Hebrew has a small set of expressions that come out in English as nobody, nothing, never and not a single. This page is the inventory — which one goes with people, which with things, which with occasions, and which older alternatives written Hebrew still reaches for. Why every one of them drags a לא along behind it is argued separately, on negative concord.
אף means "even", so אף אחד is "even one"
Start with the etymology, because it explains the behaviour. אַף is the ordinary word for even, also. שׁוּם is a worn-down form of שֵׁם name, and in these phrases it means any whatsoever — Ben-Yehuda's dictionary glosses שום איש as anything that goes by the name of a person. So אף אחד is literally even one and שום דבר is any thing at all. Neither of them says no.
The Academy of the Hebrew Language puts the consequence in one line: native speakers never slip up here, they always add a negator — ללמדנו ש״אף אחד״ הוא בכל זאת מישהו, which is to teach us that אף אחד is, after all, somebody.
That is what a polarity item is: a word licensed by a negative clause, not a word that makes one. And it is the reason the same slot takes a completely different word as soon as the clause stops being negative. A question or a condition takes מישהו and משהו — the positives, set out on somebody and something.
יש כאן מישהו? הדלת הייתה פתוחה.
yesh kan míshehu? hadélet haytá ptukhá
Is anyone here? The door was open.
אין כאן אף אחד, הדלת פשוט נשארה פתוחה מאתמול.
ein kan af ekhád, hadélet pashút nish'ará ptukhá me'etmól
There's nobody here — the door has just been left open since yesterday.
אף אחד לא חזר אליי כל השבוע, בסוף נסעתי למשרד.
af ekhád lo khazár elái kol hashavúa, basóf nasáti lamisrád
Nobody got back to me all week — in the end I drove to the office.
The inventory
| Expression | Reads | Literally | Covers |
|---|---|---|---|
| אף אחד · אף אחת | af ekhád · af akhát | even one | people (m. · f.) |
| שום דבר | shum davár | any thing at all | things, situations |
| כלום | klum | anything, the least bit | things — no noun after it |
| מאומה | me'úma | anything | things (literary) |
| אף פעם | af pá'am | even once | occasions |
| אף · שום + noun | af · shum | even one · any | a counted noun |
| איש · שום אדם | ish · shum adám | a man · any person | people (formal · all levels) |
People, things, occasions
אף אחד and אף אחת are frozen pronouns, and the whole clause has to agree with the one you picked: אף אחת is feminine, so the verb is feminine too.
אף אחד מהשכנים לא ידע לאן הם עברו.
af ekhád mehashkhením lo yadá le'án hem avrú
Not one of the neighbours knew where they'd moved to.
אף אחת מהבנות לא הסכימה לקחת את המשמרת של שבת.
af akhát mehabanót lo hiskíma lakákhat et hamishméret shel shabát
Not one of the girls agreed to take the Saturday shift.
שום דבר and כלום both cover nothing, and the difference between them is structural rather than a matter of feeling. שום is a determiner and must have a noun after it — שום דבר, שום סיבה, שום בעיה. כלום is a noun in its own right, inherited from rabbinic Hebrew, and takes nothing after it at all. That is why you can say לא אמרתי כלום but never *לא אמרתי כלום דבר.
עברו שלוש שנים ושום דבר בבניין הזה לא השתנה.
avrú shalósh shaním veshúm davár babinyán hazé lo hishtaná
Three years have gone by and nothing in this building has changed.
לא אכלתי כלום מהבוקר, אני מתה מרעב.
lo akhálti klum mehabóker, aní metá mera'áv
I haven't eaten a thing since this morning — I'm starving. (f. speaker)
The biblical word for the same idea is מאומה, and it is still alive in elevated prose. Note the stress: it is me'úma, on the middle syllable, not on the end.
בסוף המלחמה לא נותר מן הכפר מאומה.
besóf hamilkhamá lo notár min hakfár me'úma
At the end of the war nothing at all was left of the village. (literary)
אף פעם is even once, two words, and it is the everyday word for never.
