המספר הוא מיליון.

A common pronunciation is ha-misPAR hu milYON.

• המספר = ha-misPAR
• הוא = hu
• מיליון = milYON

The main stress is usually on the last syllable of מספר and מיליון.

מספר means number.
The prefix ה־ is the Hebrew definite article, meaning the.

So המספר literally means the number.

That is a very common learner question. In Modern Hebrew, present-tense to be is often omitted, but הוא can be used as a linking word in sentences like this.

So המספר הוא מיליון is like The number is a million.
In many contexts, Hebrew could also leave out the linker, but using הוא makes the connection clearer and often sounds more explicit or formal.

It is the same word as he, but here it is not really being used with the meaning he. In this sentence, הוא functions as a copula-like linker, connecting המספר and מיליון.

So you should not understand it as The number, he is a million. It is just the normal Hebrew way to link the two parts of the sentence.

Because מספר is a masculine singular noun, and the pronoun used as the linker agrees with it.

If the subject were feminine singular, you would normally use היא instead. For example, with a feminine subject, the matching pronoun would change.

Hebrew does not have an indefinite article like English a/an. A noun without ה־ is often understood as indefinite.

So מיליון can mean a million here, even though there is no separate word for a.

Grammatically, מיליון behaves very much like a noun in Hebrew. It can be pluralized as מיליונים and can be used in combinations like מיליון דולר (a million dollars).

In this sentence, it is the predicate noun: it tells you what the number is.

Often, yes. Hebrew frequently omits the present-tense copula.

However, המספר הוא מיליון is very natural and clear, especially in more careful or formal style. Including הוא helps mark the sentence structure.

Yes. The normal order is:

subject + linker + predicate

So:

המספר + הוא + מיליון

If you reverse it, the sentence may sound emphatic, poetic, or less neutral. The given order is the standard way to say it.

Because המספר refers to a specific number already known in the context: the number.
But מיליון is the value being assigned to it, so it is indefinite: a million.

That is why only המספר gets ה־.