Hebrew numerals

Question

There appears to be three different numbering commands in the polyglossia package. Which one is the most correct to use?

I can understand the argument for the \Hebrewnumeralfinal one since it seems correct to have the final letters show appropriately. But there is also a difference in the way that the other two commands generate a numeral, which is a bit confusing to me.

If there are any Hebrew native speaking TeX.SX members, I would appreciate your input.

This is a MWE.

% !TEX TS-program = XeLaTeX

\documentclass{scrreprt}

\usepackage{fontspec}
\setmainfont{Times New Roman}

\usepackage{polyglossia}
\setdefaultlanguage{greek}
\setotherlanguage[numerals=hebrew]{hebrew}

\begin{document}
ελληνικά \greeknumeral{1863}

Hebrew: עִבְרִית\\
\hebrewnumeral{1750}
\Hebrewnumeral{1750}
\Hebrewnumeralfinal{1750}\\
\hebrewnumeral{1}
\Hebrewnumeral{1}
\Hebrewnumeralfinal{1}
\end{document}

Answer 1

The difference between \hebrewnumeral and \Hebrewnumeral is whether or not the "gershayim" are included - these are the marks that look like a double quotation mark and appear before the last character. They're used, broadly speaking, to indicate that a set of several letters is not an ordinary word (e.g., it's a number or an acronym). Whether you want them may depend on the context in which you're printing the number, but I would advise using them (and therefore the \H version) in most contexts.

More information at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gershayim .

(Disclaimer: my Hebrew is decent but I'm not a native speaker.)

Answer 2

To elaborate on Ant's answer:

Hebrew numbers are rarely written using the final forms of letters; 120 is much more commonly expressed as ק"כ than ק"ך. There are exceptions, of course, but they are rather esoteric, so I wouldn't worry about them.

As to when the gershayim are used, this typically depends on custom and context. Where it is clear that what's being presented is a number, they are quite often excluded. Numbered chapter headings, for example, are usually written without them, and often the date (of the month), although years are almost always written with:

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