הגיע higía, “arrive, reach,” is hif'il from נ־ג־ע and is weak at both ends. Initial נ assimilates into ג, leaving the dagesh of הִגִּיעַ; final ע takes a furtive patach, a vowel written under the last consonant but pronounced before it. The result is hi-GI-a, not a final-stressed -á form.
Complete paradigm
| Person | Past | Future |
|---|---|---|
| אני | הִגַּעְתִּי higáti | אַגִּיעַ agía |
| אתה | הִגַּעְתָּ higáta | תַּגִּיעַ tagía |
| את | הִגַּעְתְּ higát | תַּגִּיעִי tagí'i |
| הוא | הִגִּיעַ higía | יַגִּיעַ yagía |
| היא | הִגִּיעָה higí'a | תַּגִּיעַ tagía |
| אנחנו | הִגַּעְנוּ higánu | נַגִּיעַ nagía |
| אתם · אתן | הִגַּעְתֶּם · הִגַּעְתֶּן higátem · higáten | תַּגִּיעוּ tagí'u |
| הם · הן | הִגִּיעוּ higí'u | יַגִּיעוּ yagí'u |
| Form type | Forms | Register and use |
|---|---|---|
| present | מַגִּיעַ magía · מַגִּיעָה magi'á · מַגִּיעִים magi'ím · מַגִּיעוֹת magi'ót | neutral |
| imperative | הַגֵּעַ hagéa · הַגִּיעִי hagí'i · הַגִּיעוּ hagí'u | true imperative; formal, written or rhetorically forceful |
| conversational command | תַּגִּיעַ · תַּגִּיעִי · תַּגִּיעוּ | ordinary speech |
| infinitive | לְהַגִּיעַ lehagía | neutral |
| action noun | הַגָּעָה haga'á | arrival |
The masculine singular imperative is הַגֵּעַ, not הַגַּע. In modern speech, future-shaped תגיע / תגיעי / תגיעו is far more natural. Modern plural forms serve every gender; dedicated feminine-plural forms are formal or literary.
מתי אתה מגיע לתחנה?
matái atá magía latakhaná?
When are you getting to the station? (to a man)
האוטובוס כבר הגיע, הוא מחכה בחוץ.
ha'otóbus kvar higía, hu mekhaké bakhúts.
The bus has already arrived; it's waiting outside.
Two weak edges, one stable stem
Initial נ appears nowhere in this hif'il paradigm. It has assimilated into ג, and the dagesh in גּ records the merger: הִגִּיעַ, מַגִּיעַ, יַגִּיעַ, לְהַגִּיעַ. This is the same פ״נ process collected on the hif'il פ״נ page.
At the other end, ע cannot close the form after the long i without an easing vowel. Hebrew writes patach under the ע but pronounces it first: הִגִּיעַ higía, יַגִּיעַ yagía. Once a suffix follows, the sequence opens normally: הִגִּיעָה higí'a, הִגִּיעוּ higí'u.
הגענו באיחור כי הרכבת נעצרה בדרך.
higánu be'ikhúr ki harakévet ne'etsrá badérekh.
We arrived late because the train stopped on the way.
תגיעי קצת לפני שמונה כדי שנמצא מקום.
tagí'i ktsat lifnéi shmóne kdei shenimtsá makóm.
Get there a little before eight so we can find a place. (to a woman)
Destinations take ל־
The normal destination is ל־: הגעתי לעבודה, הגענו לתל אביב, תגיעו לכניסה. A destination may be omitted when context supplies it, as in האוטובוס הגיע. Directional הביתה also stands without ל־ because its final ־ה already marks direction.
החבילה הגיעה למשרד הבוקר.
hakhavilá higí'a lamisrád habóker.
The package arrived at the office this morning.
הגעתי הביתה בחצות ולא רציתי להעיר אף אחד.
higáti habáyta bakhatsót veló ratsíti leha'ír af ekhád.
I got home at midnight and didn't want to wake anyone.
