# Gizrah (Verbs)



## Rommel86

Hi,
I'm currently learning about Hebrew verbs and purchased the excellent book "Hebrew Verb Tables". I am however struggling to clarify the different gizrah. I know that gizrah are the different ways that a verb may be conjugated depending on its features but what they mean I don't know as the book never says. I have a pdf with all the gizrah for each table. Could someone please tell me what they mean? Thanks for your time.


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## Rommel86

Okay, to make this easier I went through the tables and listed each word I don't understand. They are - with what I think some of them mean:

*שלמים*   shlemim (complete, whole)
*אפעל
גרונית*   gronit (guttural)
*נחה*   nakhah? (mute letter?)
*קימת
חסרי*   khaseri? (defective verb?)
*נחי*   nakhi? (quiescent verb?)
*מיוחדת
כפולים*   kepulim? (geminate verb?)
*לוח גזרה
שורקת*


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## utopia

shlemim - a gizra of three consonants (can include gutturals, but when they are seperated - gutturals out - it means three letters that are not gutturals)

naha (nahei peh alef, nahei ain vav, nahei lamed yod heh) - a mute "consonant" which means this consonant is usually a vowel, like vav in the middle of a verb, yod, he, alef and so on.

hasrei (peh-nun) also can be called HAFAN, and hasrei (peh, yod, tsadi), also called HAFITS - when the first consonant (the letter NUN) falls in most conjugations of verbs of this tri-consonant gizra, like NAFAL - YI(N)POL.

HI(Y)TSIT, HI(Y)ZIA'...

KFULIM - geminate

I don't know what מיוחדת means. I know there is a gizra that is called מורכבים, meaning there are two gzarot in one.

שורקת - I don't know a gizra by this name.


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## utopia

well after viewing the PDF, I saw שורקים - in the hitpael.

That means metathesis - a consonant swap of TAV and the immdiate letter that ensues: SHIN, TSADI, SAMEKH, ZAIN


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## Drink

I'll add to that:

אפעל (eph'al), is subgroup of the pa'al binyan when the future tense has the vowel "a", like לָמַד (lamad, "he learned") אלמד (elmad, "I will learn")
מיוחדת (meyuchedet, "unique") I think means that the verb is so irregular that it is completely unique
לוח גזרה (luach gizrah) means a table of the gizrah
שורקת means "sibilant", which refers to the verbs whose first root letter is a sibilant and so in binyan hitpa'el it swaps with the tav, like in הסתכל (histakel), not *התסכל (*hitsakel)


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## amikama

A *גזרה *is a group of שורשים (roots) that share the same verb conjugation patterns across the different בניינים.

A root is usually triliteral, for example ש-מ-ר or נ-פ-ל. If all of its three consonants are present (and pronounced) in any conjugation, then it belongs to *גזרת השלמים* (hence the name, "group of the complete [roots]"). The root ש-מ-ר belongs to the גזרת השלמים, because you have all of its consonants in the verb conjugations: שמר, ישתמר, נשמרו etc.

But נ-פ-ל isn't root of גזרת השלמים, because the nun is dropped in some of the verb conjugation: יפול (instead of *ינפול). It's a root of a gizra called *גזרת חסרי פ"נ *(or* חפ"נ* for short). This is the group of roots whose first consonant (called פ' הפועל) is a nun _and _this nun is "missing" in some of the verb conjugations. Other roots in this gizra are נ-ג-ע, נ-ט-ע, נ-ס-ע etc.

Some other gzarot:
*נחי ע"ו/ע"י* (or *חלולים*) - second consonant (ע' הפועל) is ו or י that may be mute or missing. (אות נחה = mute letter.)
*ע"ע* (or *כפולים*)- second and third consonants are the same. Sometimes they are geminated. ס-ב-ב ח-מ-מ ק-ר-ר etc.
*נחי ל"א* - third consonant (ל' הפועל) is א that is mute. For example ק-ר-א - in קראתי the א is not heard.
*מרובעים *- four-consonant roots. ש-ח-ר-ר, פ-ר-ס-מ, ג-ל-ג-ל etc.
And more...

I hope it's clear now. It's sometimes hard to explain things in foreign language...


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## Drink

amikama said:


> Some other gizrot:



Is the correct plural actually "gizrot" or "gzarot"?


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## utopia

gzarot and in smichut - gizrot...


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## amikama

Drink said:


> Is the correct plural actually "gizrot" or "gzarot"?


Thanks, I corrected it.


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## Rommel86

Thanks to all who posted! This is exactly what I needed. I'll start analysing those tables now. The frustrating part is that there is virtually no information at all online on this. I find that if something isn't explained and I have a question, there is very little information online in English - I suspect Russian is better as I run into that often where I don't find Biblical Hebrew, so frustrating! So, again this is very much appreciated


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## origumi

If you're starting with the page as above, you're certainly in the wrong direction. Too many vague terms for a beginner.


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## Rommel86

I have little choice, that's part of the book I'm using! Of the two verb books I have, that is by far the best one. If you could recommend a better course of action I'd be open to hearing it. Whatever works best, whatever is available to me, I'll do anything.


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## utopia

My suggestion to you - start with the גזרת השלמים, and move from one binyan to another:

Paal, Nifal, Piel, Pual, Hitpael, Hifil, Hufal.

Then start with the gzarot: peh yod, peh alef.

Then ain-yod-vav.

Then lamed-heh.

If you do that systematically in all 7 binyanim, you'll have an idea about how the verb system works, and other gzarot would come in a much easier way.


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## Drink

utopia said:


> My suggestion to you - start with the גזרת השלמים, and move from one binyan to another:
> 
> Paal, Nifal, Piel, Pual, Hitpael, Hifil, Hufal.
> 
> Then start with the gzarot: peh yod, peh alef.
> 
> Then ain-yod-vav.
> 
> Then lamed-heh.
> 
> If you do that systematically in all 7 binyanim, you'll have an idea about how the verb system works, and other gzarot would come in a much easier way.



The problem is that a lot of the most common "beginner" verbs are peh-aleph (אמר, אהב, אכל), peh-yod (ישב, הלך), ayin-yod-vav (בא, גר), or lamed-heh (רצה, שתה). I think a better strategy is just to learn the present tense first for a basic set of verbs (including the ones I just mentioned) first for pa'al and then the other binyanim, because the present tense is very easy, even for all the irregular verbs. Then move on the past tense in the same manner, which will be more difficult, but you will already have experience with various gzarot and all the binyanim. Then the future tense after the past tense. The most important thing is to learn specific verbs and not general rules. The general rules will come very easily once you know a basic set of specific verbs.


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## Rommel86

How many gzarot are there? Is there a definitive listing? It seems rather disorganised and haphazard to me at present. I'll get to my notes later and list what I already know.


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