how to say “two hundred” in Hebrew

 

מָאתַיִם, אַלְפַּיִם

 

 
Yesterday we saw the Hebrew terms for three hundred and three thousandשְׁלֹשׁ מְאוֹת  listen and repeat and שְׁלֹשֶׁת אֲלָפִים  listen and repeat, respectively.
 
Higher multiples of those numbers follow a pattern:
 
אַרְבַּע מְאוֹת, אַרְבַּעַת אֲלָפִים – 400, 4000  listen and repeat
חֲמֵשׁ מְאוֹת, חֲמֵשֶׁת אֲלָפִים – 500, 5000  listen and repeat
 
and so on.
 
Going down to the multiple of two, however, we find a different phenomenon – a doubling of the word itself with an ah-yeem ending.
 
Thus two hundred is מָאתַיִם  listen and repeat, and two thousand is אַלְפַּיִם  listen and repeat.
 
For example:
 
לֹא שָׁמַעְתִּי אֵיזֶה סְכוּם אָמַרְתָּ – מָאתַיִם אוֹ אַלְפַּיִם שְׁקָלִים?
I didn’t hear what amount you (a male) said – two hundred or two thousand shekels?
 
These words can describe both masculine and feminine nouns. For example:
 
בָּאוּלָם יוֹשְׁבִים מָאתַיִם גְּבָרִים וּמָאתַיִם נָשִׁים.
In the hall, two hundred men and two hundred women are seated.
 
The ah-yeem ending appears on many other words that come in pairs, such as עֵינַיִם  listen and repeat – eyes, and מַגָּפַיִם  listen and repeat – boots.

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