אל is a more written or endpoint-focused alternative, especially common before pronominal suffixes such as אליו / אליה. It is not ungrammatical in speech, but plain destinations overwhelmingly favor ל־.
כשהגעתי אליו הוא כבר ארז את כל הארגזים.
kshehigáti eláv hu kvar aráz et kol ha'argazím.
When I got to his place, he had already packed all the boxes.
Reaching levels, conclusions and moments
The same ל־ frame extends naturally from a physical endpoint to a number, condition or conclusion. Temperatures reach a level; discussants reach a conclusion; an awaited moment arrives.
הטמפרטורה הגיעה לארבעים מעלות בצהריים.
hatemperatúra higí'a le'arba'ím ma'alót batsahoráyim.
The temperature reached forty degrees at noon.
אחרי שעה הגענו למסקנה שצריך להתחיל מחדש.
akharéi sha'á higánu lamaskaná shetsaríkh lehatkhíl mekhadásh.
After an hour we concluded that we needed to start again.
הגיע הזמן לדבר על מה שקרה.
higía hazmán ledabér al ma shekará.
It's time to talk about what happened.
Higher-register הגיע לכלל הסכמה means “reached agreement.” Negative לא הגיע לכלום can mean that someone achieved nothing, not merely that they failed to arrive somewhere.
הצדדים הגיעו לכלל הסכמה אחרי משא ומתן ארוך.
hatsdadím higí'u likhlál haskamá akharéi masá umatán arókh.
The parties reached agreement after lengthy negotiations. (formal)
מגיע ל־: deserve or be owed
In one of Hebrew's most useful dative constructions, מגיע ל־ means that someone deserves or is owed something. The thing deserved is the grammatical subject; the person appears as לי, לך, לו, לה, לנו, לכם, להן. That is why agreement can change: מגיע לי יום חופש, but מגיעה לה העלאה.
מגיע לך פיצוי על כל הזמן שחיכית.
magía lekhá pitsúi al kol hazmán shekhikíta.
You're entitled to compensation for all the time you waited. (to a man)
אחרי השנה הזאת מגיע לי יום חופש.
akharéi hashaná hazót magía li yom khófesh.
After this year, I deserve a day off.
מגיעה לה העלאה; היא עושה עבודה מצוינת.
magi'á la ha'ala'á; hi osá avodá metsuyénet.
She deserves a raise; she does excellent work.
לא מגיע לו שתוותרי שוב על התוכניות שלך.
lo magía lo shetevatrí shuv al hatokhniyót shelákh.
He doesn't deserve for you to give up your plans again. (to a woman)
Nouns, collocations and the נגע near-pair
הגעה is arrival: זמן הגעה “arrival time” and administrative בהגעה “upon arrival.” The same root also gives pa'al נגע nagá, “touch,” whose conjugation and government are entirely different. A dictionary groups them by root, not by present-day meaning; הגיע ל־ does not mean “touch to.”
זמן ההגעה המשוער הוא שש ועשרים.
zman hahaga'á hamesho'ár hu shesh ve'esrím.
The estimated arrival time is six twenty. (travel information)
Key Takeaways
- הגיע is hif'il from נ־ג־ע: initial נ assimilates into ג, while final ע causes a furtive patach.
- The correct masculine imperative is הַגֵּעַ; speech normally uses תגיע.
- Physical and abstract endpoints normally take ל־; a contextually clear destination may be omitted.
- The thing deserved is the subject in מגיע ל־ and controls agreement: מגיע לי יום, מגיעה לי חופשה.
- הגעה, זמן הגעה, הגיע הזמן, הגיע למסקנה are core members of the verb's everyday network.
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- פ״נ Across the BinyanimB2 — One deformation — a vowelless נ swallowed by the next radical, leaving a dagesh — accounts for forms right across the verb system. The same page has to say what the dagesh does not prove: it names an assimilation, not a letter.
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- בא — to comeA1 — A complete reference for the doubly weak verb בא, with its tense homographs, stress contrasts, בא לי construction, hortative בוא, and core collocations.
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