English shifts among someone, anyone, no one, everyone, each person and the others. Hebrew divides the same territory differently. The most important split is not positive versus negative-looking English vocabulary: מישהו works in statements, questions and conditions, while אף אחד belongs inside the scope of a separate Hebrew negator.
The everyday inventory
| Hebrew | Reading | Core use | Agreement |
|---|---|---|---|
| מישהו | míshehu | someone; anyone in a question or condition | masculine singular |
| מישהי | míshehi | a woman / someone feminine | feminine singular |
| אף אחד · אף אחת | af ekhád · af akhát | nobody, not anyone — with a negator | singular, matching אחד / אחת |
| כולם · כולן | kulám · kulán | all of them; everyday “everyone” | plural |
| כל אחד · כל אחת | kol ekhád · kol akhát | each one, everyone distributively | singular |
| האחרים · האחרות | ha'akherím · ha'akherót | the others in a known set | plural |
מישהו השאיר מטרייה ליד הדלת.
míshehu hish'ír mitriyá leyád hadélet
Someone left an umbrella by the door.
מישהי מהצוות כבר טיפלה בבקשה שלך.
míshehi mehatsévet kvar tiplá babakashá shelkhá
A woman from the team has already dealt with your request. (to a man)
Use מישהי when the referent is known or presented as female. Otherwise מישהו is the ordinary unmarked human indefinite; it can refer to an unidentified person whose gender is not yet known.
מישהו stays positive in questions and conditions
English often switches from someone in a statement to anyone in a question or condition. Hebrew does not make that polarity switch. A non-negative clause keeps מישהו / מישהי.
יש מישהו בבית? האור במטבח דולק.
yesh míshehu babáyit? ha'ór bamitbákh dolék
Is anyone home? The kitchen light is on.
אם מישהו יתקשר בזמן הישיבה, תגידו שאני אחזור אליו.
im míshehu yitkashér bizmán hayeshivá, tagídu she'aní ekhezór eláv
If anyone calls during the meeting, tell them I'll call back. (to a group)
את מכירה מישהי שיכולה לתקן את זה היום?
at makirá míshehi sheyekholá letakén et ze hayóm?
Do you know anyone who can fix this today? (to a woman; asking specifically about a woman)
אף אחד does not negate the clause
The sentence for “nobody arrived” is אף אחד לא הגיע. The לא is mandatory. The Academy explains the history through the phrase's parts: אף אחד began as “even one” — originally the logic of not even one person. As the literal force wore down, the whole phrase became a pronoun, but it did not acquire the power to negate a finite verb.
אף אחד לא הגיע בזמן, אז התחלנו בלעדיהם.
af ekhád lo higí'a bazmán, az hitkhálnu bil'adeihém
Nobody arrived on time, so we started without them.
אף אחת לא התקשרה אליי אחרי הראיון.
af akhát lo hitkashrá elái akharéi hare'ayón
Not one of the women called me after the interview.
אין כאן אף אחד שמוסמך לאשר את התשלום.
ein kan af ekhád shemusmákh le'ashér et hatashlúm
There's nobody here authorized to approve the payment.
The separate negator changes with the clause: לא before an ordinary verb, אין for non-existence, אל in a prohibition. That system is negative concord; this page's practical rule is simpler: אף אחד / אף אחת never licenses a positive finite verb by itself.
כולם is plural; כל אחד is singular
Both expressions can translate English everyone, but they package the people differently. כולם is literally “all of them,” a group, and takes plural agreement. כל אחד distributes the statement over one person at a time and takes singular agreement.
כולם באו מוקדם וכולם היו עייפים.
kulám bá'u mukdám vekhulám hayú ayefím
Everyone came early, and everyone was tired. (masculine or mixed group; plural agreement)
כולן מוכנות לצאת, רק הנהגת עוד לא הגיעה.
kulán mukhanót latsét, rak hanahéget od lo higí'a
They're all ready to leave; only the driver hasn't arrived yet. (all-female group)
כל אחד יודע מה הוא צריך להביא.
kol ekhád yodéa ma hu tsaríkh lehaví
Everyone knows what they need to bring. (masculine or generic; singular agreement)
כל אחת צריכה להביא תעודה מזהה.
kol akhát tsrikhá lehaví te'udá mezahá
Each woman needs to bring identification. (singular feminine agreement)
English helps only partly: everybody is is singular, but all of them are is plural. Hebrew exposes that semantic choice in the pronoun itself.
כולם and the older human use of הכול
Modern conversation uses כולם freely for “everyone,” especially when a group is already understood: כולם כבר הגיעו? “Has everyone arrived?” Its literal structure remains “all of them.”
Classical and elevated Hebrew can instead use standalone הכול for people: הכול יודעים ש־, “everybody knows that”; לא הכול מסכימים, “not everybody agrees.” In this human reading the predicate is plural. This is different from הכול מוכן “everything is ready,” where הכול denotes things and takes masculine singular agreement.
כולם כבר הגיעו, אז אפשר להתחיל.
kulám kvar higí'u, az efshár lehatkhíl
Everyone has arrived, so we can start. (ordinary modern Hebrew; a known group)
הכול יודעים שהדרך ארוכה, אך לא הכול מוכנים לשלם את המחיר.
hakól yod'ím shehadérekh aruká, akh lo hakól mukhaním leshalém et hamekhír
Everybody knows the road is long, but not everybody is prepared to pay the price. (elevated/classical cadence)
The others, and the standard plural gap
האחרים means “the other people” in a set already under discussion; an explicitly all-female set uses האחרות. Because these are definite plural adjectives used as nouns, their agreement is plural.
