# חברים vs. חברות



## jpmatheny

Hi, I am familiar with the usage of the word חבר as friend/boyfriend and with חברה, חברים, and חברות as the various forms of the noun. Usually, I see חברים used as a general group of friends or just the word for "friends", most of the time. But I was looking Facebook in Hebrew the other day and noticed the phrase בקשות לחברות, which I take to mean "friend requests". But I would expect it to say בקשות לחברים. What is the difference? And how is חברות normally used?


----------



## ks20495

In your example from Facebook, the word is חֲבֵרוּת (chaverut) and not חֲבֵרוֹת (chaverot).

חֲבֵרוּת means "friendship" or "membership." חֲבֵרוֹת means "(female) friends."

"וּת-" is commonly used to create an abstract noun from a concrete noun or an adjective, much like "-ence" or "-ity. For example: 
נשיא -> נשיאות = president -> presidency.


----------



## Aoyama

It is true that if you don't use vowels (nekudot), then _chaverut_ and _chaverot _will look alike, but context will make the difference (though sometimes not so obvious).
As explained by ks, chaverut means "friendship,membership" but also "association" (as in "club"), "group".


----------



## jpmatheny

Ahhh. Awesome. So, בקשות לחברות translates pretty directly as "requests for friendship." Is this correct?


----------



## origumi

חברים khaverim = friends / members, m.
חברות khaverot = friends / members, f.

חברות khaverut = friendship / membership (this is the one in Facebook)
חברות khavarot = companies / societies


----------



## Aoyama

But then, if I am not mistaking, you can also have "khevrat XX" in combination, meaning " XX association, group, club" ?


----------



## jpmatheny

Awesome. Thank You all.


----------



## mediterraneo24

Aoyama said:


> But then, if I am not mistaking, you can also have "khevrat XX" in combination, meaning " XX association, group, club" ?



In this case it means "company of"
חברת ידידים = company of friends


----------



## Aoyama

Right. Thank you.
But, by the way, what it the word for "company", as an enterprise ?


----------



## ks20495

Company is חֶבְרָה. 

חֶבְרָה also means "society."


----------



## Aoyama

Rav todot.


----------

