שום
“שום” (шум) — no; none in Hebrew. Pronoun, level A1, topic — pronouns. The verb with shum must take lo: lo... shum... Garlic — shum with the vowels — is another word on the same consonants; without them shum means none. In a live sentence: “הוא לא נותן שום סיבה” — He gives no reason at all. Written with the characters ש, ו. One of 27 words in the set “pronouns” in the Hebrew course.
In short
| Written in Hebrew | שום |
| Read in Latin letters | шум |
| Translation | no; none |
| Part of speech | pronoun |
| Level | A1 |
Why it looks that way
The verb with shum must take lo: lo... shum... Garlic — shum with the vowels — is another word on the same consonants; without them shum means none
A word with a story stays in memory longer than one learned as a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.
In a live sentence
A single word almost never appears alone in conversation. A sentence shows where it fits and what stands next to it.
- הוא לא נותן שום סיבהху ло нотэн шум сиба.He gives no reason at all
Nearby words: pronouns
I, you, we, they. There is a handful of them, they turn up in every sentence, and politeness rides on them: most of these languages keep a formal “you” apart from a familiar one, and choosing the wrong one is noticed faster than a mispronounced word.
- אניаниIThe first letter א has no sound — the word reads ani. One word for men and women
- אתהатаyouSaid to a man. To a woman — at (את); the difference is one letter
- אתםатемyou (plural)To a group. A company of women hears aten (אתן). Polite and ordinary you are not distinguished here
- הואхуheReads hu: the letter ה at the start gives a light h, and the ו here is the vowel u
- היאхиsheThe pair to hu: the same letters, but the second one is i. He and she differ by one vowel
- אנחנוанахнуweMid-sentence it often shrinks to anu — both variants sound native
- אנחנו שנינוанахну шнейнуthe two of usLiterally "we two" — shneynu from shnayim, two. There is no separate pronoun for two people; it is a phrase
- הםхемtheyAbout men or a mixed group. About women — hen (הן)
- שליшелиmyHebrew says shel plus who: sheli is literally "of me". Often the noun takes the owner right on as a ending of its own
- שלךшэлхаyourTo a man it sounds shelcha, to a woman shelach — spelled the same way: שלך. The polite your to one person is the same word
Test yourself
Five questions from the same set — “pronouns”. Recalling a spelling from meaning is harder than knowing a familiar word on sight, and therefore more useful.
- How do you say “no; none” in Hebrew?
The verb with shum must take lo: lo... shum... Garlic — shum with the vowels — is another word on the same consonants; without them shum means none
- How do you say “the two of us” in Hebrew?
Literally "we two" — shneynu from shnayim, two. There is no separate pronoun for two people; it is a phrase
- How do you say “you (plural)” in Hebrew?
To a group. A company of women hears aten (אתן). Polite and ordinary you are not distinguished here
- How do you say “your” in Hebrew?
To a man it sounds shelcha, to a woman shelach — spelled the same way: שלך. The polite your to one person is the same word
- How do you say “we” in Hebrew?
Mid-sentence it often shrinks to anu — both variants sound native
How not to forget this word
Reading a word and remembering it are different jobs. A day later, little survives of a single reading — and that is not bad memory, that is how memory works.
- This has been tested on foreign words too. The difference shows up most when you test yourself a few days later rather than straight away.checked many timesKim & Webb, 2022, Language Learning 72(2) · 48 experiments, 3,411 participants, 98 comparisons.
- Recalling beats re-reading. Covering the translation and trying to remember it does more than reading it ten more times.checked many timesAdesope, Trevisan & Sundararajan, 2017, Review of Educational Research 87(3) · 188 experiments, 272 comparisons. g = 0.61; against plain re-reading 0.51, against passive review 0.93.
- An answer you worked out yourself sticks better than one handed to you.checked many timesBertsch et al., 2007, Memory & Cognition 35(2) · 86 studies, 445 comparisons, d = 0.40.
Frequently asked
How do you say “no; none” in Hebrew?
«שום», read “шум”. In a live sentence: “הוא לא נותן שום סיבה” — He gives no reason at all. Pronoun, level A1, from the set “pronouns”; written with the characters ש, ו.
How is “שום” written in Latin letters?
шум. This is a practical spelling — you need it to read aloud and be understood, not to meet an academic standard.
Why does this word look the way it does?
The verb with shum must take lo: lo... shum... Garlic — shum with the vowels — is another word on the same consonants; without them shum means none. A word with a story stays in memory longer than a “spelling — translation” pair: memory holds on to meaning, not to a string.