אף פעם לא נסעתי לחוץ לארץ לבד, וזה בדיוק מה שמפחיד אותי.
af pá'am lo nasáti lekhúts la'árets levád, vezé bediyúk ma shemafkhíd otí
I've never travelled abroad on my own, and that's exactly what scares me.
In front of an ordinary noun
Both אף and שום also take a plain noun, and there the split is a tendency rather than a law: אף leans towards individuals you could count off one by one, שום towards things, reasons and states of affairs. The noun after either of them is always indefinite. The full account, with the numbers behind it, is on negative determiners.
אף חנות בשכונה לא פתוחה אחרי אחת בצהריים.
af khanút bashkhuná lo ptukhá akharéi akhát batsohoráyim
Not one shop in the neighbourhood is open after one in the afternoon.
לא הייתה שום סיבה להתפרץ עליה ככה מול כל המשרד.
lo haytá shum sibá lehitparéts aléha kákha mul kol hamisrád
There was no reason at all to blow up at her like that in front of the whole office.
The classical alternatives: איש and שום אדם
This is the part learner materials leave out, and it is what makes written Hebrew look different from the Hebrew you speak. אף אחד is recent. The Academy traces it back through nineteenth-century writers, where it still meant literally even one of them, and describes its basic sense as having worn away (נשחקה) until speakers took it for a plain pronoun. The older machinery is still in service:
- איש — the biblical option, and the Academy notes it is current today mainly in written and formal language: איש לא, לאיש לא, אין איש.
- שום אדם — entered in rabbinic Hebrew and, the Academy says, is alive at every level of the language today.
The Academy does not reject אף אחד. What it recommends is that careful writing leave room for the classical alternatives beside it.
איש לא ידע להסביר איך המסמך הגיע לעיתונות.
ish lo yadá lehasbír eikh hamismákh higía la'itonút
Nobody could explain how the document reached the press. (formal)
לאיש מאיתנו לא היה מושג שהיא עוזבת.
le'ísh me'itánu lo hayá muság shehí ozévet
Not one of us had any idea she was leaving. (formal)
שום אדם לא נכנס לבניין בלי כרטיס עובד.
shum adám lo nikhnás labinyán bli kartís ovéd
Nobody at all gets into the building without a staff card.
אף לא אחד
Splitting the phrase and putting the negator inside it gives אף לא אחד, English not a single one. It belongs to writing and careful speech, and it is the natural way to answer a question with a bare fragment.
כמה הצעות קיבלתם? — אף לא אחת.
káma hatsa'ót kibáltem? af lo akhát
How many offers did you get? — Not one. (to a group)
אף לא אחד מהמועמדים ענה על כל התנאים.
af lo ekhád mehamu'amadím aná al kol hatna'ím
Not a single one of the candidates met all the conditions. (formal)
Here the Academy and actual usage part company, and it is worth knowing which is which. The Academy allows אף לא אחד only in an elliptical answer like the first example, on the grounds that the phrase abbreviates אפילו אחד לא קנה כרטיס — so in a full clause what ought to fall under the negation is the verb, not the numeral. Written Hebrew has not followed: insource:/אף לא אחד / returns 206 and 220 articles on two runs of Hebrew Wikipedia (regex search, 21 August 2026), and all eight hits sampled are full clauses, most of them with a partitive behind them exactly like the second example. Treat the Academy's ruling as an account of the phrase's logic, not as a description of what editors do.
Standing alone
Strip the clause away and the polarity word answers on its own. There is no verb left for a negator to attach to, and none is added.
מה הם אמרו בסוף? — כלום. פשוט שתקו.
ma hem amrú basóf? klum. pashút shatkú
What did they say in the end? — Nothing. They just went quiet.
Common Mistakes
1. Letting אף אחת take a masculine verb. אף אחד is the form you meet first, so the feminine gets picked up as vocabulary while the agreement stays behind.
