# Hebrew Infinitives



## אדם

שלום

I am independently trying to learn Hebrew, and I am somewhat confused about turning roots into infinitives. I have observed a few of them, and understand some basic concepts that work for some, but not all of the infinitives. 

Also, with בנין היתפאל (sp?) is it supposed to start with a hey or a mem? On Wikipedia it shows it with a mem, but on a different text I read it said to use a hey.

Oh.. and a bit off topic, how can you type with vowels? I can read Hebrew pretty well without vowels, but it's a lot easier with (for notes if I ever take them on my computer).

Thanks!


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## בעל-חלומות

Hauser said:


> I am independently trying to learn Hebrew, and I am somewhat confused about turning roots into infinitives. I have observed a few of them, and understand some basic concepts that work for some, but not all of the infinitives.


Five of the seven ביניינים have infinitives. The general rule is to take the imperative form and add a ל in the beginning. I don't think that there are any irregulars in התפעל, הפעיל, נפעל, and פיעל, but there are many in פעל.
From Hebrew Vikipedia:
בניין קל: לִשְׁבֹּר 
בניין נפעל: לְהִשָּׁבֵר 
בניין פיעל: לְשַׁבֵּר 
בניין הפעיל: לְהַלְבִּישׁ 
בניין התפעל: לְהִתְלַבֵּשׁ

Some irregulars are הלך-ללכת, שמע-לשמוע, ראה-לראות. I don't know if there are rules for בניין פעל.



Hauser said:


> Also, with *בנין התפעל* (sp? not anymore) is it supposed to start with a hey or a mem? On Wikipedia it shows it with a mem, but on a different text I read it said to use a hey.


It's ה. You use מ in the present form.



Hauser said:


> Oh.. and a bit off topic, how can you type with vowels? I can read Hebrew pretty well without vowels, but it's a lot easier with (for notes if I ever take them on my computer).
> Thanks!


 
If you have Hebrew installed, then you need to turn CAPS lock on and then push shift and one of the numbers above the letters.


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## אדם

Thanks a lot, that definitely helps.. Along with that though, how do you know which בניין it should belong with?

Let's take אכל for example.. why does it become לֶאֶכוֹל and not לִאְכֹל? Also with לְלֶחֶת, לִנְסוֹהַ, etc. (Hopefully I'm not butchering how it's spelled.. =/)

Also.. what are the most used בניין? So far I understand how קל והתפעל work, and their usage. Would it be wrong to assume that קל is the most used בנייו?


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## בעל-חלומות

Hauser said:


> Thanks a lot, that definitely helps.. Along with that though, how do you know which בניין it should belong with?
> 
> Let's take אכל for example.. why does it become לֶאֶכוֹל and not לִאְכֹל?


Most roots have more than one infinitives. א.כ.ל, for example, has all five. You can put אכל in all the ביניינים, so the infinitives depends on the בניין that you choose. Each בניין gives the roots a different meaning, so each infinitive has a different meaning as well. For example, in בניין קל the verb is אכל and its infinitive is לֶאֱכוֹל, while in התפעל the verb is התאכל and the infinitive is לְהִתְאַכֵּל, which means "to be digested".

I _think _that was your question. Let me know if I answered something completely different instead.



Hauser said:


> Also with לָלֶכֶת, לִנְסוֹעַ, etc. (Hopefully I'm not butchering how it's spelled.. =/)


נסע and הלך both have irregular infintives in קל, so you would have to remember them.



Hauser said:


> Also.. what are the most used בניין? So far I understand how קל והתפעל work, and their usage. Would it be wrong to assume that קל is the most used בנייו?


קל is the most common. I don't know which of the others is used most.


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## eshcar

בעל-חלומות said:


> For example, in בניין קל the verb is אכל and its infinitive is לֶאֱכוֹל, while in התפעל the verb is התאכל and the infinitive is לְהִתְאַכֵּל, which means "to be digested".


 
just a small correction - להתאכל means "to be burned up, to be destroyed", and is very rare (biblical)
you were probably thinking about להתעכל, which does mean "to be digested"


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## אדם

Wait, can אכל actually have a התפעל בנייו? Wouldn't that mean that the subject is eating itself? Or are there other qualities to התפעל aside from the reflexive?


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## בעל-חלומות

It can also be a passive action, an action between two people, and "becoming something".

