how to say “concentration camp” in Hebrew

[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/מחנה-ריכוז-#.m4a” /]מַחֲנֵה רִכּוּז

If ריכוז[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/מחנה-ריכוז-#.m4a” /] is concentration, מחנה ריכוז[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/מחנה-ריכוז-#.m4a” /] is concentration camp.

For example:

[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/מחנה-ריכוז-#.m4a” /]רוב הנרצחים בשואה נספו במחנות הריכוז.

Most of those murdered in the Holocaust perished in the concentration camps.

You may have noticed that מחנה[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/מחנה-ריכוז-#.m4a” /], a masculine word, has an ות-[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/מחנה-ריכוז-#.m4a” /] ending when in the plural – מחנות[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/מחנה-ריכוז-#.m4a” /]. This happens a lot in Hebrew, where a masculine noun looks feminine in the plural, for example, מקום-מקומות[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/מחנה-ריכוז-#.m4a” /] (place-places), שולחן, שולחנות[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/מחנה-ריכוז-#.m4a” /] (table-tables).

Regardless of their plural forms, these words are still masculine, so that when they’re described, their adjectives get masculine endings.

For example, מקומות יפים[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/מחנה-ריכוז-#.m4a” /] are nice places, and שולחנות גדולים[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/מחנה-ריכוז-#.m4a” /] are big tables.