Chapter III.2. Patterns

Table of Contents

III.2.1. Poal and Related
III.2.2. Shem

This chapter lists the most common patterns with binyan and semantics, if any. The placeholder root ק-ט-ל is used to avoid gzarot. The best way to find a model you’re looking for is probably to search for a non-vowelized representation of that model. For example, if you’re looking for a pattern that fits the word מדבר, search for מקטל. You’ll usually find more than one match, but it shouldn’t be that much of a problem.

These models do not include possible suffixes, endings and prefixes like the article and others. So if you stumble across the word המדברים, you’ll have to strip the leading ה (the article) and the trailing ים (a plural ending) first.

III.2.1. Poal and Related

First is the list of models for binyans. Note that there may be some other models for some binyans, and some uncommon forms are intentionally omitted. This is not supposed to be an exhaustive list, but rather a reference to be able to read the most common words. Specifically, it lacks the absolute infinitive (which is rarely used so I put those patterns into a separate table) and some action names which made their way into the names table instead (because there are too many of them and they aren’t always related to a binyan). Note that the binyan name is always formed by putting the root פ-ע-ל into the past tense pattern, which is considered to be the main one for each binyan.

Table III.2.1. Main binyan patterns

מנוקדלא מנוקדבנייןForm (example)

קָטַל

קטל

פעל (sometimes called קל – Kal)

The most widely used binyan with very broad semantics

Past (he exited)

יִקְטֹל

יקטול

Future (he will exit)

קְטֹל

קטול

Imperative (exit)

לִקְטֹל

לקטול

Infinitive (to exit)

קוּטֵל

קוטל

Present (exiting)

קְטִילָה

קטילה

Action (an exit)

נִקְטַל

נקטל

נפעל

Intransitive verbs with broad semantics: passive, reciprocal, entering a state, emotional action

Past (he discussed)

יִקָּטֵל

יקטל

Future (he will discuss)

הִקָּטֵל

היקטל

Imperative (discuss)

לְהִקָּטֵל

להיקטל

Infinitive (to discuss)

נִקְטָל

נקטל

Present (discussing)

הִקָּטְלוּת

היקטלות

Action (discussion)

הִקְטִיל

הקטיל

הפעיל

Most often causative, but sometimes entering a state or even a modal verb

Past (he separated)

יַקְטִיל

יקטיל

Future (he will separate)

הַקְטֵל

הקטל

Imperative (separate)

לְהַקְטִיל

להקטיל

Infinitive (to separate)

מַקְטִיל

מקטיל

Present (separating)

הַקְטָלָה

הקטלה

Action (separation)

הֻקְטַל

הוקטל

הופעל

Always passive voice form of the respective Hif’il verb

Past (he was separated)

יֻקְטַל

יוקטל

Future (he will be separated)

מֻקְטָל

מוקטל

Present (he is separated)

קִטֵּל

קיטל

פיעל

Almost as broad semantics as Paal, but often causative or intensive action

Past (he spoke)

יְקַטֵּל

יקטל

Future (he will speak)

קַטֵּל

קטל

Imperative (speak)

לְקַטֵּל

לקטל

Infinitive (to speak)

מְקַטֵּל

מקטל

Present (speaking)

קִטּוּל

קיטול

Action (speech)

קֻטַּל

קוטל

פועל

Always passive voice form of the respective Pual verb

Past (he was spoken)

יְקֻטַּל

יקוטל

Future (he will be spoken)

מְקֻטָּל

מקוטל

Present (he is spoken)

הִתְקַטֵּל

התקטל

התפעל

Often (but not always) a reciprocal action, sometimes passive

Past (he interfered)

יִתְקַטֵּל

יתקטל

Future (he will interfere)

הִתְקַטֵּל

התקטל

Imperative (interfere)

לְהִתְקַטֵּל

להתקטל

Infinitive (to interfere)

מִתְקַטֵּל

מתקטל

Present (interfering)

הִתְקַטְּלוּת

התקטלות

Action (interference)

Important things to note:

  • Two passive binyans have only three forms (plus the absolute infinitive below).

