English speakers looking for Hebrew's -ly find it here. Take an abstract noun — a quality, an emotion, a manner — prefix ב־, and the result is an adverb: in quiet is "quietly", in speed is "quickly", in care is "carefully". This is the most general of the productive patterns, the one that still coins new words, and the one written Hebrew reaches for first.
The machinery
The derivation is visible in every case. You are not learning adverbs; you are learning the nouns, and the ב־ does the rest.
| Abstract noun | Adverb | English |
|---|---|---|
| שֶׁקֶט — quiet | בשקט | quietly |
| מְהִירוּת — speed | במהירות | quickly |
| זְהִירוּת — caution | בזהירות | carefully |
| קַלּוּת — lightness, ease | בקלות | easily |
| שִׂמְחָה — joy | בשמחה | gladly, happily |
| כַּעַס — anger | בכעס | angrily |
| סַבְלָנוּת — patience | בסבלנות | patiently |
| רְצִינוּת — seriousness | ברצינות | seriously |
| עֲדִינוּת — gentleness | בעדינות | gently |
| הִתְלַהֲבוּת — enthusiasm | בהתלהבות | enthusiastically |
| קוֹשִׁי — difficulty | בקושי | barely, hardly |
תסגור את הדלת בשקט, הילדים ישנים.
tisgór et hadélet beshéket, hayeladím yeshením
Close the door quietly — the kids are asleep. (to a man)
סע בזהירות, הכביש רטוב.
sa bizhirút, hakvísh ratóv
Drive carefully — the road's wet. (to a man)
היא סגרה את המחשב במהירות כשנכנסתי.
hi sagrá et hamakhshév bimhirút kshenikhnásti
She shut the laptop quickly when I came in.
הוא ענה בכעס ויצא מהחדר.
hu aná bekhá'as veyatsá mehakhéder
He answered angrily and walked out of the room.
הוא הסביר לי הכול בסבלנות, בלי להסתכל בשעון אפילו פעם אחת.
hu hisbír li hakól besavlanút, bli lehistakél bashaón afílu pá'am akhát
He explained the whole thing to me patiently, without looking at his watch even once.
את מדברת ברצינות או שאת צוחקת עליי?
at medabéret birtsinút o she'át tsokhéket alái?
Are you being serious, or are you having me on? (to a woman)
בקושי הספקתי לתפוס את הרכבת האחרונה.
bekóshi hispákti litfós et harakévet ha'akharoná
I barely made the last train.
The article never gets in
The formal rule is easy: no ה־ inside these phrases, ever. The reason is worth more than the rule, because it explains why the wrong version does not merely look wrong — it is not the word at all.
ב־ and the definite article fuse. Put ב־ in front of הַ־ and what comes out is בַּ, with the ה deleted from the spelling (this is worked through on article fusion). So a Hebrew writer never has both letters standing there to begin with. Write them anyway and one of two things happens. Usually you get nothing: on Hebrew Wikipedia, insource:/…/ regex searches on 15 August 2026, בהזהירות and בהמהירות each return zero hits. Occasionally you get a different word. בהשקט returns about 160 hits in article space, and the ones sampled here are all the phrase בהשקט ובבטחה from Isaiah 30:15, where בהשקט is the hif'il infinitive behashkét "in quieting" — nothing to do with שקט. בהקלות returns 40, and the sampled hits are ב־ plus the plural noun הֲקָלוֹת "concessions, easings". Neither string means "quietly" or "easily" to any Hebrew reader.
Against the bare adjective: במהירות or מהר?
The same meaning is often available twice — once as a bare adjective, once as ב־ plus a noun. רץ מהר and רץ במהירות both mean "ran fast".
Counting Hebrew Wikipedia (same query form and date, searching for the words with spaces around them so that במהרה and ממהר do not contaminate the count), מהר returns 4,982 and במהירות 13,499. Both figures are above the thousand mark where this search stops counting exactly, so read them as floors and as a ratio of roughly 1 : 2.7 in favour of the ב־phrase. But note what that measures: an encyclopedia is written register throughout, so the ratio tells you the ב־phrase dominates in writing and says nothing directly about speech. This build could not source a clean spoken-versus-written label for the pair. Treat it as a safe generalisation that the ב־phrase is the more formal option and the bare adjective the one you will hear across a kitchen table — and do not treat either as an error.
The frozen formulas are members of this class
Several of the phrases you learn on day one as unanalysable social noise are ordinary ב־plus-noun adverbs. ויקימילון analyses בְּהַצְלָחָה exactly that way — the preposition בְּ־ on the noun הצלחה, labelled a מילת קריאה (interjection) of Modern Hebrew. בבקשה is the same shape on בקשה, "in request", and בשמחה is the adverb "gladly" doing duty as a whole reply.
בהצלחה במבחן! תתקשר אחר כך לספר.
behatslakhá bamivkhán! titkashér akhár kakh lesapér
Good luck with the exam! Call afterwards and tell me how it went. (to a man)
אפשר לבקש ממך טובה? בשמחה, מה צריך?
efshár levakésh mimkhá tová? besimkhá, ma tsaríkh?
Can I ask you a favour? — Gladly, what do you need? (to a man)
Why no list will ever be complete
This is the part worth internalising. The class is open. Any abstract noun in your vocabulary yields an adverb, including nouns rare enough that no textbook would list the adverb: Hebrew Wikipedia has בחשדנות "suspiciously" 226 times and בעצבנות "irritably" 52 times, and there is no threshold below which the pattern stops working. So learning this as vocabulary is the wrong move. Learn the rule, learn abstract noun formation, and build the adverb when you need it.
