The forms themselves — זה, זאת, אלה — are on this and these. This page is about what happens when you put one inside a noun phrase, which is where English gives you the least help: English says this book with two words and no article at all, and Hebrew says it with three words and two articles. Getting there means understanding that the demonstrative is not a determiner sitting in front of the phrase but something much closer to an adjective sitting behind it.
Three agreements, not two
An attributive demonstrative copies gender, number and definiteness off its noun, and it stands after it. The first two are what you expect from any adjective. The third is the one with no English equivalent, and it is what makes the article appear twice.
| Definite — everyday Hebrew | Bare — formal writing | |
|---|---|---|
| m. sg | הספר הזה — haséfer hazé | ספר זה — séfer ze |
| f. sg | המורה הזאת — hamorá hazót | שאלה זו — she'elá zo |
| m. pl | הספרים האלה — hasfarím ha'éle | דברים אלה — dvarím éle |
| f. pl | הבנות האלה — habanót ha'éle | שאלות אלו — she'elót élu |
Two things to read off that table before anything else. The plural rows are identical — Hebrew's demonstrative plural makes no gender distinction at all, so האלה serves masculine and feminine alike and half the paradigm looks after itself. And the two columns do not draw on the same doublets: the everyday definite column runs on הזאת, while the formal bare column overwhelmingly picks the Mishnaic זו. Hebrew Wikipedia has שאלה זו on 871 articles against 34 for שאלה זאת — about 25 : 1, insource:/…/ regex search, retrieved 16 August 2026. In the plural the same corpus barely chooses at all: דברים אלה 351 against דברים אלו 467.
There is a fifth form the table deliberately leaves out of the paradigm and you will hear constantly: הזו. Hebrew Wikipedia's article כינוי רמז states the normative convention — the article is added to the Biblical forms and not to the Mishnaic ones, so הילדה הזאת or ילדה זו, אך לא: הילדה הזו. Usage has gone the other way. Across three frames on the same corpus and the same date, הזו leads roughly 2 : 1 — השאלה הזו 34 against השאלה הזאת 29, המדינה הזו 117 against 52, התקופה הזו 360 against 174. Three-figure counts on common strings move between runs, so read the ratio rather than the digits. Say either; write הזאת if you are being marked, and do not hear הזו as an error when an Israeli says it, because most of them do.
הכיסא הזה רועד, שב על השני.
hakisé hazé ro'éd, shev al hashení
This chair wobbles — sit on the other one. (to a man)
המורה הזאת מלמדת אצלנו כבר עשרים שנה.
hamorá hazót melamédet etslénu kvar esrím shaná
This teacher has been teaching at our school for twenty years.
המפתחות האלה לא של הדירה שלנו.
hamaftekhót ha'éle lo shel hadirá shelánu
These keys aren't for our flat.
הבנות האלה מנצחות כל שנה בתחרות.
habanót ha'éle menatskhót kol shaná batakharút
These girls win the competition every year. (feminine plural — and the demonstrative is the same האלה as in the masculine example above)
Both, or neither — never one of each
The definiteness rule is a genuine constraint, and it has a genuine payoff: it rules out exactly two strings and licenses two whole registers.
Both marked — הספר הזה — is everyday Hebrew, spoken and written. Neither marked — ספר זה — is not a beginner's mistake and not archaic: it is the ordinary attributive shape of formal, official and academic prose. Hebrew Wikipedia's article כינוי רמז states the condition exactly — כאשר כינוי הרמז בא אחרי השם ומתאים לו ביידוע, הוא משמש כלוואי במשפט, "when the demonstrative comes after the noun and matches it in definiteness, it serves as a לוואי", an attributive adjunct — and illustrates both shapes side by side, בית זה for the bare one and החוקרים האלה for the definite. מסמך זה appears on 356 Hebrew Wikipedia articles; " ספר זה" with a leading space, which excludes the far commoner מספר זה "this number", returns a four-figure count that insource: reports as a floor rather than an exact total. You will meet this pattern in every contract, form and journal article you read.
