Grammar:Tutorial/Irregular verbs

Perfect of 3-weak verbs

The verbs, whose dictionary form (3rd, sing., masc.) ends with ה, are called 3-weak. That ה is not a part of the root, thus the root has two letters.

These verbs are declined as shown in the following example with the verb בנה:

person	gender	singular	plural
3rd	masculine	בנה	בנו
	feminine	בנתה
2nd	masculine	בנית	בניתם
	feminine		בניתן
1st		בניתי	בנינו

Imperfect of 3-weak verbs

These verbs are declined as shown in the following example with the verb בנה:

person	gender	singular	plural
3rd	masculine	יבנה	יבנו
	feminine	תבנה	תבנינה
2nd	masculine	תבנה	תבנו
	feminine	תבני	תבנינה
1st		אבנה	נבנה

Note however that in Gen. 1:4 imperfect, 3rd person, sing., masc. of the word ירא (from ראה) doesn't end with ה but the ה is omitted.

Active participle of 3-weak verbs

3-weak participles are declined like this:

	singular	plural
masculine	בנה	בנים
feminine	בנה or בניה	בנות

Perfect of empty verbs

The verbs having ו or י as the second letter in the three-letter root are called empty verbs, because this ו or י is omitted in certain grammatical forms. (Some grammarians consider these as having two letter roots. According to Victor Porton, it is more convenient to consider them as three-letter roots because we need to distinguish between ו and י.)

The perfect of empty words is formed similar to perfect of regular verbs but with two letters (the first and the last letter of the root) instead of the full root.

In imperfect the second letter of the root is not omitted. Before the suffix נה in imperfect of empty verbs sometimes is added the letter י. (WRONG: Sometimes it is omitted in imperfect: Gen. 4:8, word ויקם.

In participles of empty verbs the second letter of the root is omitted.

Perfect and imperfect of double verbs

The verbs whose two last letters of the root are identical are called double verbs. In some forms of perfect the last letter is replaced with ו. An example with perfect of the word סבב (encircled):

person	gender	singular	plural
3rd	masculine	סבב	סבבו
	feminine	סבבה
2nd	masculine	סבות	סבותם
	feminine		סבותן
1st		סבותי	סבונו

Some of double verbs follow the regular declension.

In imperfect of double verbs one of the double letters is omitted.

Imperfect of 1-נ

For 1-נ verbs the letter נ is omitted after prefixes in imperfect (not always).

נ is also sometimes omitted in imperative of 1-נ verbs.

In infinitive or these verbs the first נ in the root is omitted and added ת after the root.

Some of the verbs 1-י are declined in the same way as 1-נ.

Imperfect of 1-א verbs

In the first person, singular of 1-א (having א as the first letter of the root) verbs that א is omitted (so leaving only one א instead of two consecutive אא).