The one-letter preposition ב־ expands before a pronoun: במפתח “with the key” becomes בו “with it,” and טיפל בילדה “treated the girl” becomes טיפל בה “treated her.” English often uses a bare object in these sentences, so the hardest step is not attaching the suffix; it is remembering that the Hebrew verb selected ב־ in the first place.
This page drills the paradigm through four well-established patterns: השתמש ב־ “use,” נגע ב־ “touch,” טיפל ב־ “treat/take care of,” and האמין ב־ “believe in/have faith in.” The wider range of meanings of bare ב־ is on the core ב־ page.
The full paradigm
| Meaning | Form | Reading |
|---|---|---|
| in/by/with me | בִּי | bi |
| in/by/with you (m. sg.) | בְּךָ | bekhá |
| in/by/with you (f. sg.) | בָּךְ | bakh |
| in/by/with him or it (m.) | בּוֹ | bo |
| in/by/with her or it (f.) | בָּהּ | ba |
| in/by/with us | בָּנוּ | bánu |
| in/by/with you (m./mixed pl.) | בָּכֶם | bakhém |
| in/by/with you (f. pl.) | בָּכֶן | bakhén |
| in/by/with them (m./mixed) | בָּהֶם | bahém |
| in/by/with them (f.) | בָּהֶן | bahén |
The short (archaic/literary) plural forms בָּם and בָּן also occur, especially in classical texts and fossilized elevated phrasing. Everyday neutral Hebrew uses בהם, בהן.
The two singular forms spelled בך are not pronounced alike: masculine בְּךָ bekhá, feminine בָּךְ bakh. As with many inflected prepositions, ordinary writing hides gender that speech reveals.
אני מאמינה בך, יואב, גם אחרי הטעות.
aní ma'aminá bekhá, Yo'áv, gam akharéi hata'út
I believe in you, Yoav, even after the mistake. (f. speaker to a man; neutral)
אנחנו מאמינים בך, נועה, ומחכים להופעה.
anákhnu ma'aminím bakh, No'á, umekhakím lahofa'á
We believe in you, Noa, and we're looking forward to the performance. (to a woman; neutral)
The swap drill: noun phrase to suffix
The reliable procedure is mechanical. First learn the verb together with ב־. Then replace the entire object of the preposition with the matching suffix:
| With a noun phrase | With a pronoun | What changed |
|---|---|---|
| השתמשתי במפתח | השתמשתי בו | במפתח bamaftéakh → בו bo |
| טיפלנו בילדה | טיפלנו בה | בילדה bayaldá → בה ba |
| נגעתי בכפתור | נגעתי בו | בכפתור bakaftór → בו bo |
| האמנתי בחברים | האמנתי בהם | בחברים bakhaverím → בהם bahém |
Do not insert a separate pronoun after ב. The suffix is simultaneously the preposition and its pronominal object.
השתמשתי בו כדי לפתוח את הקופסה.
hishtamáshti bo kdei liftóakh et hakufsá
I used it to open the box. (the referent is masculine, such as מפתח 'key'; neutral)
הרופאה טיפלה בי במשך חודש והכאב כמעט נעלם.
harof'á tiplá bi beméshekh khódesh vehake'év kim'át ne'elám
The doctor treated me for a month, and the pain almost disappeared. (the doctor is a woman; neutral)
אל תיגע בה, המחבת עדיין חמה.
al tigá ba, hamakhavát adáyin khamá
Don't touch it; the frying pan is still hot. (to a man; feminine referent מחבת; neutral)
המאמן האמין בנו מהאימון הראשון.
hame'amén he'emín bánu meha'imún harishón
The coach believed in us from the first practice. (neutral)
השתמשנו בהם רק פעם אחת והם כבר נשברו.
hishtamáshnu bahém rak pá'am akhát vehem kvar nishberú
We used them only once, and they already broke. (masculine plural objects; neutral)
הרופאה תטפל בכן בנפרד אחרי הבדיקה.
harof'á tetapél bakhén benifrád akharéi habdiká
The doctor will treat each of you separately after the examination. (to a group of women; neutral)
לא נגעתי בעוגות; אני לא יודע מי נגע בהן.
lo nagáti ba'ugót; aní lo yodéa mi nagá bahén
I didn't touch the cakes; I don't know who touched them. (m. speaker; feminine plural referent; neutral)
האמין ב־ versus האמין ל־
Hebrew makes a distinction that English often leaves implicit. האמין לו means “believed him”—accepted what he said as true. האמין בו means “believed in him”—had faith in his ability, value, or cause. Both are correct, so the contrast must be learned as two meanings, not as a right-versus-wrong pair.