הוא הסתכל עליי בחשדנות כשאמרתי שאני מכיר את המנהל.
hu histakél alái bekhashdanút kshe'amárti she'aní makír et hamenahél
He looked at me suspiciously when I said I know the manager.
היא סיפרה על הטיול בהתלהבות ובסוף שכנעה גם אותנו לנסוע.
hi siprá al hatiyúl behitlahavút uvasóf shikhne'á gam otánu linsóa
She talked about the trip so enthusiastically that in the end she talked us into going too.
Common Mistakes
1. Writing the article inside the phrase. English with the greatest care leaves the article visible, so learners keep it. Hebrew has already swallowed it.
❌ סע בהזהירות
Incorrect — ב־ and ה־ fuse, so the ה is never written: סע בזהירות. בהזהירות is not a Hebrew word (zero hits on Hebrew Wikipedia, 15 August 2026).
❌ פתחתי את זה בהקלות
Incorrect as 'I opened it easily' — בהקלות reads as ב־ on the plural noun הֲקָלוֹת, 'concessions'. Easily is בקלות.
✅ פתחתי את הצנצנת בקלות, פשוט היה צריך מים חמים.
patákhti et hatsintsénet bekalút, pashút hayá tsaríkh máyim khamím
I got the jar open easily — it just needed hot water.
2. Prefixing ב־ to the adjective instead of the noun. Careful is זהיר, so a form like בזהיר looks like the obvious build. The pattern wants the abstract noun, not the adjective it comes from.
❌ הוא נהג בזהיר
Incorrect as 'he drove carefully' — the pattern takes the abstract noun: הוא נהג בזהירות.
✅ הוא נהג בזהירות כל הדרך, ובכל זאת קיבל קנס.
hu nahág bizhirút kol hadérekh, uvekhól zot kibél knas
He drove carefully the whole way and still got a fine.
3. Writing ב־ as a separate word. It is a letter, not a word, and it never stands alone.
❌ הוא ענה ב שקט
Incorrect — ב־ is written solid against its noun, with no space: הוא ענה בשקט.
✅ הוא ענה בשקט, וזה הרגיז אותם עוד יותר.
hu aná beshéket, vezé hirgíz otám od yotér
He answered quietly, and that annoyed them even more.
4. Making the phrase agree. Nothing in it agrees with anything — the noun is fixed, however many people are doing the action.
❌ הן דיברו בשקטות
Incorrect — the noun inside does not pluralise: הן דיברו בשקט.
✅ הן דיברו בשקט כל הנסיעה, ואני נרדמתי מאחורה.
hen dibrú beshéket kol hanesi'á, va'aní nirdámti me'akhóra
They talked quietly the whole drive and I fell asleep in the back.
Key Takeaways
- ב־ + abstract noun is Hebrew's productive manner-adverb pattern: שקט gives בשקט, מהירות gives במהירות, זהירות gives בזהירות.
- The article never appears inside. ב־ and הַ־ fuse into בַּ, so writing both letters gives you either nothing (בהזהירות, בהמהירות: zero hits) or a different word (בהשקט = behashkét, Isaiah 30:15; בהקלות = "concessions").
- The pattern takes the noun, not the adjective it derives from — בזהירות, never *בזהיר.
- Against the bare adjective, the ב־phrase is the more formal option: Hebrew Wikipedia runs about 1 : 2.7 for מהר against במהירות. That is a written-register measurement; no sourced speech-versus-writing label was available for the pair, and neither form is an error.
- בהצלחה, בבקשה, בשמחה are members of this class, not isolated formulas.
- The class is open. Learn the rule and build the adverb from any abstract noun; even בחשדנות and בעצבנות are ordinary members.
Now practice Hebrew
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Start learning Hebrew →Related Topics
- How Hebrew Makes Adverbs (It Mostly Doesn't)A2 — There is no Hebrew ־ly. No single suffix turns any adjective into an adverb, so Hebrew assembles adverbs four different ways — a bare adjective, ב plus an abstract noun, a small suffixed class, and a large stock of words that were simply always adverbs. This page sorts them and sends you to the right one.
- ב־: In, At, With (Instrument)A1 — One letter covers what English splits across in, at, on and instrumental with. ב־ marks places, times and means; careful Hebrew prefers it for a tool, while current colloquial speech also extends עם to instruments.
- Abstract Nouns in ־וּתB1 — ־וּת turns adjectives and nouns into feminine qualities, and it is still taking new members. The hard part is the plural: אֶפְשָׁרוּת becomes אֶפְשָׁרֻיּוֹת with a syllable the spelling אפשרויות hides. The page closes on ־וֹן, Hebrew's other abstract ending, whose plural is ־וֹנוֹת and whose abstract use you learn rather than coin.
- Adjectives Doing Adverb Work: מהר, יפה, טובA2 — Hebrew's commonest manner adverb is just an adjective in its bare masculine singular form — and the one thing it never does is agree. After weeks of drilling agreement into every noun, adjective and verb, the learner meets a slot where the absence of agreement is precisely the signal that the word is adverbial.
- ב + ה → בַּ: Article Fusion with ב, ל and כA1 — Three one-letter prepositions — ב, ל and כ — swallow the definite article's ה and keep only its vowel. The article is still there, but it is no longer written, which makes בבית both 'in a house' and 'in the house'.