The Hebrew Verb Patterns
There are seven basic forms of verbs in Hebrew. In Hebrew they are called “binyanim” (meaning “buildings” or “constructions”, quite unlike anything we find in English. Most verbs stems from a “SHORESH” or root which is either 3 or 4 letters.
Very few verbs are found in all seven patterns, but here is one that does illustrate all seven. The root is “YADAH” (YUD DALET AYIN). We will list the binyamin below, but here’s an example of how the meaning can change: know, reveal, cause to know, be known, make known (inform), be made known, make oneself known.
The binyanim can be said to be paired, where one part of the pair is active and the other is passive. For example, “QAL” and “NIFAL” are twins, where QAL is active and NIFAL is passive. An example would be “ZAKAR” (he remembered) and “NIZKAR” (he was remembered). Note how they both have the same three root letters: ZAYIN KAF RESH. In the Nifal pattern’s perfect (past) tenese, the letter “NUN is usually added to the root.
The next pair are PIEL (active) and PUAL (passive). While the PUAL is not very popular as a verb, the present tense is extremely popular. An example is “M’LUMAD” which can be “is taught” (a verb), a learned person (a noun), or “learned” (an adjective). PIEL is often the intensive of the QAL, for example in the QAL “SHAVAR” means “he broke”, but in the PIEL “SHIBER” means “he shattered”, or “he utterly broke”. Some verbs appear primarily in the PIEL, such as “BIQESH” (he requested). If “SHIBER” means “he shattered”, then the passive (in the PUAL) “SHUBAR” means “he (or it) was shattered”.
The next pari are HIFIL and HOFAL, both of which have the concept of causation. An example is the QAL form “GADAL” (he was big) changes to HIGDIL (HIFIL: he made great or he magnified) and HAGDAL (HOFAL: he was made great or has magnified).
The seven binyanim are sometimes likened to the seven branches of a menorah. Each of the sides can be paired with one on the opposite side (an active with a passive), leaving the final binyan “HITPAEL” in the middle (with no pair). An interesting example of this binyan is “HITPALEL” – normally translated as “he prayed”, but the word “PALAL” means “judge”, so it’s kind of like saying “He judged himself”.
It can be embarrassing to mistranslate the wrong binyan. For example, one of my Hebrew students was translating a phrase from our textbook, and read something like “she ate his donkey”, when in fact the actual translation was “she fed his donkey”. This is the difference between QAL and HIFIL, where the HIFIL again is “causative”. In other words, one could translate “She caused-to-eat his-donkey.” but in today’s English we would say “she fed his donkey” (or in old English “she gave fodder [or provender] to his donkey”).