In short

To point something out — “this is a book”, “these children” — Modern Hebrew uses the demonstratives כינויי הרמז (kinuyei ha-remez): זה (ze) for a masculine thing, זאת (zot) for a feminine thing, and אלה (eleh) for any plural. They agree with the noun in gender and number, exactly the way an adjective does, and they carry no niqqud once you leave the reading lessons.

The catch for an English speaker is that Hebrew uses the same words in two different shapes for two different jobs. Placed before a bare noun they make a whole sentence — זה ספר (ze sefer) = “this is a book”. Placed after a definite noun, with the article ה־ (ha-) repeated on the demonstrative, they just modify it — הספר הזה (ha-sefer ha-ze) = “this book”. English “this” hides that split; Hebrew makes you choose.

The rule

Three near-deixis forms, agreeing in gender and number. Use זה (ze) for a masculine singular thing, זאת (zot) for a feminine singular thing, and אלה (eleh) for a plural of either gender — there is no gender split in the plural. The choice tracks the noun’s lexical gender from lessons 3–4, never the sound of its ־ים / ־ות ending: מילים (milim) “words” is feminine, so “these words” is המילים האלה (ha-milim ha-eleh) with the plural form regardless.

Job 1 — predicative “this is …”: demonstrative first, no article. To say “this/that is X”, put the demonstrative in front of an indefinite noun and stop — it is a nominal sentence (lesson 5) with the demonstrative as subject: זה ספר (ze sefer) “this is a book”, זאת מפה (zot mapa) “this is a map”, אלה ילדים (eleh yeladim) “these are children”. Nothing links the two parts, and no ה־ appears.

Neutral “this / that” uses masculine זה. When you are not pointing at one named noun — reacting to a whole situation or asking about an unknown thing — the default is masculine זה: זה יפה (ze yafe) “that’s nice”, זה בסדר (ze beseder) “that’s OK”, and the everyday question מה זה? (ma ze?) “what is this?”, מי זה? (mi ze?) “who is that?”.

Job 2 — attributive “this X”: demonstrative AFTER the noun, article doubled. To modify a specific noun, the demonstrative behaves like an adjective (lesson 7): it comes after the noun, and — because the noun is definite — it too takes ה־. The article therefore appears twice: הספר הזה (ha-sefer ha-ze) “this book”, literally “the-book the-this”; המורה הזאת (ha-mora ha-zot) “this teacher (f.)”; הילדים האלה (ha-yeladim ha-eleh) “these children”. Both the noun and the demonstrative wear the article; drop either one and the phrase breaks.

Everyday vs. literary forms. The feminine singular has two spellings: everyday זאת (zot) and bookish זו (zo). The plural likewise has everyday אלה (eleh) and literary אלו (elu). There is also a purely literary attributive pattern with the demonstrative after the noun and no articles at all — ספר זה (sefer ze) “this book” — which you will meet in formal writing. In speech and ordinary text, use זאת / אלה and the doubled-article pattern.

Far deixis, in one line. For “that … over there” as opposed to “this … here”, Modern Hebrew reuses the third-person pronouns from lesson 1 as demonstratives: masculine ההוא (ha-hu), feminine ההיא (ha-hi), and their plurals — הילד ההוא (ha-yeled ha-hu) “that boy”. Same doubled-article shape; no need to drill it now.

Forms & patterns

The near-deixis paradigm — pick the form from the noun’s gender and number:

Job 1 — predicative “this is …” (demonstrative + indefinite noun, no article):

Job 2 — attributive “this …” (definite noun + demonstrative, article on both):

Same two nouns, two jobs — watch the article appear and disappear:

Examples

Common mistakes

• ספר הזה -> הספר הזה (ha-sefer ha-ze) - the attributive pattern doubles the article; the noun must also carry ה־, not just the demonstrative.
• זה ספר (meant as “this book”) -> הספר הזה (ha-sefer ha-ze) - predicative זה ספר is a full sentence “this is a book”; to modify a noun, put the demonstrative AFTER it with the doubled ה־.
• זה מפה -> זאת מפה (zot mapa) - מפה is feminine, so use feminine זאת, never masculine זה.
• המורה הזה (for a female teacher) -> המורה הזאת (ha-mora ha-zot) - the demonstrative matches gender; a female teacher takes feminine הזאת.
• הספרים הזה -> הספרים האלה (ha-sfarim ha-eleh) - a plural noun takes the plural demonstrative אלה, not the singular זה.
• הילדים אלה -> הילדים האלה (ha-yeladim ha-eleh) - the plural is attributive too, so it also needs its own ה־: האלה, not bare אלה.
• הזה ספר -> זה ספר (ze sefer) - the demonstrative comes first only in the article-free predicative sentence; you cannot put הזה before the noun.

Tips

• Two jobs, two shapes: article-free before a bare noun = “this is X” (a sentence); with ה־ after a definite noun = “this X” (a phrase). Decide which you mean first.
• Match the noun: זה for masculine singular, זאת for feminine singular, אלה for any plural — the plural has no gender split.
• In the attributive pattern the article shows up twice, once on the noun and once on the demonstrative: הספר הזה, literally “the-book the-this”. If you wrote only one ה־, it is wrong.
• Pick the form from the noun’s lexical gender (lessons 3–4), not from its ־ים / ־ות ending: המילים האלה (ha-milim ha-eleh), because מילה is feminine, stays plural either way.
• For a general reaction with no single noun in mind, reach for masculine זה: מה זה? (ma ze?), זה יפה (ze yafe), זה בסדר (ze beseder).
• Everyday speech says זאת and אלה. The variants זו / אלו and the article-less literary ספר זה (sefer ze) sound bookish — recognize them in reading, but produce זאת / אלה yourself.
• “That one over there” (far deixis) just reuses the lesson-1 pronouns with the same doubling: הילד ההוא (ha-yeled ha-hu), הילדה ההיא (ha-yalda ha-hi).