender; the ten is neutral. The same with hundreds: me'a (100), matayim (200), then shlosh me'ot (300), arba me'ot (400) — here me'ot is feminine, so the numbers are short.

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Part 4: Ordinal numbers (first, second, third…)

Ordinals are adjectives, and they agree with the noun in gender and number, like regular adjectives. They stand after the noun (as all Hebrew adjectives) and are often accompanied by the article ha-.

#	m.	Translit	f.	Translit
1st	ראשון	rishon	ראשונה	rishona
2nd	שני	sheni	שנייה	shniya
3rd	שלישי	shlishi	שלישית	shlishit
4th	רביעי	revi'i	רביעית	revi'it
5th	חמישי	chamishi	חמישית	chamishit
6th	שישי	shishi	שישית	shishit
7th	שביעי	shvi'i	שביעית	shvi'it
8th	שמיני	shmini	שמינית	shminit
9th	תשיעי	tshi'i	תשיעית	tshi'it
10th	עשירי	asiri	עשירית	asirit

Patterns

• Most masculine ordinals: root + pattern -i at the end (shlishi, revi'i, chamishi…). This is the mishkal "of relation / order".
• Most feminine: the same model closed by -it (shlishit, revi'it, chamishit…).
• Exceptions at the top: "first/first (f.)" — rishon/rishona (separate root ר-א-ש, "head"), not from the number "one". "Second/second (f.)" — sheni/shniya (from root ש-נ-ה, "repetition"), and the feminine is shniya (not shenit).

Ordinals after 10

Beyond 10th there is no special form. Use the construction "ha- + cardinal number":

• 11th (floor): ha-komah ha-achat esre "11th floor" (komah — floor, f.; number in f.) — literally "the floor the eleventh".
• 20th century: ha-me'a ha-esrim "twentieth century" (me'a — century, f.).

Notice: the article repeats both on the noun and on the number — the usual rule of definiteness agreement in Hebrew (see L9).

Usage

• ha-yom ha-rishon "the first day" = Sunday (day — m., yom).
• ha-shana ha-shniya "the second year" (year — shana, f.).
• ha-perek ha-shlishi "the third chapter" (perek — chapter, m.).
• ha-pa'am ha-revi'it "the fourth time" (pa'am — time, f.).

Contrast with cardinals: "three books" = shlosha sfarim (cardinal, no article). "Third book" = ha-sefer ha-shlishi (ordinal = adjective, two articles).

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Part 5: Time (hours)

Asking "what time is it"

מה השעה? — ma ha-sha'a? — "What time is it?" (literally "what — the hour?", sha'a — hour, f.)

Saying the round hour

"Hour" (sha'a) is f. So the numbers of the hour go in the feminine:

• achat "one" (one o'clock) — sha'a achat
• shtayim "two" (o'clock)
• shalosh "three"
• arba "four"
• chamesh "five"
• shesh "six"
• sheva "seven"
• shmone "eight"
• tesha "nine"
• eser "ten"
• achat esre "eleven"
• shteim esre "twelve"

Full form: ha-sha'a chamesh "(it's) five o'clock", or just chamesh in conversation.

Halves and quarters

• chetzi — half (from the word "half", chetzi — m.)
• reva — quarter

Time	Hebrew	Pronunciation
5:00	חמש	chamesh
5:15	חמש ורבע	chamesh va-reva (five and a quarter)
5:30	חמש וחצי	chamesh va-chetzi (five and a half)
5:45	רבע לשש	reva le-shesh (a quarter to six)
5:50	עשרה לשש	asara le-shesh (ten to six) — attention: "10 minutes" — daka, m., so asara, m.!
5:10	חמש ועשרה	chamesh va-asara (five and ten)

Subtlety: when you say "X minutes to/past such-and-such hour", minutes are implied (daka — minute, f.; daka echat, shtei dakot…), but in real spoken speech they're dropped, leaving the bare number. The number itself in this case is masculine (asara, not eser), because the implied "number of minutes" is counted through nehugot/"units", and there's a colloquial convention to use m. forms.

This contradiction is real and live: formally daka is f., but in everyday speech "ten minutes (past)" = asara (m.). Learn it as a fact, don't try to derive it.