ספר זה אינו מיועד לקוראים צעירים.
séfer ze einó meyo'ád lekor'ím tse'irím
This book is not intended for young readers. (formal — a publisher's note; neither word takes the article, and the negation is אינו rather than לא)
שאלה זו נדונה בהרחבה בפרק הקודם.
she'elá zo nidoná beharkhavá bapérek hakodém
This question was discussed at length in the previous chapter. (academic)
בעניין זה אין לנו מה להוסיף.
be'inyán ze ein lánu ma lehosíf
On this matter we have nothing to add. (formal — a spokesperson)
The demonstrative goes last, after any adjectives
Hebrew stacks its modifiers behind the noun in a fixed queue, and the demonstrative is always at the back of it — behind adjectives, not in front of them. English trains the opposite reflex, because this new flat puts the demonstrative first.
| English order | Hebrew order |
|---|---|
| this + new + flat | הדירה + החדשה + הזאת |
| this + red + shirt | החולצה + האדומה + הזאת |
The corpus is one-sided enough to settle it: on Hebrew Wikipedia the unspaced insource:/הגדול הזה/ returns 147 articles — 70 if you bound the pattern with spaces, which drops prefixed forms like שהגדול — against 1 for הזה הגדול under either shape.
הדירה החדשה הזאת עולה פי שניים ממה שחשבנו.
hadirá hakhadashá hazót olá pi shnáyim mimá shekhashávnu
This new flat costs twice what we thought.
החולצה האדומה הזאת מתאימה לך יותר.
hakhultsá ha'adumá hazót mat'imá lekhá yotér
This red shirt suits you better. (to a man — three ה's, and the demonstrative brings up the rear)
Inside a construct chain
A construct chain takes its article on the second noun, and a demonstrative modifying the chain goes to the very end — where it agrees with the head, the first noun, not with the word it happens to be standing next to.
עוגת השוקולד הזאת הכי טובה שאכלתי בחיים.
ugát hashokolád hazót hakhí tová she'akhálti bakhayím
This chocolate cake is the best I've ever had. (feminine because the head is עוגה — שוקולד, right next to it, is masculine)
כרטיס הטיסה הזה לא בשם שלי.
kartís hatisá hazé lo bashém shelí
This plane ticket isn't in my name. (the mirror case — כרטיס is masculine, טיסה feminine, and the demonstrative follows כרטיס)
The same holds for the chains you already know as single words: בית הספר הזה is masculine because בית is, not because הספר is, and it appears on 57 Hebrew Wikipedia articles. The bare formal register behaves identically — תוכנית לימודים זו "this curriculum" takes the feminine זו because the head is תוכנית, with the masculine plural לימודים sitting in between and changing nothing.
הזה on a person, and on a name
Attach הזה or האלה to a person and you have said more than this. The reason it carries weight is structural: the demonstrative's ה־ is normally an agreement marker, matching one the noun already has — but a person is often introduced by a name, and a name is definite by nature and refuses the article. Put one there anyway — היוסי הזה, הדנה הזאת — and it cannot be doing grammatical work, so what it is doing is pragmatic: distance, exasperation, dismissal. That frame is worked out on the definite article, which is also where the limit sits — the ה goes on a name only inside this package, never on its own.
On an ordinary definite noun, האלה does the same job without needing a name to attach to. Nothing is ungrammatical about it and nothing is neutral about it either.
האנשים האלה לא עונים לטלפון כבר שבוע.
ha'anashím ha'éle lo oním latélefon kvar shavúa
These people haven't answered the phone for a week. (informal — said with a sigh; האלה is carrying exasperation as much as it is pointing)
Common Mistakes
1. Marking the noun and leaving the demonstrative bare. English this book is definite, so the ה lands on the noun and the demonstrative is left in its dictionary form.
❌ קראתי את הספר זה
Incorrect — the article goes on both words or on neither: הספר הזה in speech, ספר זה in formal writing. One of each is not a register, it is a mistake.
✅ קראתי את הספר הזה בטיסה וסיימתי אותו לפני הנחיתה.
karáti et haséfer hazé batisá vesiyámti otó lifnéi hankhitá
I read this book on the flight and finished it before we landed.
2. Marking the demonstrative and leaving the noun bare. The mirror image, and the commoner of the two, because הזה is learned as a single unsplittable word.
❌ אני מחפש ספר הזה
Incorrect — the noun needs its own article: אני מחפש את הספר הזה. Dropping both articles gives the formal-writing pattern instead, ספר זה.
✅ אני מחפש את הספר הזה כבר חודש, בשום חנות אין אותו.
aní mekhapés et haséfer hazé kvar khódesh, beshúm khanút ein otó
I've been after this book for a month — no shop has it. (m. speaker)
3. Freezing the demonstrative as הזה. Gender is the first of the three agreements and the easiest to drop, because English this never changes for anything.
