modern hebrew on memrise

1. Numbers
 How do you count to 10 in Hebrew? This lesson will
introduce the basic numbers so we can begin to count
things.

2. Numbers
 Hebrew is a little different than English when we are talking
about numbers. There are two different sets of numbers in
Hebrew:
 Masculine numbers – used for counting masculine items or a
mixture of feminine and masculine nouns.
 Feminine numbers – used for counting feminine items. These
numbers are also used for numbers that are not counted
(telephone numbers, bus numbers, addresses, etc)
 Although there are different forms of numbers, they are very
similar in masculine and feminine form as we will see.

3. Numbers
 Let’s learn the first 10 numbers in both masculine and
feminine form
Number Feminine Feminine Masculine Masculine
אחת 1 Achat אחד Achad
שתיים 2 Shtayim שניים Shnayim
שלש 3 Shalosh שלשה shlosha
ארבע 4 Arba ארבעה Arba’a
חמש 5 Chamesh חמשה Chamisha
שש 6 Shesh ששה shisha
שבע 7 Sheva שבעה Shiva
שמונה 8 Smone שמונה shmona
תשע 9 Tesha תשעה tisha
עשר 10 eser עשרה asra

4. Numbers
 Let’s now compare the two sets of numbers.
 The feminine nouns are the basic nouns and most of the
time, the masculine form is formed by simply adding a ה to
the end of the word. The exception to this rule is 1 and 2 as
these numbers are irregular.
 This adding of a ה for a masculine number is opposite from
what we see with nouns and adjectives. Keep this in mind.
You can think of these as following the 2nd person singular
pronoun. Remember that את is the feminine form and אתה
is the masculine form.

5. Numbers
 When using numbers as adjectives to describe a number of
something (4 dogs, 8 daughters, 3 bananas) the number will
precede the noun. Only the number 1 follows the noun
which is irregular (cat 1).
 ארבעה כלבים arba’a clavim
 שמונה בנות smona banot
 שלוש בננות shalosh bananot
 חתול אחד chatool achad
 Remember that you must use feminine forms with feminine
nouns and masculine forms with masculine nouns as shown
above.

6. Numbers
 We have already seen that the number 1 is irregular in that it
follows the noun instead of precedes it. The spelling
changes are not the same either. Now let’s examine the
number 2.
 The number two has spelling changes as you saw two slides
ago, that are different from normal. Another difference is
that the number two has 4 forms total. A masculine and
feminine form when it stands alone (this is the new words
from the table in this lesson) and a masculine and feminine
form when the number precedes a noun.
 Let’s learn these on the next slide.

7. Numbers
 As you know, the feminine form of 2 is שניים . When it
precedes a noun, it is shortened to שני (shney).
 שני חתולים
 Likewise the masculine form is שתיים and it is shortened to
שתי (shtey) before a noun.
 שתי בנות
 These are not new words but new forms of the same word.
Two is the only one of these numbers that does this. The
other numbers 1-10 follow the masculine/feminine forms
only.

8. Numbers
 We will learn more about numbers in future lessons, but
keep these basic concepts in mind because they apply to all
numbers.
 The numbers in this lesson are known as cardinal numbers.
You don’t have to remember this, but there are other types
we will discover together later.