Morning / day / evening / night

• ba-boker — in the morning (until 12:00)
• ba-tsohorayim — at noon (12:00–14:00)
• acharei ha-tsohorayim — in the afternoon (14:00–17:00)
• ba-erev — in the evening (17:00–22:00)
• ba-layla — at night

chamesh ba-boker "5 AM" vs. chamesh acharei ha-tsohorayim "5 PM" (or simply chamesh ba-erev).

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Part 6: Dates

Days of the week (1st = Sunday!)

Hebrew counts the days of the week using ordinal numerals: "day one" = Sunday.

Hebrew	Translit	English
יום ראשון	yom rishon	Sunday (day one)
יום שני	yom sheni	Monday (day two)
יום שלישי	yom shlishi	Tuesday
יום רביעי	yom revi'i	Wednesday
יום חמישי	yom chamishi	Thursday
יום שישי	yom shishi	Friday
שבת	shabat	Saturday (separate word, not "day seven")

Trap: Sunday = "yom rishon", not Saturday. The week in Hebrew starts on Sunday. The English "Monday = first day of the week" is shifted here.

Months (Gregorian calendar)

In modern Israel, in civilian usage, the borrowed names of months are used (there's a parallel Hebrew calendar — tishrei, cheshvan, etc. — for religious and national dates):

#	Hebrew	Translit
1	ינואר	yanuar
2	פברואר	februar
3	מרץ	merts
4	אפריל	april
5	מאי	mai
6	יוני	yuni
7	יולי	yuli
8	אוגוסט	ogust
9	ספטמבר	september
10	אוקטובר	october
11	נובמבר	november
12	דצמבר	detsember

Saying the date

Template: "number + be- + month" or "ha- + number + be- + month". The day's number is masculine, because yom (day) is m.

• ha-rishon be-yanuar — January 1 (ordinal, m., with article)
• ha-shloshim be-yanuar — January 30 (for days past 10 — cardinal with article, also m.)
• shlosha be-merts — March 3 (colloquial — cardinal without article)
• ha-arba'a esre be-februar — February 14
• ha-yom ha-shlishi be-yanuar or simply ha-shlishi be-yanuar — "the third of January".

Year

Years are read as ordinary numbers:

• alpayim ve-esrim ve-shesh — 2026 (two thousand twenty and six; "year" shana — f., but in the body of a date years are pronounced as "bare" numbers in f.).
• be-shnat alpayim ve-esrim ve-shesh — "in the year 2026" (shnat — construct form of shana).

Full date: ha-rishon be-yanuar, alpayim ve-esrim ve-shesh — January 1, 2026.

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Part 7: Quantity words (many, few, a little, several)

These are not numbers, but quantifiers. They don't distinguish gender, they stand before the noun (like numbers 3–10).

Hebrew	Translit	English	Note
הרבה	harbe	many, a lot	universal
מעט	me'at	few, little	bookish-neutral
קצת	ktsat	a little / a bit	very colloquial
כמה	kama	how many / several	question AND "several"
הרבה מאוד	harbe me'od	very many	intensifier
מספיק	maspik	enough
כל	kol	all / every	+ noun without article = "every", + noun with article = "all"
רוב	rov	most	rov ha-yeladim "most of the children"
חצי	chetzi	half	chetzi ha-yom "half a day"

Examples

• harbe sfarim "many books" — harbe + plural
• me'at zman "little time" — me'at + uncountable (zman — time, m., sg.)
• ktsat mayim "a little water" — mayim — water, plural in form, but uncountable
• kama yeladim? "how many children?" — question
• kama yeladim "several children" — without questioning intonation
• kol yeled "every child" — kol + noun without article
• kol ha-yeladim "all the children" — kol + noun with article

Note: unlike numbers 3–10, these words don't agree in gender. They're "neutral". A simplification — rest.

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Part 8: Age

Template: "he is the son / she is the daughter of so-many years".

• Hu ben chamesh esre. — "He is 15" (he is the son of fifteen; ben — son; number in f., because shana — year — is f.).
• Hi bat chamesh esre. — "She is 15" (she is the daughter of fifteen; bat — daughter).
• Ben kama ata? / Bat kama at? — "How old are you?" (m./f.)
• Ani bat shloshim. — "I'm 30" (a woman speaking).

Subtlety: the number here is in f., because shana (year) is f. and is implied. chamesh (5 years), esrim (20 years), shloshim ve-shtayim (32 years, f. because shana is f.).

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