And thanks, eshcar, for the correctment. It's intersting how close the root for digestion and the root for eating/destroying are.


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## אדם

I just had a talk with a person who's teaching Conversational Hebrew.. and he explained it in a way that is really simple for me to understand.. Not on the topic of the infinitives, but just on the בניין... With the verb אכל if you conjugate it to הפיל (sp?) then it is to make someone eat, i.e. to feed someone? Or if you conjugate it to התפעל then it is more in the sense of I feed myself?

Tell me if I'm wrong.. but that seems to make sense to me..

ובכן...

אני מדבר -> I teach
אני דובר -> I learn
אני מתדבר -> I teach myself

Sorry.. I guess I'm kind of getting off topic, but I feel like I'm having epiphanies.. haha


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## בעל-חלומות

Hauser said:


> I just had a talk with a person who's teaching Conversational Hebrew.. and he explained it in a way that is really simple for me to understand.. Not on the topic of the infinitives, but just on the בניין... With the verb אכל if you conjugate it to הפעיל (sp?) then it is to make someone eat, i.e. to feed someone? Or if you conjugate it to התפעל then it is more in the sense of I feed myself?
> 
> Tell me if I'm wrong.. but that seems to make sense to me..


This is basically correct.

האכיל means "to feed".

אכל in בניין התפעל wouldn't mean "to feed myself", though, but "to eat myself". The actual meaning of התאכל though, as is written above, is to be destroyed/burned. This is sensous(is this word used for הגיוני? ) when you think about it. Eating is just a form of destruction in which your body uses the remainders of what your mouth destroys, isn't it?



Hauser said:


> ובכן...
> 
> אני מדבר -> I teach
> אני דובר -> I learn
> אני מתדבר -> I teach myself


This would have been right if you used the root למד. The root you used means "to speak".



Hauser said:


> Sorry.. I guess I'm kind of getting off topic, but I feel like I'm having epiphanies.. haha


Epiphanes are among the best things in learning languages, I think, and Hebrew gives a lot of opportunities to get them...


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## אדם

בעל-חלומות said:


> This is basically correct.
> This would have been right if you used the root למד. The root you used means "to speak".


 
Haha yeah, sorry.. I keep mixing up למד ודבר....

Something I've been a bit confused about still though, is how to distinguish between if something should be conjugated with הפיעל or with פיעל, because it seems like things could work in both instances.. Cause with אכל for example, "To make someone eat" is essencially "feeding them", but to "feed" someone you technically need to have two people, so rather than conjugating in הפעיל I would conjugate with פיעל... I suppose the latter version makes more sense...

Or am I thinking about this incorrectly?


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## eshcar

I can understand you wanting to find some sort of regularity in the בניינים system. However, you sould keep in mind that a language is not an exact science - there will always be exceptions to the rules... 
I don't know if you understand hebrew well enough, but if you do, you should check out the hebrew wikipedia article about בניינים (I would add a link, but I'm not senior enough...)

And just to demonstrate how confusing it is, even for a native speaker - 
בעל חלומות agreed with you that the root למד in בניין התפעל would mean "to teach oneself", beacuse verbs in התפעל tend to be reflexive. This, however, is not the case here - התלמד means that he was trained (usually for a job/profession and usually by someone more experience than himself). מתלמד as a noun means "a trainee". 

best of luck trying to make sense of it all! 



Hauser said:


> I just had a talk with a person who's teaching Conversational Hebrew.. and he explained it in a way that is really simple for me to understand.. Not on the topic of the infinitives, but just on the בניין... With the verb אכל if you conjugate it to הפיל (sp?) then it is to make someone eat, i.e. to feed someone? Or if you conjugate it to התפעל then it is more in the sense of I feed myself?
> 
> Tell me if I'm wrong.. but that seems to make sense to me..
> 
> ובכן...
> 
> אני מדבר -> I teach
> אני דובר -> I learn
> אני מתדבר -> I teach myself
> 
> Sorry.. I guess I'm kind of getting off topic, but I feel like I'm having epiphanies.. haha


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## אדם

אני לא יודע מספיק עברית, אבל אני אלמוד עוד. תודה הרבי מאוד​
And sorry I'm probably bitchering how everything is spelled. =/
Please correct anything you notice.