שלושה עובדים נשארו לסדר; האחרים הלכו הביתה.
shloshá ovdím nish'áru lesadér; ha'akherím halkhú habáyta
Three employees stayed to tidy up; the others went home.
Standard Hebrew has no established general-purpose plural of מישהו. To say “some people,” use כמה אנשים, אנשים מסוימים, or simply אנשים; to select from a known group, use מישהו מהם / מישהי מהן. Innovative מישהם / מישהן do occur in recent informal and gender-inclusive writing, sometimes as plural indefinites and sometimes as nonbinary forms. Treat them as emerging marked forms, not as ordinary neutral standard equivalents of “some people.”
כמה אנשים חיכו בחוץ, אבל לא ידעתי מי מהם הזמין תור.
káma anashím khikú bakhúts, avál lo yadáti mi mehém hizmín tor
Several people were waiting outside, but I didn't know which of them had booked an appointment.
Formal alternatives to אף אחד
Careful writing also uses איש לא “no one” and שום אדם לא “no person.” איש לא is distinctly formal or literary in modern Hebrew; שום אדם is available more broadly but fits official prose especially well. The Academy's recommendation is to leave room for these classical alternatives, not to ban everyday אף אחד.
איש לא הורשה להיכנס לאולם לפני הבדיקה.
ish lo hurshá lehikanés la'ulám lifnéi habdiká
No one was permitted to enter the hall before the inspection. (formal)
שום אדם לא רשאי להעביר את הכרטיס לאחר.
shum adám lo rashái leha'avír et hakartís le'akhér
No person may transfer the pass to another. (formal/official)
Common Mistakes
1. Translating “nobody came” with a positive Hebrew verb. אף אחד does not contain negation.
❌ אף אחד הגיע למסיבה
Incorrect — the clause needs its negator: אף אחד לא הגיע למסיבה.
✅ אף אחד לא הגיע למסיבה לפני תשע.
af ekhád lo higí'a lamesibá lifnéi tésha
Nobody arrived at the party before nine.
2. Using אף אחד for conditional English “anyone.” Hebrew keeps מישהו in a non-negative condition.
❌ אם אף אחד יתקשר אחרי חמש, תרשום את המספר
Incorrect — the condition is not negative, so it takes מישהו: אם מישהו יתקשר אחרי חמש.
✅ אם מישהו יתקשר אחרי חמש, תרשום את המספר שלו.
im míshehu yitkashér akharéi khamésh, tirshóm et hamispár sheló
If anyone calls after five, write down their number. (to a man)
3. Giving כולם singular agreement. It is morphologically and syntactically plural.
❌ כולם בא מוקדם
Incorrect — כולם takes plural agreement: כולם באו מוקדם.
✅ כולם באו מוקדם וחיכו במסדרון.
kulám bá'u mukdám vekhikú bamisderón
Everyone came early and waited in the corridor.
4. Giving כל אחד plural agreement because it refers to many people. Its grammar remains singular.
❌ כל אחד יודעים איפה לשבת
Incorrect — אחד is singular: כל אחד יודע איפה לשבת.
✅ כל אחד יודע איפה לשבת ומתי לדבר.
kol ekhád yodéa éifo lashévet umatái ledabér
Everyone knows where to sit and when to speak.
5. Treating an emerging form as the neutral standard plural of מישהו. For ordinary standard production, Hebrew uses an ordinary plural noun or a partitive phrase instead.
✅ כמה אנשים מחכים לך בחוץ ליד הקבלה.
káma anashím mekhakím lekhá bakhúts leyád hakabalá
Some people are waiting for you outside by reception. (to a man)
Key Takeaways
- מישהו / מישהי mean someone and remain the forms used for English anyone in positive questions and conditions.
- אף אחד / אף אחת require a negator: אף אחד לא הגיע, אין כאן אף אחד. The phrase historically meant “even one”; it does not negate the verb itself.
- כולם / כולן take plural agreement; כל אחד / כל אחת take singular agreement.
- Modern כולם is literally “all of them,” usually a known group. Elevated/classical הכול יודעים uses הכול for people with plural agreement.
- האחרים / האחרות are “the others” in a definite known set.
- There is no established general-purpose standard plural of מישהו; innovative מישהם / מישהן occur in marked current usage. The neutral standard defaults remain אנשים, כמה אנשים or מישהו מהם.
- Formal prose also uses איש לא and שום אדם לא without making everyday אף אחד wrong.
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- אף אחד, שום דבר, אף פעםA2 — The words English translates as 'nobody', 'nothing' and 'never' are not negative words in Hebrew at all. אף means 'even' and שום means 'any', so אף אחד is literally 'even one' — which is why a Hebrew speaker always adds a negator beside them, and why a question uses מישהו instead.
- 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.
- כל: All, Every, WholeA2 — One word, two meanings, and the article on the NEXT word decides which: כל יום is 'every day', כל היום is 'all day'. כל itself never changes. Then there is the free-standing form הכול, which is spelled differently for a reason that goes back to the maqaf.
- 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.