קם kam, “get up / rise,” is pa'al, root ק־ו־ם, a hollow ע״ו verb. The middle radical appears as a vowel rather than a consonant in most forms, so the past and present singular collapse together, while the future, imperative and infinitive reveal a long u: אקום, קום, לקום. The larger mechanism is mapped on pa'al ע״ו verbs.
Principal parts
| Part | Pointed ktiv male | Reading | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3ms past | קָם | kam | he got up / arose |
| ms present | קָם | kam | gets up / is getting up |
| 3ms future | יָקוּם | yakúm | he / it will get up or arise |
| imperative | קוּם | kum | get up! (to one man) |
| infinitive | לָקוּם | lakúm | to get up / arise |
| action noun | קִימָה | kimá | rising; getting up |
קמתי מוקדם היום כדי לסיים את הדוח בשקט.
kámti mukdám hayóm kdei lesayém et hadúakh beshéket
I got up early today to finish the report in peace.
קום, כבר תשע והקפה מתקרר.
kum, kvar tésha vehakafé mitkarér
Get up—it's already nine and the coffee's getting cold. (to a man)
Complete conjugation
| Person | Past | Future |
|---|---|---|
| אני | קַמְתִּי kámti | אָקוּם akúm |
| אתה | קַמְתָּ kámta | תָּקוּם takúm |
| את | קַמְתְּ kámt | תָּקוּמִי takúmi |
| הוא | קָם kam | יָקוּם yakúm |
| היא | קָמָה káma | תָּקוּם takúm |
| אנחנו | קַמְנוּ kámnu | נָקוּם nakúm |
| אתם / אתן | קַמְתֶּם / קַמְתֶּן kámtem / kámten | תָּקוּמוּ takúmu |
| הם / הן | קָמוּ kámu | יָקוּמוּ yakúmu |
| Present agreement | Form |
|---|---|
| masculine singular | קָם kam |
| feminine singular | קָמָה kamá |
| masculine plural | קָמִים kamím |
| feminine plural | קָמוֹת kamót |
Modern plural futures תקומו / יקומו serve all genders. Dedicated feminine forms such as תקומנה are (literary). The true imperative remains entirely current: קום kum, קומי kúmi, קומו kúmu.
מתי את קמה בבוקר כשאין לך עבודה?
matái at kamá babóker kshe'éin lakh avodá?
What time do you get up when you aren't working? (to a woman)
מחר נקום בחמש ונצא לפני הפקקים.
makhár nakúm bekhamésh venetsé lifnéi hapkakím
Tomorrow we'll get up at five and leave before the traffic.
Past or present? The subject narrows the answer
Because קם is both 3ms past and masculine-singular present, הוא קם מוקדם can mean “he got up early” or “he gets up early.” A time expression normally resolves the tense: אתמול favours past, כל יום favours habitual present.
The ambiguity does not extend to every person. The present agrees only for gender and number, so אני קם בשש can only be present: “I get up at six.” First-person past must be קמתי.
הוא קם מוקדם, אז תתקשרי אליו אחרי שמונה.
hu kam mukdám, az titkashrí eláv akharéi shmóne
He gets up early, so call him after eight. (to a woman; habitual present from context)
הוא קם מוקדם אתמול ונסע ישר לשדה התעופה.
hu kam mukdám etmól venasá yashár lisdé hate'ufá
He got up early yesterday and went straight to the airport.
אני קם בשש רק בימים שאני עובד מהמשרד.
aní kam beshésh rak bayamím she'aní ovéd mehamisrád
I get up at six only on days when I work from the office. (m. speaker; present only)
יקום: future verb or universe
Unpointed יקום has two common readings. יָקוּם yakúm is “he / it will arise”; יְקוּם yekúm is the noun “universe.” The noun normally follows a determiner or adjective, while the verb occupies the predicate slot and may take a time expression.
אף אחד לא יודע מתי יקום הבניין החדש.
af ekhád lo yodéa matái yakúm habinyán hekhadásh
Nobody knows when the new building will go up.
הספר מתאר יקום שבו הזמן נע לאחור.
haséfer meta'ér yekúm shebó hazman na le'akhór
The book describes a universe in which time moves backwards.