✅ האמנתי לו כשאמר שהרכבת בוטלה.
he'emánti lo kshe'amár sheharakévet butlá
I believed him when he said the train had been cancelled. (לו = believed his statement; neutral)
✅ האמנתי בו גם כשהוא בעצמו רצה לוותר.
he'emánti bo gam kshehú be'atsmó ratsá levatér
I believed in him even when he himself wanted to give up. (בו = had faith in him; neutral)
The stress trap: בנו and בנו
בנו has two everyday readings with the same consonants and the same niqqud בָּנוּ. The preposition means bánu “in us,” with first-syllable stress. The past verb means banú “they built,” with final stress. Written vowels do not rescue you; only sentence structure and stress do.
הם האמינו בנו למרות כל הספקות.
hem he'emínu bánu lamrót kol hasfekót
They believed in us despite all the doubts. (בָּנוּ <em>bánu</em> = in us; neutral)
הם בנו מרפסת קטנה מול הגינה.
hem banú mirpéset ktaná mul haginá
They built a small balcony facing the garden. (בָּנוּ <em>banú</em> = they built; neutral)
בו inside a relative time phrase
Not every בו translates as a standalone English in it. In ביום שבו the suffix resumes יום inside a relative clause: literally “the day in which,” naturally “the day when.” English deletes the preposition in the natural translation; Hebrew keeps it inside שבו.
זה היה ביום שבו קיבלתי את התשובה מהאוניברסיטה.
ze hayá bayóm shebó kibálti et hatshuvá meha'universitá
That was the day I received the answer from the university. (literally, 'the day in which'; neutral)
Common Mistakes
1. Giving השתמש a direct object. English use it hides the preposition that Hebrew requires.
❌ השתמשתי אותו כדי לתקן את המדף.
Incorrect—השתמש governs ב־, so 'used it' is השתמשתי בו, not אותו.
✅ השתמשתי בו כדי לתקן את המדף הרופף.
hishtamáshti bo kdei letakén et hamadáf haroféf
I used it to fix the loose shelf. (neutral)
2. Keeping a free pronoun after ב. The pronoun must become a suffix.
❌ היא טיפלה ב אני כל הבוקר.
Incorrect—ב cannot stand before free אני; 'treated me' is טיפלה בי.
✅ היא טיפלה בי כל הבוקר ואחר כך הרגשתי טוב יותר.
hi tiplá bi kol habóker ve'akhár kakh hirgáshti tov yotér
She treated me all morning, and afterwards I felt better. (neutral)
3. Doubling ב־ before an already inflected form. בו already contains the preposition.
❌ אל תיגע ב בו עכשיו.
Incorrect—do not add a second ב before בו; the correct form is simply תיגע בו.
✅ אל תיגע בו עכשיו, הדבק עדיין רטוב.
al tigá bo akhsháv, hadévek adáyin ratóv
Don't touch it now; the glue is still wet. (to a man; neutral)
Key Takeaways
- The ten neutral forms are בי, בך, בך, בו, בה, בנו, בכם, בכן, בהם, בהן. בם, בן are archaic/literary short plurals.
- Masculine בך is bekhá; feminine בך is bakh.
- Learn the governing pattern before inflecting: השתמש ב־ becomes השתמש בו; נגע ב־ becomes נגע בה; טיפל ב־ becomes טיפל בי.
- Pointed בָּנוּ is bánu “in us” but banú “they built.” Stress, not spelling or niqqud, distinguishes them.
- ביום שבו is the natural Hebrew structure behind English “the day when.”
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Start learning Hebrew →Related Topics
- 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.
- Verbs Governed by ב־: השתמש ב, טיפל ב, נגע בB1 — Learn common Hebrew verbs of contact, engagement, participation, and trust that govern ב־ instead of a direct object.
- Full Inflection Tables for the Main PrepositionsB1 — Look up the ten person-and-gender forms of twenty central Hebrew prepositions in a uniform comparison grid.
- Prepositions Take Pronoun EndingsA1 — Hebrew prepositions do not stand in front of a pronoun — they swallow it. 'To me' is לי, 'from me' is ממני, 'on me' is עליי. One suffix set does most of the work, a second set marks a small family you can identify by looking at 'him', and a few prepositions refuse to inflect at all.