In short

Hebrew has exactly ten subject pronouns. Eight of them come in masculine/feminine pairs, so choosing the right word means tracking three things at once: person (I / you / he), number (one or many), and grammatical gender. The two forms of “you” — אתה (ata) for a man and את (at) for a woman — are the ones learners meet first and reach for constantly.

The single most important thing to unlearn here is politeness. אתה and את are not an informal-versus-formal pair like French tu/vous or German du/Sie. Hebrew has no polite “you” at all: you pick אתה or את purely by the listener’s gender, whether you are speaking to a child, a friend, a stranger, or the prime minister.

The rule

• Ten pronouns, sorted by person, number, and gender. Singular: אני (ani, I), אתה (ata, you m.), את (at, you f.), הוא (hu, he/it), היא (hi, she/it). Plural: אנחנו (anachnu, we), אתם (atem, you m.), אתן (aten, you f.), הם (hem, they m.), הן (hen, they f.). Memorise them in that grid — person down, gender across.
• Only “you” and the third person carry gender. אני (ani) and אנחנו (anachnu) are gender-neutral: a man and a woman both say אני. Gender only forces a choice in the second and third persons.
• No T/V, no formal form. The split אתה / את is grammatical gender and nothing else. There is no separate polite pronoun to switch to for elders, superiors, or strangers — you always choose by gender alone. Likewise for the plural אתם / אתן.
• Mixed groups default to masculine. Address a room of ten women with אתן (aten), but the moment a single man joins, the whole group becomes אתם (atem); the same holds for הם (hem) versus הן (hen) when you talk about people.
• Watch the spelling of הוא and היא. “He” is הוא — heh, then a vav (ו), then alef. “She” is היא — heh, then a yod (י), then alef. They differ by one middle letter; a swapped vav/yod is a real spelling mistake even though the meaning may be clear from context.
• את “you (f.)” is a homograph. The very same spelling את is also the direct-object marker (as in “I saw the book”). Here it is the subject pronoun “you (f.)”; the object-marker use is a separate word taught later — see Direct-object marker et before definite objects.
• Final letters close four of them. אתם, אתן, הם, הן end in the sofit (final) forms ם and ן — the special word-end shapes you met in the alphabet lesson. Never write a medial מ or נ at the end of these words.
• Register note. In everyday speech many Israelis drop the feminine plurals: a group of women is often addressed as אתם (atem) and referred to as הם (hem) even though careful and written Hebrew keeps אתן (aten) and הן (hen). Learn the full feminine set — it is the correct standard — but do not be surprised to hear the masculine forms doing double duty.

Forms & patterns

The full set of ten. The masculine and feminine columns are identical wherever Hebrew makes no gender distinction (1st person).

The two third-person singular forms differ by a single vowel-letter — commit the pairing to memory:

Examples

Common mistakes

• אתה, מירי? (to a woman) -> את, מירי? - אתה (ata) is masculine “you”; a woman is always את (at).
• את, אדוני? (to a man) -> אתה, אדוני? - את (at) is feminine “you”; a man is אתה (ata). There is no polite pronoun to reach for instead — only gender decides.
• אתם (to one man, meant as a polite singular) -> אתה - אתם (atem) is strictly plural; Hebrew has no formal singular “you” like French vous.
• היא meaning “he” -> הוא - “he” is spelled with a vav (הוא); the yod spelling היא is “she”. Do not swap the middle letter.
• אתן מוכנות? (to a mixed group) -> אתם מוכנים? - any group containing at least one man takes the masculine אתם (atem) / הם (hem).
• אתמ / המ -> אתם / הם - a word-final mem must be the sofit form ם, never the medial מ.

Tips

• Fix the grid in your head as three questions: which person, singular or plural, and (for “you” and the third person) male or female. Everything else follows.
• Mnemonic for the tricky pair: hu has a vav (וoo), hi has a yod — הוא = he, היא = she. Say them aloud together until the spelling is automatic.
• There is no “polite you” to hide behind. When in doubt about a stranger’s gender, you must still choose אתה or את; Hebrew simply forces the call.
• Any mixed company defaults to the masculine — אתם, הם — so when you are unsure of the mix, masculine is the safe standard form.
• אני (ani) and אנחנו (anachnu) never change for gender: one word each covers both men and women. Two fewer forms to worry about.
• The subject pronoun את (at, you f.) looks identical to the object-marker את. Position tells them apart — a subject pronoun opens the sentence, the object marker sits before a definite object; details come in Direct-object marker et before definite objects.
• In real speech you will often hear אתם / הם aimed at a group of women. That is a colloquial shortcut; when you write, keep the feminine אתן / הן.