A produce stall is a grammar exercise disguised as an errand. Almost every sentence carries a quantity, a price, or both, which means almost every sentence puts a numeral next to a noun — and that is where Hebrew's most counter-intuitive agreement rule lives. This page is an original exchange written for this guide, between a stallholder (a man) and a customer (a woman), read back line by line.
Before the language, one piece of housekeeping. This page makes no claim about whether prices at Israeli markets are negotiable. That varies by market, by stall and by product, and this build could not source a general statement worth printing. What it teaches is the grammar a price conversation runs on, which is the same grammar whether the number moves or not.
The dialogue
גברת, תראי מה יש לי היום. הכול טרי מהבוקר.
gvéret, tir'í ma yesh li hayóm. hakól tarí mehabóker
Stallholder: Madam, look what I've got today. It's all fresh from this morning. (to a woman)
בכמה העגבניות?
bekháma ha'agvaniyót?
Customer: How much are the tomatoes?
תשעה שקלים לקילו. הכי טריות היום, קטפו אותן אתמול.
tish'á shkalím lekílo. hakhí triyót hayóm, katfú otán etmól
Stallholder: Nine shekels a kilo. Freshest thing here today — they were picked yesterday.
תן לי קילו עגבניות וחצי קילו זיתים.
ten li kílo agvaniyót vakhatsí kílo zeitím
Customer: Give me a kilo of tomatoes and half a kilo of olives. (to a man)
בכיף. עוד משהו? הגבינה הזאת מדהימה.
bekhéif. od máshehu? hagviná hazót madhimá
Stallholder: With pleasure. Anything else? This cheese is unbelievable.
גם מאה גרם גבינה, בבקשה. אפשר לטעום קודם?
gam me'á gram gviná, bevakashá. efshár lit'óm kódem?
Customer: A hundred grams of the cheese as well, please. Can I taste it first?
ברור, תטעמי. זה על חשבוני.
barúr, tit'amí. ze al kheshboní
Stallholder: Of course, taste it. That one's on me. (to a woman)
טעימה מאוד. בכמה היא?
te'imá me'ód. bekháma hi?
Customer: Very good. How much is it?
עשר שקל למאה גרם. זו גבינת עיזים.
éser shékel leme'á gram. zo gvinát izím
Stallholder: Ten shekels per hundred grams. It's goat's cheese.
יקר לי. יש משהו יותר זול?
yakár li. yesh máshehu yotér zol?
Customer: That's steep for me. Is there anything cheaper?
יש גם בולגרית. אם תקני שתיים, אתן לך בשלושים.
yesh gam bulgarít. im tikní shtáyim, etén lakh bishloshím
Stallholder: There's Bulgarian cheese too. If you take two, I'll let you have them for thirty. (to a woman)
בשלושים לשתי חבילות? זה כבר הגיוני.
bishloshím lishtéi khavilót? ze kvar hegyoní
Customer: Thirty for two packs? Now that makes sense.
קחי, שמתי לך גם קצת פטרוזיליה. בשבילך.
kekhí, sámti lakh gam ktsat petrozílya. bishvilékh
Stallholder: Here, I've put in some parsley for you as well. On the house. (to a woman)
תודה. כמה הכול ביחד?
todá. káma hakól beyákhad?
Customer: Thanks. How much is it all together?
נתתי לך את הזיתים בעשרים, אז הכול יוצא חמישים ותשע.
natáti lakh et hazeitím be'esrím, az hakól yotsé khamishím vetésha
Stallholder: I gave you the olives at twenty, so it comes to fifty-nine altogether. (nine for the tomatoes, twenty for the olives, thirty for the two packs of cheese)
Measure phrases take no preposition at all
English needs of: a kilo of tomatoes, half a kilo of olives, a hundred grams of cheese. Hebrew simply puts the two nouns side by side — קילו עגבניות, חצי קילו זיתים, מאה גרם גבינה — with nothing between them. The measure word behaves like the first element of a construct chain: it names the container or the unit, and the noun straight after it names the contents.
קניתי חצי קילו תמרים ושתי חבילות פיתות.
kaníti khatsí kílo tmarím ushtéi khavilót pitót
I bought half a kilo of dates and two packs of pitas.