❌ המסעדה הזה
Incorrect — מסעדה is feminine, so the demonstrative is too: המסעדה הזאת, or in writing מסעדה זו.
✅ המסעדה הזאת נראית ריקה, אבל צריך להזמין מקום שבוע מראש.
hamis'adá hazót nir'ét reiká, avál tsaríkh lehazmín makóm shavúa merósh
This restaurant looks empty, but you have to book a week ahead.
4. Agreeing with the nearest noun instead of the head of the chain. The trap is that the result is usually still good Hebrew — it just says something else, so nothing sounds wrong and nobody corrects you.
❌ כרטיס הטיסה הזאת
a ticket for this flight
Incorrect as 'this plane ticket' — the feminine הזאת can only be reaching for טיסה, which is not the head. The head is כרטיס: כרטיס הטיסה הזה.
✅ שמרתי את כרטיס הטיסה הזה בארנק ובכל זאת איבדתי אותו.
shamárti et kartís hatisá hazé ba'arnák uvekhól zot ibádti otó
I kept this plane ticket in my wallet and lost it anyway.
Key Takeaways
- An attributive demonstrative follows its noun and agrees in gender, number and definiteness — three agreements, and the third is the one English cannot prepare you for.
- Both members marked or neither. הספר הזה is everyday Hebrew; ספר זה is the ordinary shape of formal and academic writing. One of each is the actual error.
- The plural makes no gender distinction: האלה covers הספרים and הבנות alike.
- The two registers prefer different doublets: everyday הזאת, formal זו — 871 : 34 on Hebrew Wikipedia for שאלה זו against שאלה זאת, while the plural splits almost evenly (351 : 467).
- הזו is normatively discouraged — the article belongs to the Biblical זאת, not the Mishnaic זו — and is nonetheless about twice as common as הזאת in written Hebrew. Recognise it; never correct it.
- The demonstrative sits behind every adjective — הדירה החדשה הזאת. הגדול הזה 147 unspaced (70 space-bounded), הזה הגדול 1 either way.
- In a construct chain the demonstrative goes to the very end and agrees with the head: עוגת השוקולד הזאת, כרטיס הטיסה הזה, בית הספר הזה.
- הזה on a person or a first name is attitude, not neutral pointing — היוסי הזה. Perfectly normal spoken Hebrew; just never colourless.
Now practice Hebrew
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Start learning Hebrew →Related Topics
- זה, זאת, אלה: This and TheseA1 — The near demonstratives agree in gender and number — זה, זאת (or זו), אלה (or אלו) — and on their own they build a complete sentence with no verb: זה ספר, 'this is a book'. Add two articles and the same words make a noun phrase instead: הספר הזה, 'this book'.
- The Article Repeats on the AdjectiveA1 — In Hebrew the definite article goes on the noun and on every attributive adjective after it: הבית הגדול. Leave the adjective's ה off and you have not made a smaller noun phrase — you have made a sentence, because הבית גדול means 'the house is big'.
- הבית הגדול: Repeating the ArticleA2 — Definiteness is an agreement feature in Hebrew, so it is copied onto every adjective in the phrase: three modifiers means three extra ה's. Two things make the rule look broken when it is not — ב, ל and כ swallow the noun's article so only the adjective's is visible, and Hebrew and English simply do not put articles in the same places.
- ההוא, ההיא, ההם: That and ThoseB1 — The far set — and the fourth member the title leaves out, ההן. Each of these words has the article baked into it, so the noun it modifies must be definite too. The harder lesson is that Hebrew has no working this/that pair: זה covers both, and ההוא is reserved for real remoteness in space or in time.
- Definiteness in a Chain: בית הספר, Never הבית הספרA2 — One ה, on the last noun, and the whole chain is definite. English marks a phrase at the front and Hebrew marks it at the back, which is why this is the most-corrected construct-chain error there is — and why three further things follow from it: את, the article on the adjective, and the fact that a chain cannot be half definite.
- Stacking Several AdjectivesB1 — Give a Hebrew noun three adjectives and you get three separate agreements and, if the noun is definite, three separate articles: הממשלה הישראלית החדשה. English packs its modifiers in front of the noun and marks the bundle once; Hebrew strings them out behind it and marks every one, which looks repetitive to a learner and is simply what the language does.