Hebrew numerals
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| Numeral systems by culture | |
|---|---|
| Hindu-Arabic numerals | |
| Western Arabic Eastern Arabic Khmer |
Indian family Brahmi Thai |
| East Asian numerals | |
| Chinese Suzhou Counting rods |
Japanese Korean Mongolian |
| Alphabetic numerals | |
| Abjad Armenian Cyrillic Ge'ez |
Hebrew Greek (Ionian) Āryabhaṭa |
| Other systems | |
| Attic Babylonian Egyptian English |
Etruscan Mayan Roman Urnfield |
| List of numeral system topics | |
| Positional systems by base | |
| Decimal (10) | |
| 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64 | |
| 1, 3, 9, 12, 20, 24, 30, 36, 60, more… | |
The system of Hebrew numerals is a quasi-decimal alphabetic numeral system using the letters of the Hebrew alphabet.
In this system, there is no notation for zero, and the numeric values for individual letters are added together. Each unit (1, 2, ..., 9) is assigned a separate letter, each tens (10, 20, ..., 90) a separate letter, and the first four hundreds (100, 200, 300, 400) a separate letter. The later hundreds (500, 600, 700, 800 and 900) are represented by the sum of two or three letters representing one of the first four hundreds.To represent numbers from 1,000 to 999,999 the same letters are reused to serve as thousands, tens of thousands, and hundreds of thousands.Gematria (Jewish numerology) uses these transformations extensively.
In Israel today, the decimal system (ex. 0, 1, 2, 3, etc...) is used in almost all cases (money, age, date on the civil calendar). The Hebrew numerals are used only in special cases, like when using the Hebrew calendar, or numbering a list (similar to a, b, c, d, etc...).
Contents |
[edit] Main Table
| Decimal | Hebrew | Glyph | Cardinal (ex. one, two, three) |
Ordinal (ex. first, second, third) |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Masculine | Feminine | Masculine | Feminine | |||
| 0 | N/A | efes (אֶפֶס) | N/A | |||
| 1 | Aleph | א | echad (אַחַת) |
achat (אַחַת) |
rishon (רִאשׁוֹן) |
rishonah (רִאשׁוֹנָה) |
| 2 | Bet | ב | shnayim (שְׁנַיִם) |
shtayim (שְׁתַּיִם) |
sheni (שֵׁנִי) |
shniyah (שֵׁנִיָה) |
| 3 | Gimel | ג | shlosha (שְׁלוֹשָׁה) |
shalosh (שָׁלוֹשׁ) |
shlishi (שְׁלִישִׁי) |
shlishit (שְׁלִישִׁית) or shlishiyah (שְׁלִישִׁיָה) |
| 4 | Dalet | ד | arba'a (אַרְבַּעה) |
arbah (אַרְבַּע) |
revi'i (רְבִיעִי) |
revi'it (רְבִיעִית) |
| 5 | Hei | ה | chamisha (חֲמִשָּה) |
chamesh (חָמֵשׁ) |
chamishi (חֲמִישִׁי) |
chamishit (חֲמִישִׁית) |
| 6 | Vav | ו | shisha (שִׁשָּה) |
shesh (שֵׁשׁ) |
shishi (שִׁשִּׁי) |
shishit (שִׁשִּׁית) |
| 7 | Zayin | ז | shiv'a (שֶׁבַעה) |
sheva (שֶׁבַע) |
shvi'i (שְׁבִיעִי) |
shvi'it (שְׁבִיעִית) |
| 8 | Het | ח | shmonah (שְׁמוֹנָה) |
shmoneh (שְׁמוֹנֶה) |
shmini (שְׁמִינִי) |
shminit (שְׁמִינִית) |
| 9 | Tet | ט | tish'a (תֵּשַׁעה) |
tayshah (תֵּשַׁע) |
tshi'i (תְּשִׁיעִי) |
tshi'it (תְּשִׁיעִית) |
| 10 | Yud | י | assara (עֲשָׂרָה) |
eser (עֶשֶׂר) |
asiri (עֲשִׂירִי) |
asirit (עֲשִׂירִית) |
| 20 | Kaf | כ | esrim (עֶשְׂרִים) |
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| 30 | Lamed | ל | shloshim (שְׁלוֹשִׁים) |
|||
| 40 | Mem | מ | arba'im (אַרְבָּעִים) |
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| 50 | Nun | נ | chamishim (חֲמִשִּׁים) |
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| 60 | Samech | ס | shishim (שִׁשִּׁים) |
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| 70 | Ayin | ע | shiv'im (שִׁבְעִים) |
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| 80 | Pei | פ | shmonim (שְׁמוֹנִים) |
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| 90 | Tsadi | צ | tish'im (תִּשְׁעִים) |
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| 100 | Kuf | ק | me'a (מֵאָה) |
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| 200 | Resh | ר | matayim (מָאתַיִם) |
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| 300 | Shin | ש | shlosh meot (שְׁלוֹשׁ מֵאוֹת) |
|||
| 400 | Tav | ת | arba meot (אַרְבַּע מֵאוֹת) |
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| 500 | Tav Kuf or Chaf Sofit | ת"ק or ך | chamesh meot (חֲמֵשׁ מֵאוֹת) |
|||
| 600 | Tav Resh or Mem Sofit | ת"ר or ם | shesh meot (שֵׁשׁ מֵאוֹת) |
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| 700 | Tav Shin or Nun Sofit | ת"ש or ן | shva meot (שְׁבַע מֵאוֹת) |
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| 800 | Tav Tav or Pei Sofit | ת"ת or ף | shmone meot (שְׁמוֹנֶה מֵאוֹת) |
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| 900 | Tav Tav Kuf or Tsadi Sofit | תת"ק or ץ | tsha meot (תְּשַׁע מֵאוֹת) |
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| 11: achad asar/achat esre, 12: shneim asar/shteim esre, 13: shlosha asar/shlosh esre, 14: arba'a asar/arba esre, 15: chamisha asar/chamesh esre, 16: shisha asar/shesh esre, 17: shiv'a asar/shva esre, 18: shmona asar/shmone esre, 19: tish'a asar/tsha esre |
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| 1000: elef, 2000: alpaim, 10 000: aseret alafim, 100 000: mea elef, 1 000 000: miliyon, 1 000 000 000: miliyard |
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Note: For ordinal numbers greater than 10, cardinal numbers are used instead.