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## Mjolnir

Hauser said:


> אני לא יודע מספיק עברית, אבל אני אלמוד עוד. תודה הרבי מאוד​
> And sorry I'm probably bitchering how everything is spelled. =/
> Please correct anything you notice.



I'll learn more - אני אלמד עוד
I'll still learn - אני עוד אלמד
Thank you very much - תודה רבה
Butchering


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## JaiHare

Mjolnir said:


> I'll learn more - אני אלמד עוד
> I'll still learn - אני עוד אלמד
> Thank you very much - תודה רבה
> Butchering


I think we should specifically point out that there are some verbs in the Qal (קל) that have a different future form.

We would expect *אלמוד _elmod_, if it were normal, but it has a different form and comes out as אלמד _elmad_ ("i will learn"). So, it looks exactly like אלמד _elamad_ ("I will teach"). This is the case with a set of verbs. It applies to אלבש _elbash_ ("I will wear"), אשכב _eshkav_ ("I will lie down"), אשמע _eshma_ ("I will hear"), אקרא _ekra_ ("I will read") and some others. The infinitive still forms with the -o- vowel, however.

Does anyone have a list of the verbs that take this form? It can be a little frustrating for beginners, but it's the way that the language works.

JaiHare


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## Flaminius

> Does anyone have a list of the verbs that take this form? It can be a little frustrating for beginners, but it's the way that the language works.


I recommend _501 Hebrew Verbs_ by Bolozky.  It's not a list of special pa`al conjugations but a whole volume of 501 fully conjugated verbs.

By the way, אלמד (as in, "I will teach") is pronounced _alamed_.


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## אדם

Mjolnir said:


> I'll learn more - אני אלמד עוד
> I'll still learn - אני עוד אלמד
> Thank you very much - תודה רבה
> Butchering



תודה... I guess I can't even spell in English lately haha.



Flaminius said:


> I recommend _501 Hebrew Verbs_ by Bolozky.  It's not a list of special pa`al conjugations but a whole volume of 501 fully conjugated verbs.



I'll be sure to check that book out then.



JaiHare said:


> I think we should specifically point out that there are some verbs in the Qal (קל) that have a different future form.
> 
> We would expect *אלמוד _elmod_, if it were normal, but it has a different form and comes out as אלמד _elmad_ ("i will learn"). So, it looks exactly like אלמד _elamad_ ("I will teach"). This is the case with a set of verbs. It applies to אלבש _elbash_ ("I will wear"), אשכב _eshkav_ ("I will lie down"), אשמע _eshma_ ("I will hear"), אקרא _ekra_ ("I will read") and some others. The infinitive still forms with the -o- vowel, however.



Alright, thank you for explaining that. Does that mean that those verbs are irregular? Like how in Spanish some words follow some of the conjugation rules, but not others.

I suppose it's not a good idea to compare two languages though


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## JaiHare

Hauser said:


> Alright, thank you for explaining that. Does that mean that those verbs are irregular? Like how in Spanish some words follow some of the conjugation rules, but not others.
> 
> I suppose it's not a good idea to compare two languages though


Yes, exactly. Just like there are words in the preterite that do not follow the normal form, such as _condujo_ and _fui_, so there are words that belong to a different category and do not fit the normal form. It is just a short list of verbs that have a _yiqt*a*l_ form instead of a _yiqt*o*l_ form for the future. Don't worry about it until you actually start learning verb forms and such. Good luck in your studies. 

JaiHare


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## JaiHare

Flaminius said:


> I recommend _501 Hebrew Verbs_ by Bolozky.  It's not a list of special pa`al conjugations but a whole volume of 501 fully conjugated verbs.
> 
> By the way, אלמד (as in, "I will teach") is pronounced _alamed_.


Of course it is _alamed_. I make that mistake in transliterating sometimes. Whoops! LOL

There is a short list of verbs with the _yiqtal_ pattern in the future. I already have _501 Hebrew Verbs_, however that doesn't lay out the specific words that have this pattern. I have them in a book I got from ulpan here. I think I will look through it and find them, and I'll put it on here.