The paired hollow verbs: קם and שם
The roots ק־ו־ם and שׂ־י־ם belong to different hollow classes, but the middle radical disappears from the past. Only the future and infinitive expose the vowel that distinguishes them.
| ע״ו: ק־ו־ם | ע״י: שׂ־י־ם | |
|---|---|---|
| 1s past | קַמְתִּי kámti | שַׂמְתִּי sámti |
| 1s future | אָקוּם akúm | אָשִׂים asím |
| infinitive | לָקוּם lakúm | לָשִׂים lasím |
| imperative | קוּם kum | שִׂים sim |
קומי ותשימי סוודר, קר בחוץ.
kúmi vetasími svéder, kar bakhúts
Get up and put on a jumper; it's cold outside. (to a woman)
לא קל לקום בחורף ולשים רגליים על רצפה קרה.
lo kal lakúm bakhóref velasím ragláyim al ritspá kará
It isn't easy to get up in winter and put your feet on a cold floor.
Getting up is not waking up
English get up and wake up often blur in casual accounts of a morning. Hebrew distinguishes the events:
| Verb | Subject's role | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| קם | person rises | gets out of bed; stands up from a seat |
| התעורר | person becomes awake | wakes up, opens their eyes |
| העיר | person causes another to wake | wakes someone up; takes את |
You can wake without getting up, and another person can wake you. That yields three different clauses rather than three translations of one verb.
התעוררתי בחמש אבל קמתי רק בשש.
hitorárti bekhamésh avál kámti rak beshésh
I woke up at five but didn't get out of bed until six.
אל תעיר אותי; אני אקום לבד כשהשעון יצלצל.
al ta'ír otí; aní akúm levád kshehasha'ón yetsaltsél
Don't wake me; I'll get up by myself when the alarm rings. (to a man)
From a person rising to an institution arising
The physical source phrase normally uses מ־: קם מהכיסא, קם מהמיטה. The same intransitive verb extends naturally to a state, building or institution coming into existence. English may choose “was founded,” but Hebrew can present the institution itself as the thing that arose.
הוא קם מהכיסא, לבש את המעיל ויצא.
hu kam mehakisé, lavásh et hame'íl veyatsá
He got up from the chair, put on his coat and left.
המדינה קמה בשנת אלף תשע מאות ארבעים ושמונה.
hamedíná káma bishnát élef tsha me'ót arba'ím ushmoné
The state came into being in 1948. (historical statement)
The related hif'il הקים is transitive: somebody founds, establishes or erects something. Compare העמותה קמה “the association came into being” with הם הקימו את העמותה “they founded the association.”
שלושה מתנדבים הקימו את העמותה אחרי השיטפון.
shloshá mitnadvím hekímu et ha'amutá akharéi hashitafón
Three volunteers founded the association after the flood.
The action noun קימה covers getting up in the morning and rising from a seat. For institutional creation, Hebrew normally uses the hif'il noun הקמה “establishment / founding,” preserving the intransitive–transitive distinction.
קימה מוקדמת דורשת ממני ללכת לישון לפני חצות.
kimá mukdémet doréshet miméni lalékhet lishón lifnéi khatsót
Getting up early requires me to go to bed before midnight.
Key Takeaways
- Learn קָם – קָמִים – יָקוּם – לָקוּם – קוּם; the long u identifies the ע״ו class.
- קם / קמה can be past or present, but first-person אני קם is present only; the past is קמתי.
- Bare יקום is future yakúm “will arise” or the noun yekúm “universe.”
- The past of קם matches the shape of שם, while אקום / לקום contrast with אשים / לשים.
- קם means rising from bed or a seat; התעורר means waking, and העיר means waking someone else.
- An institution can קמה intransitively; a founder הקים it transitively. Their action nouns are קימה and הקמה.
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Start learning Hebrew →Related Topics
- 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'.
- שם — to putA2 — Conjugate the hollow verb שם, navigate its unusually dense unpointed homographs, and use its location frames and high-frequency collocations.
- התעורר — to wake upA2 — Conjugate התעורר, distinguish waking from getting up and waking someone, and use its figurative extensions naturally.
- 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.