אחת or אחד for "neutral" "one"?

Question

I know the feminine forms of numbers are used when they do not determine or refer to a noun (that is, when counting, giving a phone, bus or street number, or telling the time). But I just watched [this video](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBd9QdpqUz0&t=0m53s) and the host says אחד for "neutral" "one" instead of אחת, while all the other numbers are in their feminine forms. She also says אחד when she gives a phone number towards the end of the video, and also אחד עשרה for "eleven" in [another video](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hj3dJH6awHg&t=0m43s). ​ Is only אחד used as the "neutral" form of "one" in colloquial Hebrew (as the HebrewPod101 series pretty obviously teaches colloquial Hebrew)? Or are both אחד and אחת used? If so, is there a preference for one of them, in colloquial Hebrew? Also, in formal Hebrew I suppose only אחת would be accepted for "neutral" "one", right? .תודה

Answer 1

I just watched the video. The woman in the video is wrong. It should be אחת. Very few Israelis actually know how to use masculine and feminine numbers correctly, and this woman obviously does not. You are correct and she is wrong. Here is another example of this confusion. The number 18 bus is called by nearly all Israelis kav shmonah-esreh. I write that in English to show you the sounds. There is no such number as shmonah-esreh, which is a combination of masculine (shmonah) and feminine (esreh). The bus number should be shmoneh-esreh (feminine form), but you will almost never hear native speakers say that correctly.