Blessings,
JaiHare


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## JaiHare

JaiHare said:


> Of course it is _alamed_. I make that mistake in transliterating sometimes. Whoops! LOL
> 
> There is a short list of verbs with the _yiqtal_ pattern in the future. I already have _501 Hebrew Verbs_, however that doesn't lay out the specific words that have this pattern. I have them in a book I got from ulpan here. I think I will look through it and find them, and I'll put it on here.
> 
> Blessings,
> JaiHare


Here is the list that I found in my book:

יצחק - he will laugh
ימצא - he will find
ישלח - he will send
יפתח - he will open
יגדל - he will grow
ילמד - he will learn
ישכב - he will lie down (inf. לשכב also outside of the normal pattern)
ילבש - he will wear
ינהג - he will drive

Does anyone know if there are other verbs that fit this pattern of an -a- vowel in the second syllable of the future instead of an -o- vowel?

Thanks,
JaiHare


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## eshcar

JaiHare said:


> Here is the list that I found in my book:
> 
> יצחק - he will laugh
> ימצא - he will find
> ישלח - he will send
> יפתח - he will open
> יגדל - he will grow
> ילמד - he will learn
> ישכב - he will lie down (inf. לשכב also outside of the normal pattern)
> ילבש - he will wear
> ינהג - he will drive
> 
> Does anyone know if there are other verbs that fit this pattern of an -a- vowel in the second syllable of the future instead of an -o- vowel?
> 
> Thanks,
> JaiHare


 
just off the top of my head : ירכב - he will ride (and NOT ירכוב, as mant native speakers tend to say).
i'm sure there are many more, it's quite a usual form.


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## eshcar

eshcar said:


> just off the top of my head : ירכב - he will ride (and NOT ירכוב, as mant native speakers tend to say).
> i'm sure there are many more, it's quite a usual form.


 
I gave it some thought, and here are some more examples:

יבטח - he will trust
ירעד - he will shake/tremble
ישלח - he will send
יפגע - he will hurt/hit
יגע - he will touch (the root is נגע, and it has both reg. form of inf. לנגוע and irreg. form of inf. לגעת [much more common])
יטע - he will plant (the root is נטע, and it has both reg. inf. לנטוע [more common] and irreg. inf. לטעת)
יקח - he will take (the root is לקח, and it has irreg. form of inf. לקחת)
יאמר - he will say (irreg. inf. - לומר)

Of course, there are also all of the roots with the final radical ה, which give an 'e' sound in the final syllable of the future, and other irregularities (like יתן - he wiil give, which is pronounced yiten) but let's not נערב שמחה בשמחה, as we say


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## אדם

Where does yiktal apply? Is it random, or is it set when there is a certain character in the root?


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## JaiHare

Hauser said:


> Where does yiktal apply? Is it random, or is it set when there is a certain character in the root?


Many times it is triggered by the presence of a guttural letter. This isn't always the case, however, and many of the words must simply be memorized.

JaiHare


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## אדם

Alright. Thank you guys very much.


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## Ali Smith

JaiHare said:


> ישכב - he will lie down (inf. לשכב also outside of the normal pattern)



Is there a rule underlying the unusual pattern that לשכב (to lie down, to go to bed) has? I would have expected "lishkov" instead of "lishkav".


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## Drink

לשכב is just an exceptional case.

In Mishnaic Hebrew we often find that infinitives have been re-patterned after the future tense (like לשב leshev instead of לשבת lashevet, or לישן lishan instead of לישון lishon). But this is NOT the case here, because lishkav is already attested in Biblical Hebrew, and is in fact the only form found in Biblical Hebrew.

EDIT: Although with the ב prefix we do find בשכבך b'shochb'cha and בשכבו b'shochvo, which is the normal form that is notmally found with liqtol/biqtol infinitives.


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## Abaye

Shouldn't be hard to remember because, as @Drink wrote, it's a in exception, and a rare one.
In Modern Hebrew you should also remember לרכב, the more common pronunciation of the grammar-books form לרכוב.
In biblical Hebrew you should also remember לשפל (to be low).
השפה העברית - לרכוב


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## Drink

Abaye said:


> In biblical Hebrew you should also remember לשפל (to be low).



I don't see any infinitive form of שפל occurring in Biblical Hebrew.


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## Abaye

I couldn't find it either, therefore linked to השפה העברית who says it. Maybe they refer to Ecclestiastes 12:4 where בִּשְׁפַל can be understood as either infinitive construct verb or construct state noun. Too bad they don't provide a reference although I assume they have one.

Added: see the link below for example, they say it's "preposition ב + verb qal infinitive construct".
Ecclesiastes 12:4 Hebrew Text Analysis


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