Age, prices, and measurements are where Hebrew numbers stop looking like abstract arithmetic and enter fixed everyday structures. English says I am thirty, pluralises three metres, and uses one pattern for every currency. Hebrew instead builds age with בן/בת, lets larger sums keep a singular currency noun, and gives foreign measure words an unusually broad licence to remain singular.
Age: בן or בת + a numeral
An age is a present-tense nominal sentence. There is no present copula and no spoken word for “years”: הוא בן שלושים, היא בת חמש עשרה. The frame changes with the person:
| Person | Age frame | Example |
|---|---|---|
| one male | בן | הוא בן שלושים |
| one female | בת | היא בת חמש עשרה |
| male or mixed plural | בני | הם בני שמונה עשרה |
| female plural | בנות | הן בנות עשרים |
אני בן שלושים ועובד בתחום כבר שמונה שנים.
aní ben shloshím ve'ovéd batkhúm kvar shmóne shaním
I'm thirty and I've worked in the field for eight years. (m. speaker)
היא בת חמש עשרה וכבר גבוהה ממני.
hi bat khamésh esré ukhvár gvohá miméni
She's fifteen and already taller than me.
שני המתנדבים בני שמונה עשרה ורק עכשיו סיימו תיכון.
shnei hamitnadvím bnei shmóne esré verák akhsháv siyému tikhón
The two volunteers are eighteen and have only just finished high school.
הבנות שלי בנות עשרים ולומדות באוניברסיטה.
habanót shelí bnót esrím velomdót ba'universitá
My daughters are twenty and study at university.
The easily missed point is that בן/בת agrees with the person, while the numeral agrees with an understood שנה, which is feminine. A male can therefore be בן שמונה עשרה, with the feminine teen, because the hidden phrase is שמונה עשרה שנה. The person’s gender does not select the numeral here.
The ordinary attested questions are בן כמה אתה? to a man and בת כמה את? to a woman. They are everyday neutral Israeli usage; no extra verb is inserted.
בן כמה אתה? חשבתי שאתה יותר צעיר.
ben káma atá? khashávti she'atá yotér tsa'ír
How old are you? I thought you were younger. (to a man)
בת כמה את עכשיו, עשרים ושתיים?
bat káma at akhsháv, esrím ushtáyim?
How old are you now—twenty-two? (to a woman)
Money: the amount comes after עולה
To ask a price, say כמה זה עולה? “How much does this cost?” The verb agrees with the thing being priced: כמה זה עולה, כמה החולצה עולה, כמה הנעליים עולות. This is a cost frame, not the possession structure with יש.
כמה זה עולה, והמחיר כולל משלוח?
káma ze olé, vehamekhír kolél mishlóakh?
How much does this cost, and does the price include delivery?
The Israeli currency unit is שקל; change is counted in אגורות. In careful standard Hebrew, amounts up to ten use the plural: חמישה שקלים. From eleven upward, the singular is normal: עשרים שקל, מאה שקל. Everyday speech also uses חמישה שקל, but that is a colloquial register fact, not the same rule as foreign measurements.
הקפה והעוגה עלו עשרים שקל ביחד.
hakafé veha'ugá alú esrím shékel beyákhad
The coffee and cake cost twenty shekels together.
חסר לי שקל אחד ושבעים וחמש אגורות.
khasér li shékel ekhád veshiv'ím vekhamésh agorót
I'm one shekel and seventy-five agorot short.
The loan currencies דולר and יורו normally remain unchanged after a number: שלושים דולר, עשרים יורו. Their fixed form is especially visible beside שקל/שקלים.
הם גבו ממני עמלה של שלושה דולר על התשלום.
hem gavú miméni amlá shel shloshá dólar al hatashlúm
They charged me a three-dollar fee on the payment.
הכרטיס עלה ארבעים יורו ולא היה אפשר להחזיר אותו.
hakartís alá arba'ím yúro veló hayá efshár lehakhazír otó
The ticket cost forty euros and couldn't be refunded.
The full singular-versus-plural rule belongs to counted-noun agreement. Here the important contrast is practical: חמישה שקלים is the careful form, while עשרים שקל is normal at every level of formality.
Measurement: a stronger singular rule
Foreign unit names such as קילו, גרם, מטר, ליטר, קילומטר have a special licence: the Academy explicitly sanctions the singular even after two through ten. Thus שני מטר and שלושה קילוגרם are correct standard Hebrew. This is stronger than colloquial חמישה שקל; it is not merely casual noun-dropping.
| Unit | Standard singular measure phrase | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| קילו | שלושה קילו | three kilos |
| גרם | שבעה גרם | seven grams |
| מטר | שני מטר | two metres |
| ליטר | ארבעה ליטר | four litres |
| קילומטר | חמישה קילומטר | five kilometres |
המסדרון ברוחב שני מטר, אז הארון לא יעבור.
hamisderón berókhav shnei méter, az ha'arón lo ya'avór
The corridor is two metres wide, so the wardrobe won't fit through.
