יש ל־ says that someone has something, and של attaches an owner to a noun inside a phrase. Neither of them makes a whole sentence whose point is that one particular object belongs to somebody — the answer to whose is this? — and that is what this page collects. There are four such expressions in ordinary use, and picking between them is almost entirely a matter of register.
Which construction to reach for in a given sentence is settled on יש לי or שייך לי?; this page is the machinery of each one.
שייך is an adjective, and it agrees with the thing
The first thing to get right is that שייך is not a verb. It is an adjective built on the קַטָּל pattern, it has four forms, and like every Hebrew adjective it agrees with its subject — which in this construction is the thing owned. The owner is off in a ל־ phrase and controls nothing at all.
| Masc. sg. | Fem. sg. | Masc. pl. | Fem. pl. |
|---|---|---|---|
| שַׁיָּיךְ shayákh | שַׁיֶּיכֶת shayékhet | שַׁיָּיכִים shayakhím | שַׁיָּיכוֹת shayakhót |
Because it is an adjective and Hebrew has no present-tense copula, the present-tense sentence has no verb in it whatsoever: הַתִּיק שַׁיָּיךְ לִי is the-bag belonging to-me.
המפתחות האלה שייכים לדיירים הקודמים ואף אחד לא בא לקחת אותם.
hamaftekhót ha'éle shayakhím ladayarím hakodmím ve'áf ekhád lo ba lakákhat otám
These keys belong to the previous tenants and nobody has come to collect them.
החנייה הזאת שייכת לבניין, אסור לחנות בה.
hakhanayá hazót shayékhet labinyán, asúr lakhanót ba
This parking space belongs to the building — you are not allowed to park in it.
הכיסא הזה היה שייך לסבא שלי, הוא הביא אותו מפולין.
hakisé hazé hayá shayákh lesába shelí, hu heví otó mipólin
This chair belonged to my grandfather — he brought it over from Poland.
Past and future work the way they do for any predicate adjective: put היה / יהיה in front, agreeing with the same word שייך agrees with. That is the identical arrangement you already know from היה לי / היו לי, where the verb also tracks the possessed thing and ignores the possessor — the reasoning is on possession with יש ל־.
The membership half
שייך covers being part of a group as readily as being owned by someone, and this half has no rival: יש ל־ cannot express it and של cannot either.
היא שייכת לדור שגדל בלי אינטרנט.
hi shayékhet ladór shegadál bli intérnet
She belongs to the generation that grew up without the internet. (membership — nobody owns anybody here)
שלוש הכיתות האלה שייכות לאותו בית ספר.
shalósh hakitót ha'éle shayakhót le'otó beit séfer
These three classes belong to the same school.
In a room, people say זה שלי
Before any of the heavier words: the everyday way to ask and answer whose is this? uses plain של, with no belonging-word at all. שֶׁל מִי זֶה? and זֶה שֶׁלִּי are the default, and a learner who reaches for שייך in a kitchen sounds like a lost-property form.
של מי המטען הזה? אני צריך לחבר את המחשב.
shel mi hamat'én hazé? aní tsaríkh lekhabér et hamakhshév
Whose charger is this? I need to plug my laptop in. (m. speaker)
זה לא שלי, אני חושבת שזה של דנה.
ze lo shelí, aní khoshévet shezé shel dána
It's not mine — I think it's Dana's. (f. speaker)
הבעלים של: the owner of a business
To say that someone owns a shop, a company or a flat, Hebrew names the person: הַבְּעָלִים שֶׁל. Milog defines בעלים as מי שמחזיק בבעלות על נכס, עסק, חברה או דבר אחר — whoever holds ownership of an asset, a business, a company or anything else — and this is an ordinary, unmarked word, not a legal one. In a construct chain the singular does the same job — בַּעַל הַמִּסְעָדָה bá'al hamis'adá, בַּעֲלַת הַחֲנוּת ba'alát hakhanút — and that is the shape you meet on signs and in print. Put של in front of it, though, and הבעל is read as the husband, which is why the של frame takes הבעלים.
The oddity is that בעלים is plural in form and routinely used of one person. Hebrew Wikipedia (insource:/…/ regex form, the same trailing space on both columns, 21 August 2026) has הוא הבעלים של on 250 pages against 37 for הם הבעלים של — steady across two runs each — so the singular subject is not a slip, it is the normal case. Both agreements are attested: Milog's own entry prints הבעלים של הקרקע הגיש בקשה with a singular verb and בעלי החנות הודיעו with a plural one.
הוא הבעלים של הקיוסק בפינה כבר עשרים שנה.
hu habe'alím shel hakiósk bapiná kvar esrím shaná
He has owned the kiosk on the corner for twenty years. (one man, a plural-shaped noun, and a singular הוא in front of it)
בבעלות and ברשות: the paperwork words
Two prepositional phrases carry ownership in contracts, municipal notices and court documents, and you will read them long before you write one.
בְּבַעֲלוּת is in the ownership of. בעלות is the abstract noun — Milog: זכות חוקית או מעשית להחזיק בנכס, במשאב או בדבר מה ולשלוט בו, the legal or practical right to hold and control something — and it goes straight into a construct chain with the owner.
בִּרְשׁוּת is in the possession of, or in the charge of. Milog gives רשות two senses that a learner has to keep apart: sense 1 is permission (this is the ברשותך of with your permission), and sense 2 is ownership or possession, illustrated with property changing hands. Context decides, and nothing else does.
