גר gar, “live” or “reside,” is the everyday pa'al verb for having one's home in a place. Its root ג־ו־ר is hollow (ע״ו): the middle ו disappears from many finite forms but returns in אגור, לגור and גור. This compact verb is common from a learner's first conversation, yet its short unpointed forms hide several useful tense and meaning contrasts.
Complete paradigm
| Person | Past | Future |
|---|---|---|
| אני | גַּרְתִּי gárti | אָגוּר agúr |
| אתה | גַּרְתָּ gárta | תָּגוּר tagúr |
| את | גַּרְתְּ gart | תָּגוּרִי tagúri |
| הוא | גָּר gar | יָגוּר yagúr |
| היא | גָּרָה gára | תָּגוּר tagúr |
| אנחנו | גַּרְנוּ gárnu | נָגוּר nagúr |
| אתם / אתן | גַּרְתֶּם / גַּרְתֶּן gártem / gárten | תָּגוּרוּ tagúru |
| הם / הן | גָּרוּ gáru | יָגוּרוּ yagúru |
| Form type | Forms | Register or use |
|---|---|---|
| present | גָּר gar · גָּרָה gará · גָּרִים garím · גָּרוֹת garót | neutral, everyday |
| imperative | גּוּר gur · גּוּרִי gúri · גּוּרוּ gúru | grammatical but uncommon in ordinary conversation |
| infinitive | לָגוּר lagúr | neutral, everyday |
| action noun | מְגוּרִים megurím | usually plural; residence or living arrangements |
The specifically feminine plural future תְּגוּרֶינָה is (formal or literary); normal contemporary speech uses תגורו for every plural group. In careful recitation, second-person plural past גרתם / גרתן may have final stress, gartém / gartén. The table records the usual conversational gártem / gárten.
איפה אתה גר עכשיו?
éifo atá gar akhsháv?
Where do you live now? (to a man)
גרתי בירושלים חמש שנים, ואז עברתי לחיפה.
gárti birushaláyim khamésh shaním, ve'áz avárti lekhéifa.
I lived in Jerusalem for five years, and then I moved to Haifa.
Past and present can look identical
Without vowels, masculine singular גר can be past גָּר “he lived” or present גָּר “he lives.” Here the pronunciation is identical, so only context and time expressions distinguish the tenses. Feminine גרה carries an audible stress contrast: past גָּרָה gára, “she lived,” but present גָּרָה gará, “she lives.” Hebrew often leaves the pronoun out in the past when the surrounding discourse supplies it, which makes time cues particularly important.
פעם גרנו במרכז, והיום אנחנו גרים בצפון.
pá'am gárnu bamérkaz, vehayóm anákhnu garím batsafón.
We used to live in the center, and today we live in the north.
בשנה שעברה היא גרה לבד; עכשיו היא גרה עם שותפה.
bashaná she'avrá hi gára levád; akhsháv hi gará im shutafá.
Last year she lived alone; now she lives with a roommate.
The first גרה in that example is gára because בשנה שעברה places it in the past. The second is gará because עכשיו makes it present. In ordinary unpointed writing both are simply גרה.
Residence is not the same as life
גר answers “Where is someone's home?” English live also means “be alive,” but Hebrew normally uses חי khay for that biological sense. חי can additionally describe a way of life or an intense lived experience; it does not simply replace גר in an address question.
סבא שלי עדיין חי, אבל הוא כבר לא גר לבד.
sába shelí adáyin khay, avál hu kvar lo gar levád.
My grandfather is still alive, but he no longer lives alone.
אני גר בתל אביב, אבל בסופי שבוע אני ממש חי בים.
aní gar betél avív, avál besofé shavúa aní mamásh khay bayám.
I live in Tel Aviv, but on weekends I practically live at the beach.
For official forms and institutional prose, מתגורר / מתגוררת from hitpa'el התגורר means “resides” (formal). It is normal in contracts, demographic descriptions and bureaucratic questions, but sounds needlessly official in a casual introduction.
נא לציין באיזו עיר אתה מתגורר.
na letsayén be'éizo ir atá mitgorér.
Please state the city in which you reside. (formal, to a man)
Place, company and temporary accommodation
Residence in a town, neighborhood, street or building normally takes ב־: גר בחיפה, גרה בשכונה הזאת. A person who shares the home is introduced by עם. ליד locates one home near another place, while אצל presents someone else's home as the host location. English commonly says “stay with,” but Hebrew can use גר אצל when the arrangement is long enough to count as living there.
| Frame | Meaning | Typical phrase |
|---|---|---|
| גר ב־ | resides in a place | גר בבאר שבע |
| גר עם | shares a home with someone | גרה עם בן הזוג שלה |
| גר ליד | lives near a landmark or person | גרים ליד התחנה |
| גר אצל | lives at another person's home | גר אצל הדודים |
הם גרים ביחד כבר שנתיים ליד התחנה המרכזית.
hem garím beyákhad kvar shnatáyim leyád hatakhaná hamerkazít.
