# ?"איש" ברבות



## trigel

ניתן לומר "איש" במשמעות "אף אחת" או שיש "אף אחת" בלבד?
(just so you understand, I do have a major avenue of use for feminine indefinite/plural in real life... I live with my mom, sister, aunts and grandmother, seriously,
אז זה לא סתם שאני תמיד שואל על רבות\צורות נקביות)


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## airelibre

??? As far as I know איש means man. Do you have any examples of what you're asking about?


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## trigel

As far as I know איש can be used like אף אחד to mean "no one" (it's higher register than אף אחד):
דיברתי איתם בקשר לבעיה שלי אבל איש מהם לא הבין

I'm asking if איש can be used as feminine indefinite:
דיברתי איתן בקשר לבעיה שלי אבל איש מהן לא הבינ\ה
because apparently אישה isn't used this way.


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## airelibre

Ok I see, it's an interesting question. From a quick google search there aren't any relevant results for "איש מהן" or "אישה מהן". To me, "איש מהם" seems idiomatic, so אישה wouldn't necessarily be used in the same way, but lets see what the native speakers have to say.


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## Tararam

Not really, "אף לא אחת מהן" / "אף אחת מהן" are used in these specific situations when referring to females only.
When you speak in general, "איש" means "no one" and it can include females too.
"איש לא יודע" / "אין איש יודע" = "No one knows" (be it men or women).

חג שמח


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## trigel

What did you mean by "Not really"? You're saying ish is always generic and can't be used for a specific set of people? or ish can't be used for feminine plural?


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## Tararam

You might hear "איש מכם" / "איש מהם" meaning "not one of you/them (males)" but the most common use is indeed universal.
What comes to mind is "personne" in French, which is the female noun for "person" but in negation it simply means "no one".


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## arbelyoni

trigel said:


> As far as I know איש can be used like אף אחד to mean "no one" (it's higher register than אף אחד):
> דיברתי איתם בקשר לבעיה שלי אבל איש מהם לא הבין
> 
> I'm asking if איש can be used as feminine indefinite:
> דיברתי איתן בקשר לבעיה שלי אבל איש מהן לא הבינ\ה
> because apparently אישה isn't used this way.


By the way,
Both איש and אף אחד/אחת mean ¨anyone¨, not ¨no one¨ (although they´re used mainly in negation); that´s why they require a negation word after them, similar to the way כלום and שום דבר (literally ¨something¨) are used.


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## trigel

Can you give an example of איש used affirmatively?


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## anipo

איש עמד בתחנה . A man stood at the station.
The "affirmative" use of איש simply means "man".
In the negative it means nobody "איש לא עמד בתחנה"- Nobody stood at the station.
If you wanted to say "somebody" you would use מישהו עמד בתחנה .מישהו.


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## origumi

trigel said:


> Can you give an example of איש used affirmatively?



Take any Bible search engine and look for איש in Genesis. About half of the cases are איש = _someone_, _everyone_, _each one_, many instances with no negation.


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