  • Both pasive binyans differ from their active counterparts only in that they use “u-a” vowels.

  • Verb forms ending with a stressed “a” use Patakh for it, name forms use Kamatz. In fact, it’s the only difference between present and past in Nif’al.

  • Verb forms ending with a stressed “e” or “o” use Tsere and Kholam (not full variations).

  • Verb forms ending with a stressed “u” or “i” use Shuruk and Full Khirik. This and the previous two points indicate an interesting pattern: the higher the stressed vowel on the vowel chart, the “bigger” Nikud mark is used.

  • Imperative, future and infinitive look very similar in all binyans, but please note that the formula “imperative is future minus prefix” doesn’t always work. In real world, in many cases future is used in place of imperative, or even an incorrect imperative form is used, which follows the formula even though it shouldn’t.

  • Hitpael ’s forms are very similar to each other (some are even identical), but the binyan itself is pretty different from others, which makes it pretty distinguishable.

There are more binyans than just 7. Hitpael has a form called Nitpael, with a Nun in place of the first Tav. It is otherwise the same, and even has similar semantics, which is why I left it out of the table.

There’s also the recently appeared Hitpual binyan, which is a cross between Pual and Hitpael. It is produced from Hitpael by doing the same vowel replacements that is needed to convert Piel to Pual. It has only a few verbs, all along the lines of “was forced to voluntarily...”. For example, פוטר [putar] means “(he) was fired” (from a job), and התפוטר [hitputar] means “(he) was forced to voluntarily quit a job”. Other verbs include התנודב [hitnudav] – “(he) was forced to volunteer” and התאובד [hit’ubad] – “(he) was forced to commit suicide”, but the last one is not even in most dictionaries yet. That’s about all the verbs in this binyan, really. At least I never found others.

And finally, there are two sub-binyans in Paal, named Ef’ol and Ef’al after their respective first person singular future forms (for whatever reason). It is not hard to figure out that in the table above I listed the Ef’ol forms (which are far more common), so here are the Ef’al forms for the sake of completeness.

Table III.2.2. Ef’al forms

מנוקד

לא מנוקד

Description

קָטֵל or קָטַל

קטל

Past (he grew)

יִקְטַל

יקטל

Future (he will grow)

קְטַל

קטל

Imperative (grow)

קָטֵל

קטל

Present (growing)

The other forms are the same (including the absolute infinitive in the table below). As for the past form, it varies between verbs, sometimes both forms are allowed. The semantics of Ef’al is much narrower than that of Pa’al, t is almost always used for intransitive words. For example, יגדל [yigdal] means “(he) will grow” in the “grow up” sense, but can’t be used in the “he will grow wheat” sense, you’ll have to use יגדל [yegadel] for that (the same root, but the Piel binyan).

In most cases, both “katal” and “katel” models are allowed for past, and of those “katal” is typically used to avoid confusion with present. However, for roots with the third letter א, “katel” is the only valid Ef’al model for past.

This makes it 10 binyans, if you count Ef’al and Ef’ol as different binyans, and add Nitpael and Hitpual.

And for the sake of completeness, here is the absolute infinitive forms. They are closest to English adverbs by their semantics, is that you can roughly translate the absolute infinitive of the verb “to move”, for example, as “movely”.

Table III.2.3. Absolute infinitive forms

מנוקד

לא מנוקד

בניין

קָטוֹל

קטול

פעל

נִקְטוֹל

נקטול

נפעל

הַקְטֵל

הקטל

הפעיל

הֻקְטֵל

הוקטל

הופעל

קַטֵּל

קטל

פיעל

קֻטּוֹל

קוטול

פועל

הִתְקַטֵּל

התקטל

התפעל

Note that for Hitpael the absolute infinitive is the same as both imperative and past.