And finally, the hifil. This binyan has yod in the middle in present and future and the past starts with heh. This last issue may seem confusing compared to the hitpael but the hifil will only have tav, tet, or dalet if they are part of the root.
The yod in the present goes with a mem as the first letter. The mem makes it easy to confuse hifil and piel present tense, but you have that yod to guide you. Don’t worry about confusing ayin yod root verbs in piel with hifil; the odd fact is that they tend to have no piel.
Hifil is called “causative” because usually it means “making somebody do something.” There are exceptions.
Some verbs with descriptive qal (and therefore non-transitive) use hifil instead of piel for the transitive. The most important is probably mot: met is qal and means “is dead”; hemit is hifil and means “make dead, kill”. There is no piel for this verb. I don’t know if there’s a rule for which are which. You’ll just have to learn them.
Hevi, the hifil of bo “go”, means “bring”.
Present
Singular
|
Plural
|
Gender
|
מֵבְיא
|
מְבִיאִים
|
Masculine
|
מְבִיאָה
|
מְבִיאוֹת
|
Feminine
|
In the past tense, notice that there’s no dagesh in the tav before the personal ending any more. Go back to the rules on dagesh to see why that is.
Past
Singular
|
Plural
|
Person/gender
|
הֵבֵאתִי
|
הֵבֵאנוּ
|
First
|
הֵבֵאתָ
|
הֵבֵאתֶם
|
Second/masculine
|
הֵבֵאתְ
|
הֵבֵאתֶן
|
Second/feminine
|
הֵבִיא
|
הֵבִיאוּ
|
Third/masculine
|
הֵבִיאָה
|
הֵבִיאוּ
|
Third/feminine
|
Future/aorist
Singular
|
Plural
|
Person/gender
|
אָבִיא
|
נָבִיא
|
First
|
תָּבִיא
|
תָּבִיאוּ
|
Second/masculine
|
תָּבִיאִי
|
תָבֹאנָה
|
Second/feminine
|
יָבִיא
|
יָבִיאוּ
|
Third/masculine
|
תָּבִיא
|
תָבֹאנָה
|
Third/feminine
|
If you come across a verb whose root you can’t identify, email me. I might have to add a lesson to this blog page, or you might have forgotten one of the rules.
© Patricia Jo Heil, 2013-2018 All Rights Reserved
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