Verbs
Grammatical categories of verbs in Biblical Hebrew:
- Aspect: Perfect (Suffixed Conjugation), Imperfect (Prefixed Conjugation)
- Mood: Indicative, Cohortative, Imperative, Jussive
- Voice: Active, Passive, Reflexive
- And they need to agree with their subjects in gender, number & person
Roots → Derived Stems
Each consonantal root goes through morphological derivation to become 7 semantically-related verbs called "binyanim" (בִּנְיָנִים) or "derived stems", based on different semantics and voices. There are few other derived stems in Hebrew Bible so we'll simply focus on the 7 basic ones.
The roots can be divided into strong roots and weak roots. Strong roots consists of 3 strong radicals, while weak roots either contains weak radicals, begins with י or נ, or does not consist of exactly 3 radicals. Strong verbs are made up of strong roots and usually conjugate regularly, while weak verbs are made up of weak roots and conjugate irregularly.
The names of the derived stems are irregularly formed from the root, פעל, into each of the 7 derived stems. They are:
| Simple | Intensive | Causative | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Active | Pa'al (פָּּּעַל) / Qal (קַל, means "light") | Piel (פִּעֵל) | Hiphil (הִפְעִיל) | ||
| Passive | Niphal (נִפְעַל) | Pual (פֻּעַל) | Hophal (הָפְעַל, mind the kamatz katan) | ||
| Reflexive | Hitpael (הִתְפַּעֵל) | | | ||
Let the strong root be 1-2-3 and take קטל as an example, the 7 regular derived stems are:
| Simple | Intensive | Causative | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Active | 1a2a3 (קָטַל, qatal, kill) | 1i22e3 (קִטֵּל, qittel, slay) | hi12i3 (הִקְטִיל, hiqtil, ask sb. to kill) | ||
| Passive | ni12a3 (נִקְטַל, niqtal, be killed) | 1u22a3 (קֻטַּל, quttal, be slayed) | ho12a3 (הָקְטַל, hoqtal, have sb. killed) | ||
| Reflexive | hit1a22e3 (הִתְקַטֵּל, hitqattel, suicide) | | | ||
Then the derived stems are either:
- conjugated to show the aspect, mood, voice and agree with their subjects in gender, number & person
- or used as a infinitive that does not show these grammatical categories
Qal Perfect Paradigm
Here we are diving into how the easiest and the most commonly used Qal derived stem of strong verbs in perfect aspect conjugate to express its gender, number & person. The 3MS form is the base form of a derived stem, and it can change into other genders, numbers & persons by changing the vowel a bit and adding some endings.
The conjugation of Qal perfect in indicative mood is as follows.
| Singular | Plural | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1CS | שָׁמַרְתִּי, I guarded | 1CP | שָׁמַרְנוּ, we guarded |
| 2MS | שָׁמַרְתָּ, you (m.) guarded | 2MP | שְׁמַרְתֶּם, you (m.) guarded |
| 2FS | שְׁמַרְתְּ, you (f.) guarded | 2FP | שְׁמַרְתֶּן, you (f.) guarded |
| 3MS | שָׁמַר, he guarded | 3CP | שָֽׁמְרוּ, they guarded |
| 3FS | שָֽׁמְרָה, she guarded | | |
Special Cases:
- In verbs that end in a ת, when a תּ type ending is added, the two ת’s combine into a single dagesh doubled תּ.
- e.g. כָּרַת (to cut or make a covenant) - כָּרַתִּי ,כָּרַתָּ，כּרַתְּ ,כְּרַתֶּם ,כְּרַתֶּן
- The same thing happens with a נ final verb when the 1CP נוּ suffix is added. The two nuns collapse into a single dagesh doubled נ
- e.g. שָׁכַנּוּ, we dwell