Polarity of gender

For example, in Somali, which is a Cushitic language, plural nouns usually take the opposite gender of their singular forms.

Hebrew, a Semitic language, has a consistent polarity-of-gender agreement between nouns and simple numerals.

In the latter, the feminine suffix -a (ה) is added to the numeral עשר (ten) that modifies the masculine noun בנים (boys).

Following Yiddish (where there is no difference between a numeral modifying a masculine noun and a numeral modifying a feminine one), in most Israeli idiolects, sociolects and dialects, the numeral-noun agreement system is much simpler, and does not follow polarity of gender.

In common usage (as opposed to the prescribed form by the Academy of the Hebrew Language), the expressions עשר בנות éser banót ("ten girls"), and עשר בנים éser baním ("ten boys"), are both commonly used and grammatical.