יש שלושה אנשים בתור.

יש is the standard Hebrew word for there is / there are in an existential sentence.

So:

• יש אדם בתור = There is a person in line
• יש שלושה אנשים בתור = There are three people in line

Hebrew does not change יש for singular vs. plural. It stays the same.

Many learners expect a verb that changes like English is / are, but Hebrew uses יש for both.

This is a very common Hebrew pattern for saying that something exists somewhere:

יש + number/thing + location

So here:

• יש = there is/are
• שלושה אנשים = three people
• בתור = in line

Hebrew is somewhat flexible with word order, but this is the most natural neutral way to say it. It presents the existence first, then says what exists, then where.

Because אנשים is a grammatically masculine plural noun, and with numbers 3–10, Hebrew uses different forms depending on the noun’s gender.

With a masculine noun:

• שלושה אנשים = three people / three men

With a feminine noun:

• שלוש נשים = three women

So even though this can feel backwards to English speakers, שלושה is the correct form with אנשים.

אנשים is the plural of איש. It is an irregular plural, and in modern Hebrew it very often means people in general, not only men.

So in many everyday sentences:

• אנשים = people

If you specifically mean women, you would say נשים. For a mixed or unspecified group, Hebrew normally uses the masculine plural, so אנשים works naturally here.

Here בתור means in line or in the queue.

The base noun is תור, which means line / queue / turn, depending on context. In this sentence, because we are talking about people waiting, the meaning is clearly queue/line.

So בתור here = in the line / in line.

In this sentence it is normally pronounced ba-TOR.

That is important because the same spelling בתור can also be pronounced be-TOR, which usually means as or in the role of:

• הוא עובד בתור מורה = He works as a teacher

But in your sentence, the meaning is in line, so the pronunciation is ba-TOR.

Because in Hebrew, a preposition like ב (in) can combine with the definite article ה (the).

So:

• ב + ה + תור becomes בתור

In unpointed Hebrew writing, that looks exactly like בתור.

That means the spelling does not show the difference clearly, but in pronunciation and meaning, this is understood as ba-tor = in the line / in line.

In most grammar explanations, יש is treated as an existential particle, not a normal verb like eat or go.

That matters because it does not behave like a regular verb:

• it does not change for person
• it does not change for number
• it is used specifically to say that something exists

So it is best to think of יש as the standard Hebrew way to express there is / there are.

Usually, for a full natural sentence meaning There are three people in line, you would use יש.

Without it:

• שלושה אנשים בתור

this sounds more like a note, label, or fragment, depending on context.

So if you are making a normal statement, יש שלושה אנשים בתור is the best choice.

You replace יש with אין:

• אין שלושה אנשים בתור = There aren’t three people in line

Just like יש, אין does not change for singular or plural in this kind of sentence.

So:

• יש = there is / there are
• אין = there isn’t / there aren’t