# Teen Numbers



## sawyeric1

Why do the feminine ones use the construct state, but the masculine ones don't? 

Ex: 

- שבע עשרה (shva) but שבעה עשר

- שלוש עשרה (shlosh) but שלושה עשר

Thanks


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## Drink

Because it's not _really_ a construct state. It's just a close connection between the words that results in vowel reductions similar to the construct state. That's also why you get שתים עשרה (shtem esre) rather than שתי עשרה (shte esre, which would be the construction) or שתים עשרה (shtayim esre, which would be the full form). If you think about it, the construct state expresses an "of" relationship, but in שלושה עשר you don't have an "of" relation ship. You don't have "שלושה of עשר", but rather "שלושה and עשר". This is unlike שלושת אלפים, where you do in fact have an "of" relationship "שלושת of אלפים".


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## sawyeric1

I find it interesting that if you say "the two of them" referring to women, you would still use the masculine two: שניהן instead of שתיהן


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## shalom00

Not so.


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## Drink

Yeah that's not true, you would use שתיהן.

But I wonder if two women would ever actually שתינו instead of שנינו?


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## shalom00

There are a lot of women who use masculine and feminine correctly.


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## sawyeric1

Okay, but the stems for "the three of them", "the four of them", and "the five of them" are all pronounced the same regardless of gender, right? : -שלושת- , ארבעת-, חמשת


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## shalom00

Yes


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## sawyeric1

Is the feminine 18 usually used even for masculine nouns?


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## shalom00

If used to refer to masculine nouns, then the masculine form שמונה עשר would be used.


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## oopqoo

Drink said:


> Yeah that's not true, you would use שתיהן.
> 
> But I wonder if two women would ever actually שתינו instead of שנינו?


I think the more common mistake is to use שתינו over שנינו. So you'd definitely hear two guys saying שתינו because in "street language" the feminine form is considered the default. When you have a word like שנינו in your lexicon it shows that you're a level above street language.
This comes from the same reason by which people say שתי תפוחים erroneously instead of שני תפוחים.


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