[edit] Speaking and writing
Hebrew has masculine and feminine ways of saying the words. For just counting, feminine is used (except echad). Otherwise, the gender is used (ex. two boys, two girls). Also, objects are either male or female (ex. a book (sefer) is male).The number is written first, then the noun (ex. shlosha yeladim), except for number one where it is reversed (ex. yelad echad). The number two is special, shnayim (m.) and shtayim (f.) becomes shney (m.), and shtey (f.) when describing the number of some noun. Also, mixed groups are always addressed as male, which is the case with all Hebrew. For ordinal numbers (number indicating posiiton), for greater than 10 the cardinal is used.
[edit] Calculations
The Hebrew numeric system operates on the additive principle in which the numeric values of the letters are added together to form the total. For example, 177 is represented as קעז which corresponds to 100 + 70 + 7 = 177.
Mathematically, this type of system requires 27 letters (1-9, 10-90, 100-900). In practice the last letter, tav (which has the value 400) is used in combination with itself and/or other letters from kof (100) onwards, to generate numbers from 500 and above. Alternatively, the 22-letter Hebrew numeral set is sometimes extended to 27 by using 5 sofeet (final) forms of the Hebrew letters.
[edit] Key exceptions
By convention, the numbers 15 and 16 are represented as ט״ו (9 + 6) and ט״ז (9 + 7), respectively. This is done in order to refrain from using the two-letter combinations י–ה (10 + 5) and י–ו (10 + 6) (which are alternate written forms for the Name of God) in everyday writing. In the calendar, this manifests every full moon, since all Hebrew months start on a new moon.
Combinations which would spell out words with negative connotations are sometimes avoided by switching the order of the letters. For instance, תשמ״ד (meaning "you/it will be destroyed") might instead be written as תשד״מ.
[edit] Gershayim
Gershayim (U+05F4 in Unicode, and resembling a double quote mark) (sometimes erroneously referred to as merkha'ot (Hebrew for double quote)) are inserted before (to the right of) the last (leftmost) letter to indicate that the sequence of letters represents a number rather than a word. This is used in the case where a number is represented by two or more Hebrew numerals (e.g., 18 → י״ח).
Similarly, a single Geresh (U+05F3 in Unicode, and resembling a single quote mark) is appended after (to the left of) a single letter to indicate that the letter represents a number rather than a (one-letter) word. This is used in the case where a number is represented by a single Hebrew numeral (e.g., 100 → ק׳).
[edit] Decimals
In print, Hindu-Arabic numerals are employed in Modern Hebrew for most purposes. Hebrew numerals are used nowadays primarily for writing the days and years of the Hebrew calendar; for references to traditional Jewish texts (particularly for Biblical chapter and verse and for Talmudic folios); for bulleted or numbered lists (similar to A, B, C, etc., in English); and in numerology (gematria).
[edit] Thousands and date formats
Thousands are counted separately, and the thousands count precedes the rest of the number (to the right, since Hebrew is read from right to left). There are no special marks to signify that the “count” is starting over with thousands, which can theoretically lead to ambiguity. When specifying years of the Hebrew calendar in the present millennium, writers usually omit the thousands (which is presently 5 [ה]), but if they don't, this is accepted to mean 5 * 1000, with no ambiguity. The current Israeli coinage includes the thousands.
[edit] Date examples
“Monday, 15 Adar 5764” (where 5764 = 5(×1000) + 400 + 300 + 60 + 4, and 15 = 9 + 6):
- In full (with thousands): “Monday, 15(th) of Adar, 5764”
- יום שני ט״ו באדר ה׳תשס״ד
- Common usage (omitting thousands): “Monday, 15(th) of Adar, (5)764”
- יום שני ט״ו באדר תשס״ד
“Thursday, 3 Nisan 5767” (where 5767 = 5(×1000) + 400 + 300 + 60 + 7):
- In full (with thousands): “Thursday, 3(rd) of Nisan, 5767”
- יום חמישי ג׳ בניסן ה׳תשס״ז
- Common usage (omitting thousands): “Thursday, 3(rd) of Nisan, (5)767”
- יום חמישי ג׳ בניסן תשס״ז
To see how today's date in the Hebrew calendar is written, see, for example, the dateline at the top of the Haaretz Online home page.
[edit] Recent years
5768 (2007–08) = תשס״ח
5767 (2006–07) = תשס״ז
5766 (2005–06) = תשס״ו
5765 (2004–05) = תשס״ה
[edit] Similar systems
The Abjad numerals are equivalent to the Hebrew numerals up to 400. The Greek numerals differ from the Hebrew ones from 90 upwards because in the Greek alphabet there is no equivalent for Tsadi (צ).
[edit] External links
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