The Hebrew binyanim: the seven verb patterns, with examples

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Every Hebrew verb is made of two parts. The first is the root (שׁוֹרֶשׁ), usually three consonants that carry the meaning: ל.ב.שׁ is about clothes, כ.ת.ב is about writing. The second is the binyan (בִּנְיָן, plural בִּנְיָנִים), a pattern of vowels, prefixes and suffixes that the root is poured into. Each binyan has its own set of forms for every tense and person, and it carries part of the meaning. A verb keeps its binyan in every tense: כּוֹתֵב (he writes) and כָּתַב (he wrote) are both pa'al.

English does something similar with a few word families, such as sing, sang, song. Hebrew does it with every verb, and in a regular way. One root in three binyanim gives three verbs. These are the present-tense forms of ל.ב.שׁ that elev's ulpan teaches:

Hebrew has seven binyanim. Five of them are the core of the verb system: pa'al, piel, hifil, nifal and hitpael. The other two, pual and hufal, are the passive forms of piel and hifil, and nifal also serves as the passive of pa'al. You will also see the names spelled with apostrophes, such as pi'el, hif'il, nif'al, hitpa'el, pu'al and huf'al. They are the same seven.

This guide takes them one at a time. For each binyan you get what it means, one root in the "he" form in the present, past and future, with the infinitive when the binyan has one, then five common verbs, and the level of elev's ulpan that teaches it.

All the Hebrew forms in this guide come from the lessons of elev's ulpan. They are written with nikud, the vowel points, in full spelling: the vowels are added to the letters you will see everywhere else in modern Hebrew, and no letter is changed.

Pa'al (פָּעַל)

What it means. This is the basic binyan, the home of the most frequent verbs: write, eat, go, think. It is also called קַל (kal), "the light one".

How it conjugates. In the present tense there is no prefix: the root takes an o after its first letter. The present has only four forms, and they change for gender and number, never for person: כּוֹתֵב (masculine singular), כּוֹתֶבֶת (feminine singular), כּוֹתְבִים (masculine plural), כּוֹתְבוֹת (feminine plural). English adds an -s for "he writes"; Hebrew does not mark the person at all. A man says כּוֹתֵב for "I write", "you write" and "he writes".

In the past tense, the person is at the end of the word: כָּתַבְתִי (I wrote), כָּתַב (he wrote), כָּתְבָה (she wrote), כָּתְבוּ (they wrote). In the future tense, it is at the start, with four letters: א for I, ת for you and she, י for he and they, נ for we: אֶכְתוֹב (I will write), תִכְתוֹב (you will write), יִכְתוֹב (he will write), נִכְתוֹב (we will write).

The root כ.ת.ב in pa'al:

One trap in the future: some verbs take an o (אֶכְתוֹב, I will write) and others an a (אֶלְמַד, I will learn). No rule tells you which. You learn it with the verb, the way you learn an irregular past tense in English.

Five common verbs, with their infinitive and present:

In elev's ulpan. The present and past of pa'al are at level א׳ (alef). Its future is at level ב׳ (bet). The past and future of the so-called weak roots, where one letter drops or changes, are at level ב׳ on the adult track and at level ג׳ (gimel) on the young learners' track.

Piel (פִּיעֵל)

What it means. Many everyday verbs live here, the ones you need at work, at the bank and at the market: speak, pay, look for. One root in pa'al and in piel often gives two related verbs. The ulpan uses the root ל.מ.ד as its example. In pa'al, לִלְמוֹד is to learn: the student receives. In piel, לְלַמֵּד is to teach: the teacher gives.

How it conjugates. The infinitive starts with לְ and has an a then an e, with the second root letter doubled, which the nikud marks with a dot (the dagesh): לְדַבֵּר (to speak), לְסַפֵּר (to tell), לְבַקֵּשׁ (to ask for). In the present, the לְ becomes מְ, as in מְדַבֵּר (he speaks). In the past, a י appears after the first letter: דִּיבֵּר (he spoke), שִׁילֵּם (he paid).

The root ד.ב.ר in piel:

When the second root letter is א (alef), ה (he), ח (het), ע (ayin) or ר (resh), it cannot take the dagesh. With the first four, but not with ר, the plural also changes one vowel: מְשַׂחֲקִים (they play).

Five common verbs:

Learn these with their prepositions, as you would learn "to look for" or "to ask for" in English: you speak עִם someone, you ask מִsomeone, you tell לְsomeone.

In elev's ulpan. The present of piel is at level א׳; its past and future are at level ב׳.

Hifil (הִפְעִיל)

What it means. Often, to make someone do something. לָבַשׁ is "he put on clothes"; הִלְבִּישׁ is "he dressed the baby". אָכַל is "he ate"; הֶאֱכִיל is "he fed". Many very frequent hifil verbs do not have this meaning: start, arrive, understand.

How it conjugates. The past starts with הִ, as in הִרְגִּישׁ (he felt), the present with מַ, as in מַרְגִּישׁ (he feels), and the infinitive with לְהַ, with a י before the last root letter: לְהַרְגִּישׁ (to feel), לְהַסְבִּיר (to explain), לְהַתְחִיל (to start). In the present, the feminine ends in ־ָה, not ־ֶת, as in מַזְמִינָה (she orders), where pa'al says כּוֹתֶבֶת.

