Pa'al
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Conjugation Pa'al - בניין פָּעַל
This page describes the conjugation of the verb to learn - לָמַד. This verb is good as an example since it follows the basic conjugation scheme, unaffected by "problematic" consonants, such as בג"ד כפ"ת or אהו"י (the latter ones have special rules affecting them in the verb system); it does have a final ד but it is simply always weak.
To conjugate another verb, you basically just have to replace the root letters למד with the root letters of that other verb in the forms shown below. Unfortunately, many verb roots in Hebrew contain consonants which causes changes to the resulting form. Those changes will be described further on.
Past Tense
The conjugation of למד in the past is described in the table below. English transliteration is added since the vocalisation marks in Hebrew are difficult to see unless using a large font. Also, bold-faced vowels in the English transliteration indicate the stressed syllable.
| (lamadnu) אנחנו לָמַדְנוּ | (lamadti) אני לָמַדְתִּי |
| (lmadtem) אתם לְמַדְתֶּם | (lamadta) אתה לָמַדְתָּ |
| (lmadten) אתן לְמַדְתֶּן | (lamadt) את לַמָדְתְּ |
| (lamdu) הם/הן לָמְדוּ | (lamad) הוא לָמַד |
| (lamda) היא לָמְדָה |
As you can see, there are slight changes in the basic פָּעַל form, but the major changes are the suffixes. Keep these in mind - the same suffixes are used in all the other conjugations.
Notes:
- The 1st and 2nd person pronouns are generally not used together with the past tense verbs. There's no need to say "I", "we", "you" if already indicated by the verb form itself.
- 3rd person plural (הם/הן) has the same form in the past for both genders. This too is true for all conjugations.
- In spoken Hebrew, people often say "lamadtem(n)" instead of "lmadtem(n)".
Present Participle
Yes, there's a reason I wrote "participle" rather than "tense" - but let's look at the forms first:
| plural | singular | |
| masculine | (lomdim) לוֹמְדִים | (lomed) לוֹמֵד |
| feminine | (lomdot) לוֹמְדוֹת | (lomedet) לוֹמֶדֶת |
The present form is actually an adjective - it expresses only gender and number, not person (so either pronouns or nouns must be used). And this is exactly a "participle" - a form of the verb which behaves like a noun or adjective. If you know how to use adjectives in Hebrew, e.g. to put them always after the noun, you can use the participles as well.
Some verbs use a slightly different pattern, e.g. יָשַן to sleep
| plural | singular | |
| masculine | (yshenim) יְשֵנִים | (yashen) יָשֵן |
| feminine | (yshenot) יְשֵנוֹת | (yshena) יְשֵנָה |
Sorry, you'll just have to remember which verbs use this pattern...
Future Tense
The future tense works pretty much like the past tense:
| (nilmad) אנחנו נִלְמַד | (elmad) אני אֶלְמַד |
| (tilmdu) אתם תִּלְמְדוּ | (tilmad) אתה תִּלְמַד |
| (tilmdu/tilmadna) אתן תִּלְמְדוּ/תִּלְמַדְנָה | (tilmdi) את תִּלְמְדִי |
| (yilmdu) הם יִלְמְדוּ | (yilmad) הוא יִלְמַד |
| (yilmdu/tilmadna) הן יִלְמְדוּ/תִּלְמַדְנָה | (tilmad) היא תִּלְמַד |
This time there are also prefixes and not only suffixes, but the general principle is the same. And again those same prefixes and suffixes are used in the other conjugations.
Notes:
- Many verbs have o instead of a in the future, e.g. (yishmor) יִשְמֹר - (shamar) שָמַר to guard, keep. However, most verbs in which the 2nd or 3rd letter of the root is guttural, have a: (yish'al) יִשְאַל - (sha'al) שָאַל to ask, (yismah) יִשְׂמַח - (samah) שָׂמַח to be glad.
- Although the verb forms indicate the subject in 1st and 2nd persons, just like in the past tense, Hebrew speakers almost always add the pronouns anyway.
- 2nd person feminine plural has two possible forms. The masculine form תִּלְמְדוּ is used more often in speech, but both are perfectly legit. The same goes for 3rd person feminine plural (yes, the alternate form תִּלְמַדְנָה is the same in both cases).
Imperative
The imperative is often replaced by the future tense in spoken Hebrew. It is formed from the future tense, by removing the prefix letter from the 2nd person forms, and inserting an i if the result begins with two schwas:
| !לִמְדוּ -(tilmdu) אתם תִּלְמְדוּ | !לְמַד - (tilmad) אתה תִּלְמַד |
| !לִמְדוּ/לְמַדְנָה - (tilmdu/tilmadna) אתן תִּלְמְדוּ/תִּלְמַדְנָה | !לִמְדִי - (tilmdi) את תִּלְמְדִי |
Infinitive
The infinitive regularly has the form (lilmod) לִלְמֹד - to learn. This includes verbs with guttural letters. If the final letter of the root is guttural but not ר, a "patah gnuva" is used: (lismoah) לִשְׂמֹחַ.
Note: the infinitive is in fact the Hebrew preposition לְ to prefixed to an abstract noun called מָקוֹר ("source"). The source may also be used on its own or with other prepositions, but this is rare in Modern Hebrew except for some fixed expressions, such as מִצֵּאת החמה עד צֵאת הנשמה - literally "from the exiting (=rising) of the sun to the exiting of the soul", jokingly describing hard work all day long. Here צֵאת is the source form of יָצָא to exit, the infinitive of which is לָצֵאת.
Gerund
The gerund refers to the action of the verb as a noun, as in "learning is a long process". The form in Hebrew is (lmida) לְמִידָה.
Passive Participle
A special passive participle exists only in conjugation Pa'al. For the most part, the passive in Hebrew is expressed by switching to a different conjugation: Pa'al to Nif'al, Pi'el to Pu'al, Hif'il to Huf'al (Hitpa'el is usually reflexive). The passive participle of Pa'al is used to indicate the result of an action as an attribute, rather than describe the action itself:
- The window was broken yesterday - (he-halon nishbar etmol) החלון נִשְבַּר אתמול
- The window is broken - (he-halon shavur) החלון שָבוּר
Once again, the participle is an adjective:
| plural | singular | |
| masculine | (shvurim) שְבוּרִים | (shavur) שָבוּר |
| feminine | (shvurot) שְבוּרוֹת | (shvura) שְבוּרָה |
And now that we've seen the basic patterns, let's look at the standard deviations :)
Languages >> Hebrew >> Grammar >> Verbs >> Conjugations
