Modern Hebrew verb conjugation

In Hebrew, verbs, which take the form of derived stems, are conjugated to reflect their tense and mood, as well as to agree with their subjects in gender, number, and person. Each verb has an inherent voice, though a verb in one voice typically has counterparts in other voices. This article deals mostly with Modern Hebrew, but to some extent, the information shown here applies to Biblical Hebrew as well.

Classification of roots

A root that contains at least one of the weak letters, א alef, ה hey, ח het, י yod, נ nun, and ע 'ayin, is called a weak root. Each pairing of a weak letter with a position results in a slightly different conjugation pattern. The largest group of these are the ones that end with ה hey. Examples of weak roots: שתה /ʃaˈta/ (drank), עלה /ʕaˈla/ (went up), ירד /jaˈrad/ (went down), נפל /naˈfal/ (fell).

A root that contains a ו vav or a י yod as the second letter is called a hollow root. The ו vav and the י yod are written as part of the root, even though they are absent from many of the conjugated forms. Examples of hollow roots are the following: שר /ˈʃar/ (sang), גר /ˈɡar/ (lived), דן /ˈdan/ (discussed), דג /ˈdaɡ/ (fish).