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