They've been living together for two years near the central bus station.
כשהדירה שלי הייתה בשיפוץ, גרתי אצל אחותי חודש.
kshehadirá shelí haytá beshipúts, gárti étsel akhotí khódesh.
While my apartment was being renovated, I lived at my sister's for a month.
סבתא גרה לידנו, אז הילדים מבקרים אותה הרבה.
sávta gará leyadénu, az hayeladím mevakrím otá harbé.
Grandma lives near us, so the children visit her often.
אני רוצה לגור קרוב לים, אבל שכר הדירה שם יקר.
aní rotsé lagúr karóv layám, avál skhar hadirá sham yakár.
I want to live near the sea, but the rent there is expensive. (m. speaker)
The plural noun מגורים refers to residence as an arrangement or status: מקום מגורים “place of residence,” תנאי מגורים “living conditions.” It is neutral to formal and plural-dominant; ordinary conversation more often uses a finite form of גר or the noun דירה “apartment.”
Imperative and short-form homographs
The imperative גור / גורי / גורו is real, but telling someone “Live here!” is pragmatically unusual. Everyday Hebrew normally uses a future command, a suggestion with כדאי, or the infinitive after רוצה: תגור איתנו, כדאי לגור קרוב, רוצה לגור לבד. The true imperative can sound elevated, proverbial or emphatic.
אם תתחיל ללמוד כאן, תגור איתנו עד שתמצא דירה.
im tatkhíl lilmód kan, tagúr itánu ad shetimtsá dirá.
If you start studying here, live with us until you find an apartment. (to a man)
Unpointed גר may also be the noun גֵּר ger, “convert” or, in biblical diction, “resident alien.” In modern usage it is a separate lexical item, although historically it is related to sojourning. Unpointed גור can be the imperative גּוּר “live!” or the noun גּוּר gur, “cub” or “puppy.” Meaning and syntax, not spelling alone, resolve the reading.
מצאנו גור כלבים ליד הבניין, ועכשיו הוא גר אצלנו.
matsánu gur klavím leyád habinyán, ve'akhsháv hu gar etslénu.
We found a puppy near the building, and now it lives with us.
Common Mistakes
1. Using ל־ for the place of residence. Movement goes לתל אביב, but static residence is בתל אביב.
❌ אני גר לתל אביב.
Incorrect—the residence location takes ב־, not the destination preposition ל־.
✅ אני גר בתל אביב ועובד ברמת גן.
aní gar betél avív ve'ovéd beramát gan.
I live in Tel Aviv and work in Ramat Gan.
2. Leaving the present participle masculine with a feminine subject.
❌ היא גר בחיפה.
Incorrect—the feminine singular present form is גרה.
✅ היא גרה בחיפה ליד ההורים שלה.
hi gará bekhéifa leyád hahorím shelá.
She lives in Haifa near her parents.
3. Keeping the hidden ו in the past stem.
❌ גורתי שם שנתיים.
Incorrect as ‘I lived’—the ו disappears in the suffixed past form.
✅ גרתי שם שנתיים לפני שעברתי דרומה.
gárti sham shnatáyim lifnéi she'avárti daróma.
I lived there for two years before moving south.
Key Takeaways
- גר is a hollow ע״ו verb: the middle ו returns in אגור, לגור and גור, but disappears in גרתי and גר.
- Past and present masculine גר sound alike; feminine גרה contrasts past gára with present gará.
- Use גר for residence and חי for being alive; מתגורר is the formal bureaucratic alternative.
- Residence takes ב־; housemates take עם; a host's home takes אצל.
- The imperative is grammatical but uncommon in speech, where future commands and infinitive constructions do most of the work.
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- Pa'al ע״ו Hollow Verbs: קם, גר, בא, טסB1 — Roots whose middle letter is ו lose it entirely — you hear two consonants, never three. The past is stressed on the stem and the future is built on a long u, which together produce the most useful stress contrast a Hebrew learner will meet: bá'a 'she came' against ba'á 'she comes'.
- קם — to get upA2 — Conjugate the hollow verb קם, distinguish getting up from waking, and read its tense collisions, universe homograph and institutional extensions.
- 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.
- ע״ו and ע״י (Hollow Roots) Across the BinyanimB2 — A root whose middle letter is ו or י usually has no middle consonant to build on, so each binyan solves the problem differently: pa'al shows two letters, hif'il inserts a long i, and the pi'el slot is often taken over by the polel. Pa'al keeps ע״ו and ע״י apart most transparently; an ordinary pi'el such as כיוון or קיים can reveal the root letter too.
- עבד — to workA2 — Conjugate עבד, choose its workplace and project prepositions, and recognize its common unpointed homographs.