תשקול לי מאתיים גרם שקדים, בבקשה.
tishkól li matáyim gram shkedím, bevakashá
Weigh me out two hundred grams of almonds, please. (to a man)
Note also that the unit stays singular however large the number is: מאה גרם, מאתיים גרם. The plural גרמים is a real word — it is what you count in a chemistry lesson — but a weight said over a scale does not use it: on Hebrew Wikipedia the singular 500 גרם outnumbers the plural 500 גרמים by about twenty to one. The same holds for קילו and for שקל in the everyday count discussed below.
The counted noun decides the numeral
Hebrew numerals from three upward come in two shapes, and choosing between them is a matter of the counted noun's gender — not its plural ending, not the numeral's own look. The marking runs backwards from what an English speaker expects: the ending ־ה marks the masculine, and the bare form is feminine. The numeral agrees quite normally; it is only the shape of the marking that is inverted.
| Counted noun | Gender | Phrase | Reads |
|---|---|---|---|
| שֶׁקֶל shekel | masculine | תִּשְׁעָה שְׁקָלִים | tish'á shkalím |
| חֲבִילָה pack | feminine | שְׁתֵּי חֲבִילוֹת | shtei khavilót |
| קִילוֹ kilo | masculine | שְׁנֵי קִילוֹ | shnei kílo |
| עַגְבָנִיָּיה tomato | feminine | שָׁלוֹשׁ עַגְבָנִיּוֹת | shalósh agvaniyót |
| אָחוּז percent | masculine | עֲשָׂרָה אָחוּז | asará akhúz |
הבצל הזה יותר זול, אבל השני יותר טרי.
habatsál hazé yotér zol, avál hashení yotér tarí
This onion is cheaper, but the other one is fresher.
התותים האלה הכי טובים בשוק היום.
hatutím ha'éle hakhí tovím bashúk hayóm
These strawberries are the best in the market today.
Sales talk lives on those two words. יותר yotér builds every comparative and הכי hakhí every everyday superlative; both are invariable, and the adjective beside them still agrees with its noun — הכי טריות for the feminine tomatoes, הכי טובים for the masculine strawberries. Full treatment on comparatives and superlatives; the inverted marking itself is on gender polarity in numerals.
עשרה שקלים and עשר שקל are both real
The stallholder says עשר שקל in turn nine. A price list would print עשרה שקלים. Both are current Hebrew, and the difference is register, not correctness.
המחיר הוא עשרה שקלים לחבילה.
hamekhír hu asará shkalím lakhavilá
The price is ten shekels per pack. (normative — the register of a printed sign, a receipt or a news report)
זה עשר שקל בסך הכול.
ze éser shékel besákh hakól
That's ten shekels in total. (everyday spoken Israeli — bare numeral, singular שקל)
Two things are happening at once in the spoken form. The numeral appears in its bare shape even though שקל is masculine, and the noun stays singular after a number above one. Both are ordinary features of casual Israeli counting with currency and measures, and neither is a mistake to be corrected out of a native speaker's mouth.
The price ב־
A price is introduced by the preposition ב־, glued to the number. נתתי לך את הזיתים בעשרים — "I gave you the olives at twenty". אתן לך בשלושים — "I'll let you have them for thirty". This ב־ is the same one that means "in" and "with"; here it marks the amount something changes hands for, and it is the only preposition that does that job.
מכרתי את האופניים הישנים במאתיים שקל.
makhárti et ha'ofanáyim hayeshaním bematáyim shékel
I sold the old bike for two hundred shekels.
English for invites בשביל and עבור, which do exist and mean "for the sake of, on behalf of" — a beneficiary, never an amount. The stallholder's בשבילך in turn thirteen is exactly that beneficiary use: for you, as a gesture. Swapping the two prepositions produces a sentence with no price reading at all. Both are laid out on בשביל and עבור.
The offer: two futures in one sentence
אם תקני שתיים, אתן לך בשלושים is the shape a price offer takes. The אם-clause is in the future (תקני) and so is the main clause (אתן). English breaks the symmetry — if you *take two, I'll give you them for thirty*, present in the condition and future in the result — and learners copy that asymmetry into Hebrew.
אם תקנו את הכול, אוריד לכם עשרה אחוז.
im tiknú et hakól, oríd lakhém asará akhúz
If you take the lot, I'll knock ten percent off. (to a group)
A present tense in the אם-clause is not wrong — אם את קונה שתיים, אני נותן לך בשלושים is perfectly good Hebrew and reads as a standing arrangement rather than an offer being made now. The future-future version is what makes it an offer on this occasion.