למתכון צריך שלושה קילוגרם עגבניות וארבעה ליטר מים.
lamatkón tsaríkh shloshá kilográm agvaniyót ve'arba'á líter máyim
The recipe needs three kilograms of tomatoes and four litres of water.
English makes a visible plural after every number above one. Hebrew permits plural unit forms too in many contexts, but does not require them here. The transfer mistake is assuming singular שני מטר must be sloppy; it is fully standard.
Half and quarter as quantities
חצי and רבע can directly head a measure phrase: חצי קילו, רבע שעה, חצי מיליון. They name portions without inserting a word equivalent to English of.
תביא חצי קילו עגבניות ורבע קילו זיתים.
taví khatsí kílo agvaniyót veréva kílo zeitím
Bring half a kilo of tomatoes and a quarter-kilo of olives. (informal, to a man)
חיכינו רבע שעה ואז החלטנו ללכת.
khikínu réva sha'á ve'áz hekhlátnu lalékhet
We waited a quarter of an hour and then decided to leave.
הדירה הזאת עולה כמעט חצי מיליון שקל.
hadirá hazót olá kim'át khatsí milyón shékel
This flat costs almost half a million shekels.
At the market
כמה זה עולה?
káma ze olé?
Customer: How much is this?
חמישים שקל, אבל יש היום עשרים אחוז הנחה, אז זה ארבעים.
khamishím shékel, avál yesh hayóm esrím akhúz hanakhá, az ze arba'ím
Seller: Fifty shekels, but there's a twenty-percent discount today, so it's forty.
הנה חמישים. מגיע לי עודף של עשרה שקלים, נכון?
hiné khamishím. magía li ódef shel asará shkalím, nakhón?
Customer: Here's fifty. I get ten shekels change, right?
The discount uses a percentage, whose internal grammar belongs to fractions and percentages.
Common Mistakes
1. Dropping בן or בת on the English model “I am thirty.”
❌ אני שלושים.
Incorrect as an age statement — Hebrew requires the age frame: אני בן שלושים or אני בת שלושים.
✅ אני בת שלושים ועברתי לכאן לפני שנה.
aní bat shloshím ve'avárti lekhán lifnéi shaná
I'm thirty and moved here a year ago. (f. speaker)
2. Making the age numeral agree with the male person. It agrees with hidden שנה.
❌ הוא בן שמונה עשר.
Incorrect as an age — the understood noun is feminine שנה, so a man is בן שמונה עשרה.
✅ הוא בן שמונה עשרה ומתחיל ללמוד נהיגה.
hu ben shmóne esré umatkhíl lilmód nehigá
He's eighteen and is starting to learn to drive.
3. Giving masculine קילו a feminine numeral. The noun may remain singular, but the numeral still agrees.
❌ שלוש קילו תפוחים
Incorrect — קילו is masculine: שלושה קילו תפוחים. Singular measure syntax does not cancel gender agreement.
✅ קניתי שלושה קילו תפוחים כי הם היו במבצע.
kaníti shloshá kílo tapukhím ki hem hayú bemivtsá
I bought three kilos of apples because they were on special offer.
4. Giving masculine שקלים the feminine numeral.
❌ חמש שקלים
Incorrect — שקל is masculine, so careful standard Hebrew has חמישה שקלים.
✅ נשארו לי חמישה שקלים עד סוף השבוע.
nish'arú li khamishá shkalím ad sof hashavúa
I've got five shekels left until the end of the week.
Key Takeaways
- Age is בן/בת/בני/בנות + numeral, with no word for “years” and no present copula.
- The age frame agrees with the person; the numeral agrees with hidden feminine שנה: בן שמונה עשרה.
- Up to ten, careful money Hebrew uses חמישה שקלים; from eleven upward, singular עשרים שקל and מאה שקל are normal.
- Foreign measure words may remain singular even after two through ten: שני מטר and שלושה קילוגרם are standard, not merely colloquial.
- חצי and רבע directly head measure phrases: חצי קילו, רבע שעה, חצי מיליון.
Now practice Hebrew
Reading grammar gets you part of the way. The exercises are where it sticks — free, no signup needed.
Start learning Hebrew →Related Topics
- Does the Noun Stay Singular After a Number?B1 — Hebrew normally uses plural nouns with 2–10, permits singular nouns from 11 upward, and separately licenses singular foreign measure words even below 11.
- יש לי: Hebrew's Way of Saying 'Have'A1 — Hebrew has no verb meaning 'have'. It says instead that something exists to someone — יש לי אח — which makes the possessed thing the grammatical subject. That is why nothing agrees with the possessor, and why the past-tense forms look so alien to an English speaker.
- Shops, Taxis and Falafel StandsA2 — Handle Israeli counter transactions through complete falafel, taxi and café exchanges built around אפשר, future requests and compact service vocabulary.
- Money, Prices and BargainingB1 — The phrases for asking, paying and pushing back on a price — plus the two things learners get wrong that are not vocabulary: the creditor takes ל and never את, and על marks what you paid for while ב marks what you paid with. With Ravid's study of what Israeli numerals are actually doing to gender.