The root ז.מ.נ in hifil:

One group works differently, the group of לְהָבִין (to understand): לְהָ followed by two letters. Its present starts with מֵ, as in מֵבִין (he understands); its past is הֵבִין and its future יָבִין. The verbs לְהָבִיא (to bring) and לְהָכִין (to prepare) belong to the same group.

Five common verbs:

In elev's ulpan. The present of hifil is at level א׳; its past and future are at level ב׳.

Nifal (נִפְעַל)

What it means. Two things. First, things that happen to you, more than things you do: נִשְׁאָר (he stays), נִרְדָּם (he falls asleep), נִפְגָּשׁ (he meets up with someone). Second, the passive of pa'al: כָּתַב is "he wrote", נִכְתַּב is "it was written".

How it conjugates. The present and the past both start with נִ. In the masculine singular, without nikud, they are spelled with the same letters: נִכְנָס (he enters) and נִכְנַס (he entered) are both written נכנס. The context, now or yesterday, tells you the tense. In the future, a י follows the letter that marks the person, as in אִיכָּנֵס (I will enter) or יִיכָּנֵס (he will enter). The infinitive starts with לְהִי, as in לְהִיכָּנֵס (to enter).

The root כ.נ.ס in nifal:

Watch out for a look-alike: נוֹסֵעַ (he travels) starts with נ, but that נ is a root letter, and the verb is pa'al, like כּוֹתֵב.

Five common verbs:

In elev's ulpan. The present of nifal is at level א׳; its past and future are at level ב׳. Its use as the passive of pa'al is at level ג׳ (gimel).

Hitpael (הִתְפַּעֵל)

What it means. An action on yourself, an action two people do together, or a feeling. On yourself: מִתְלַבֵּשׁ (he gets dressed). With each other: מִתְכַּתְּבִים (they write to each other), מִתְחַתְּנִים (they get married). A feeling: מִתְרַגֵּשׁ (he is excited), מִתְגַּעְגֵּעַ (he misses someone). English often needs an extra word here, "himself", "each other" or "get". Hebrew adds no word: the binyan says it.

How it conjugates. The past starts with הִתְ, as in הִתְלַבֵּשׁ (he got dressed), the infinitive with לְהִתְ, as in לְהִתְלַבֵּשׁ (to get dressed), and the present with מִתְ, as in מִתְלַבֵּשׁ (he gets dressed). The vowels stay the same from the infinitive to the present: only לְהִ changes to מִ.

The root ל.ב.שׁ in hitpael:

When the root starts with ס (samekh), שׁ (shin), שׂ (sin), צ (tsadi) or ז (zayin), the ת of the binyan moves after that letter: הִסְתַּכֵּל (he looked), not הִתְסַכֵּל, or הִשְׁתַּתֵּף (he took part). After צ, the ת also becomes a ט, as in הִצְטַעֵר (he was sorry). After ז, it becomes a ד, as in מִזְדַּקֵּן (he grows old).

Five common verbs:

In elev's ulpan. The present of hitpael is at level א׳; its past and future are at level ב׳.

Pual (פֻּעַל) and hufal (הֻפְעַל)

What they mean. They are the passive forms of piel and hifil. A passive sentence says what happened to the thing, not who did it. English builds the passive with "was" and a participle; Hebrew moves the verb to another binyan. "Mom tidied the room" uses סִידֵּר, in piel; "the room was tidied" uses סוּדַר, in pual. "He ordered" uses הִזְמִין, in hifil; "it was ordered" uses הוּזְמַן, in hufal.

How they conjugate. They have no infinitive. Their mark is the sound u, written with a ו, as in סוּדַר and מְסוּדָר in pual, הוּזְמַן and מוּזְמָן in hufal. The root stays the same and the pattern changes its vowels: the י of סִידֵּר and הִזְמִין becomes that ו.

The root ס.ד.ר, from piel to pual:

The root ז.מ.נ, from hifil to hufal:

The future keeps the same mark: יסודר (will be tidied), יוזמן (will be ordered). You often read these two binyanim in the news. At these levels the ulpan's exercises write them without nikud, as a newspaper does.

Five common pual verbs, with their past and present:

And five in hufal, in the past:

In elev's ulpan. Pual and hufal are at level ג׳, with the passive nifal. Level ד׳ (dalet) goes back over the full passive system, its three pairs pa'al and nifal, piel and pual, hifil and hufal, and adds root and pattern in nouns.

How to recognise a binyan in the present tense

Most verbs you hear in the street, at work and on the news are in the present tense. The start of the word is usually enough to find the binyan:

Once you know the binyan, you can work out the other forms. If מְסַפֵּר (he tells) is piel, its past is סִיפֵּר and its future יְסַפֵּר, like דִּיבֵּר and יְדַבֵּר.

The order elev's ulpan teaches them in

elev's ulpan has two tracks, one for young learners and one for adults, and four levels, from א׳ to ד׳. The binyanim come in this order:

You start at the level you already have, not always at the first one. elev's ulpan is described here, with its free level test, which needs no sign-up and tells you which level to start at.