❌ אף אחת לא בא לשיעור הראשון
Incorrect — אף אחת is feminine, and the agreement runs through the whole clause: אף אחת לא באה לשיעור הראשון.
✅ אף אחת מהמשתתפות לא באה לשיעור הראשון, אז דחינו את הפתיחה.
af akhát mehamishtatfót lo bá'a lashi'úr harishón, az dakhínu et haptikhá
Not one of the participants came to the first class, so we put the opening back. (f. participants)
2. Reaching for אף אחד where the clause is not negative. English anyone covers both jobs, so learners carry אף אחד into questions and conditions. Hebrew switches words instead. Both of these are correct; what decides between them is whether the clause is negative.
אם מישהו יתקשר בזמן שאני בפגישה, תגידי שאני חוזר בארבע.
im míshehu yitkashér bizmán she'aní bapgishá, tagídi she'aní khozér be'árba
If anyone calls while I'm in the meeting, say I'm back at four. (to a woman)
אף אחד לא התקשר בזמן שהייתי בפגישה, בדקתי בטלפון.
af ekhád lo hitkashér bizmán shehayíti bapgishá, badákti batélefon
Nobody called while I was in the meeting — I checked my phone.
3. Using לעולם לא for everyday never. Dictionaries gloss אף פעם with לעולם לא, and the gloss is accurate, but the two do not sit in the same kind of sentence. לעולם לא is a vow or a declaration; אף פעם לא is what you say about the bus.
אני אף פעם לא זוכרת אם נעלתי את הדלת.
aní af pá'am lo zokhéret im na'álti et hadélet
I can never remember whether I locked the door. (f. speaker, everyday)
לעולם לא נשכח את מי שעזר לנו באותם ימים.
le'olám lo nishkákh et mi she'azár lánu be'otám yamím
We will never forget those who helped us in those days. (elevated — a speech, a memorial)
Key Takeaways
- None of these words is a negative. אף is even, שום is a worn form of שֵׁם meaning any, and כלום and מאומה both started life meaning anything. They mark a negative clause; they do not create one.
- The positives take over as soon as the clause is not negative: יש כאן מישהו?, אם מישהו יתקשר.
- אף אחד · אף אחת for people, שום דבר · כלום for things, אף פעם for occasions, אף · שום + noun for a counted noun.
- שום needs a noun; כלום refuses one. שום דבר, שום סיבה — but plain כלום, never *כלום דבר.
- אף אחת is feminine all the way through the clause: אף אחת לא באה.
- איש (formal and written) and שום אדם (every level) are the classical alternatives the Academy asks careful writers to keep in play beside the worn-down אף אחד.
- אף לא אחד is the emphatic not a single one. The Academy restricts it to elliptical answers; written Hebrew uses it in full clauses too, 206–220 articles' worth.
- מאומה is literary and stressed me'úma; לעולם לא is a vow, not the everyday never.
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Start learning Hebrew →Related Topics
- Negative Concord: אף אחד לא, שום דבר לאA2 — אף אחד לא בא is not a double negative — the Academy's position is that neither כלום nor שום דבר carries any negation of its own, so nothing is being doubled. Hebrew marks one negation on more than one word, which is why the לא is compulsory and dropping it leaves a string with no reading at all.
- מישהו, מישהי, כולם, אף אחדA2 — Hebrew distinguishes positive human indefinites such as מישהו from polarity forms such as אף אחד, which require a separate negator, while כולם and כל אחד trigger different agreement.
- משהו, כלום, שום דבר, הכולB1 — Hebrew distinguishes משהו ‘something,’ הכול ‘everything,’ and negative-polarity כלום and שום דבר, neither of which negates a clause without לא, אין or another licensor.
- שום, אף, אין: Negative DeterminersB2 — שום and אף are the words Hebrew puts in front of a noun to say 'not a single one' — and neither of them negates anything on its own. Both demand a לא or an אין elsewhere in the clause, which is why אף אחד בא is not a sentence at all, and why the pair is not a double negative that cancels itself.