Two ways of addressing a stranger
גברת gvéret in turn one is a polite address to a woman, roughly madam, and it is neutral to slightly formal — a stallholder, a bus driver or a clerk can use it without any irony. Its masculine counterpart is אדוני adoní.
אחי, יש לך עודף ממאה?
akhí, yesh lekhá ódef mime'á?
Mate, have you got change for a hundred? (very informal — literally 'my brother'; the feminine counterpart is אחותי)
Common Mistakes
1. Reading the plural ending as a gender marker. חֲבִילָה is feminine and takes ־ות; מַזְלֵג is masculine and also takes ־ות. The ending is not the signal, the noun's gender is.
❌ תן לי שני חבילות גבינה
Incorrect — חבילה is feminine, so the numeral takes its bare form: תן לי שתי חבילות גבינה. שני is the masculine.
קניתי שתי חבילות גבינה ובקבוק שמן זית.
kaníti shtei khavilót gviná uvakbúk shémen záyit
I bought two packs of cheese and a bottle of olive oil.
2. Leaving the verb singular in front of a plural subject. Hebrew agrees a verb with its subject in number and gender even when the subject follows the verb, which is exactly where English speakers stop paying attention.
❌ כמה עולה העגבניות?
Incorrect — עגבניות is feminine plural, so the verb must be too: כמה עולות העגבניות?
כמה עולות העגבניות היום?
káma olót ha'agvaniyót hayóm?
How much are the tomatoes today?
3. Translating the price "for" as בשביל. בשביל introduces a beneficiary — a person something is done for. An amount takes ב־ and nothing else.
❌ נתתי לך את זה בשביל עשרים שקל
Incorrect — בשביל marks a beneficiary, not an amount. A price takes ב־: נתתי לך את זה בעשרים שקל.
נתתי לך את זה בעשרים שקל, זה מתחת למחיר.
natáti lekhá et ze be'esrím shékel, ze mitákhat lamekhír
I gave you it for twenty shekels — that's below cost. (to a man)
4. "Correcting" עשר שקל. This one is a mistake about Hebrew rather than in Hebrew. Learners taught the normative rule hear עשר שקל, conclude the speaker is sloppy, and start repairing native speech. The spoken form is a live register, not an error, and the person who sounds odd is the one saying עשרה שקלים across a market stall.
ארבע שקל לפיתה? זה זול.
árba shékel lefitá? ze zol
Four shekels for a pita? That's cheap. (everyday spoken register)
Key Takeaways
- Measure phrases take no preposition: קילו עגבניות, חצי קילו זיתים, מאה גרם גבינה. The unit stays singular however big the number — מאתיים גרם, not מאתיים גרמים.
- The counted noun's gender picks the numeral's shape, and the marking is inverted: ־ה is masculine (תשעה שקלים), the bare form is feminine (שתי חבילות). The plural ending on the noun tells you nothing.
- עשרה שקלים and עשר שקל are both real. The first is the normative and written register, the second everyday speech, where the bare numeral generalises and the counted noun stays singular. Neither is an error.
- A price takes ב־ — בעשרים, בשלושים, במאתיים שקל. בשביל marks a beneficiary and cannot carry an amount.
- A price offer puts the future in both clauses: אם תקני שתיים, אתן לך בשלושים. A present in the אם-clause is also correct and reads as a standing arrangement rather than an offer.
- יותר and הכי are invariable, but the adjective beside them still agrees: הכי טריות, הכי טובים.
- גברת is neutral-to-formal address, אחי is very informal, and they are not two slots in one paradigm.
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Start learning Hebrew →Related Topics
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- Arabic Loans in Israeli HebrewB2 — What happens to an Arabic word on its way into Hebrew: consonant contrasts collapse, gemination is lost, and a whole phrase can freeze into a single stem — suffix and all, as in סחבק, literally 'your friend'. Then the split that decides everything else: loans that land on a Hebrew משקל grow verbs, and loans that do not stay frozen forever.
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- Dialogue: Asking for DirectionsA2 — A twelve-turn street exchange, annotated line by line: the embedded question that keeps its ordinary word order, the future forms Israelis actually give directions in, the directional ־ה of ימינה and הביתה, and where the article sits inside תחנת הרכבת.