הדירה בבעלות העירייה והשוכרים משלמים שכר דירה מוזל.
hadirá beva'alút ha'iriyá vehasokhrím meshalmím skhar dirá muzál
The flat is owned by the municipality and the tenants pay a reduced rent. (bureaucratic)
התיק המקורי נמצא ברשות המשטרה ואי אפשר לצלם אותו.
hatík hamekorí nimtsá birshút hamishtará ve'í efshár letsalém otó
The original file is in the possession of the police and it cannot be photocopied. (formal)
Choosing between them
| Expression | Register | Typical use |
|---|---|---|
| זֶה שֶׁלִּי · שֶׁל מִי זֶה? | (informal), and neutral in writing too | Anything, anywhere. The default. |
| שַׁיָּיךְ לְ־ | neutral, leaning written | Assigning one identified thing to an absent owner; membership in a group. |
| הַבְּעָלִים שֶׁל | neutral | A person who owns a business, a vehicle, a property. |
| בְּבַעֲלוּת · בִּרְשׁוּת | (formal), legal and administrative | Contracts, council notices, court documents, company reports. |
Common Mistakes
1. Agreeing שייך with the owner. The owner is the person in the sentence, so the eye lands there. But the owner sits behind ל־ and is invisible to the agreement system.
❌ המפתחות האלה שייכת לרותי
Incorrect — שייכת is feminine singular, and the subject is המפתחות, masculine plural: המפתחות האלה שייכים לרותי. רותי being a woman changes nothing.
✅ המפתחות האלה שייכים לרותי, היא תיקח אותם בערב.
hamaftekhót ha'éle shayakhím lerutí, hi tikákh otám ba'érev
These keys are Ruti's — she'll pick them up this evening.
2. Making the person the subject of שייך. English this car belongs to me and I own this car are two ways of saying one thing, and the second one tempts you to put yourself in front of the adjective.
❌ אני שייך למכונית הזאת
Incorrect as 'this car is mine' — with שייך the thing is the subject and the person goes behind ל־, so as written you are the one who belongs to the car. Say המכונית הזאת שייכת לי.
✅ המכונית הזאת שייכת לי, פשוט לא הספקתי להעביר אותה על השם שלי.
hamekhonít hazót shayékhet li, pashút lo hispákti leha'avír otá al hashém shelí
This car is mine — I just haven't got round to putting it in my name.
3. Saying הבעל של where Hebrew says הבעלים של. בעל is not a different word — בעלים is its plural, pressed into service for a single owner. The two shapes have divided the work, though, and של is what separates them.
❌ הוא הבעל של המסעדה
Incorrect as 'he owns the restaurant' — with של in front of it, הבעל reads as 'the husband'. Predicating ownership takes הבעלים, plural in shape whatever the number of people: הוא הבעלים של המסעדה. In a construct chain the singular is the right word: בעל המסעדה.
✅ הוא הבעלים של המסעדה ועדיין עומד במטבח כל ערב.
hu habe'alím shel hamis'adá va'adáyin oméd bamitbákh kol érev
He owns the restaurant and still stands in the kitchen every evening.
4. Reaching for שייך where a native would just use של. Nothing here is wrong, which is exactly why it survives. שייך predicates belonging as news; של simply identifies an owner, and most of the time that is all you are doing.
הכוס הזאת שייכת לי, שמתי אותה פה לפני רגע.
hakós hazót shayékhet li, sámti otá po lifnéi réga
This glass belongs to me — I put it here a minute ago. (heavy: it sounds like a claim being registered)
הכוס הזאת שלי, שמתי אותה פה לפני רגע.
hakós hazót shelí, sámti otá po lifnéi réga
This glass is mine — I put it here a minute ago. (what an Israeli says)
Key Takeaways
- שייך is an adjective, not a verb: שַׁיָּיךְ, שַׁיֶּיכֶת, שַׁיָּיכִים, שַׁיָּיכוֹת. The present-tense sentence has no verb in it at all.
- It agrees with the thing owned and never with the owner, who sits behind ל־ and controls nothing — the same arrangement as היה לי / היו לי.
- Past and future are ordinary predicate-adjective shapes: היה שייך, הייתה שייכת, יהיה שייך.
- שייך also covers membership — היא שייכת לדור, הכיתות שייכות לבית ספר — and there יש ל־ has no paraphrase to offer.
- זה שלי and של מי זה? are the spoken default. Everything else on this page is heavier.
- הבעלים של names an owner and is plural in form even for one person: he.wikipedia gives הוא הבעלים של 250 pages against 37 for הם הבעלים של, and Milog prints both a singular and a plural verb with it.
- בבעלות and ברשות are paperwork. בעלות is the right to hold and control something; רשות means possession here and permission elsewhere (ברשותך), so context is the only thing separating the two senses.
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Start learning Hebrew →Related Topics
- יש לי or שייך לי?B1 — Three constructions cover the same ground — יש לי גיטרה, הגיטרה שלי, הגיטרה שייכת לי — and each answers a different question. שייך is not a legal-ownership word: the dictionary gives it property AND membership, plus a second everyday sense of being relevant, which is why a dolphin שייך to the mammals and your remark does not שייך to the discussion.
- Possession with יש ל־A1 — Hebrew has no verb meaning 'have' — it says a thing exists to someone, יש לי אח. This page is the semantic half of that: which relations Hebrew actually routes through יש ל־, how it divides the work with של, and the English 'have's that are not יש ל־ at all, from having a coffee to having to leave.
- שלי, שלך, שלו: של with Pronoun EndingsA1 — These ten forms are not a word list to memorise — they are the ordinary Hebrew preposition endings, the same ones on לי and אצלי, riding on של. The one that will cost you is שלך, which is a single spelling for two different words, so saying the masculine form to a woman is invisible on the page and perfectly audible in the room.
- Verbs Governed by ל־: עזר ל, הפריע ל, התקשר לB1 — Learn common Hebrew verbs whose person, recipient, target, or result is introduced by ל־ rather than by a direct object.