כתב — to write

כתב katáv, “write,” has the strong root כ־ת־ב in pa'al. It is the reference model for the binyan: no radical disappears, changes place or forces a special weak-root pattern. The vowels still alternate across tense and person, and the letters כ and ב change pronunciation according to ordinary begadkefat rules.

Principal parts

Past

The final-stressed כְּתַבְתֶּם / כְּתַבְתֶּן belong to careful formal recitation. Everyday speech normally says כָּתַבְתֶּם / כָּתַבְתֶּן, katávtem / katávten. The masculine plural form increasingly addresses mixed and all-feminine groups too, but כתבתן remains a live, correct form when addressing women.

Present

The present is a participle, so it agrees in gender and number rather than person. אני כותב and אני כותבת both mean “I write / I am writing”; the speaker's gender selects the form, not a separate present-tense subject ending.

Future

The cholam belongs to the lexical future pattern of כתב. Ktiv male therefore writes a vav in אכתוב, תכתוב, יכתוב, נכתוב. Modern Hebrew uses תכתבו / יכתבו for plural groups of every gender; תכתובנה is restricted to (formal, literary or legal) language and is not a spoken learner target.

Imperative

The true imperative is normal in form fields, instructions and direct requests. In conversation, the future תכתוב / תכתבי / תכתבו often sounds less clipped and is at least as common.

Infinitive, verbal noun and passive adjective

כתיבה is the act or quality of writing: כתיבה ברורה “clear writing.” כתוב is an adjective and agrees like one: כתובה, כתובים, כתובות. It often translates English “is written” without any present-tense copula.

Begadkefat alternation you can hear

Word-initial כּ is a stop /k/: כָּתַב katáv, כּוֹתֵב kotév. After a vocalic prefix it is fricative /kh/: לִכְתּוֹב likhtóv, תִּכְתּוֹב tikhtóv, נִכְתּוֹב nikhtóv. Root-final ב is /v/ throughout this paradigm: katáv, kotév, yikhtóv. These are automatic sound alternations, not different roots.

נכתוב does not collide with נכתב

Because כתב has an o-future, 1pl נִכְתּוֹב “we will write” is unpointed נכתוב, with vav. Nif'al נִכְתָּב “was written” or נִכְתָּב as the present masculine participle is נכתב, without vav. The spelling preserves the distinction.

A pa'al verb with an a-future can instead collide with nif'al: נִשְׁמַע nishmá may be “we will hear” or “is heard,” and נִמְצָא nimtsá may be “we will find” or “is found/located.” The difference comes from the pa'al future vowel, not from an isolated quirk of כתב.

Objects and prepositions

The thing written is a direct object; a definite one takes את. The addressee takes ל־, the topic takes על־, and the language or medium takes ב־.

English allows “write someone” as a bare double-object frame. Hebrew keeps the recipient inside ל־: כתבתי לה, never a bare recipient after the verb.

Homographs and the root family

Bare כתב is כָּתַב katáv “he wrote,” כְּתָב ktav “script / handwriting,” or כַּתָּב katáv “reporter.” Bare כתוב is imperative כְּתוֹב ktov or adjective כָּתוּב katúv. Thus כתוב על הדלת can be “write on the door” or “written on the door”; a subject or object resolves it.

The root family makes Hebrew root-and-pattern morphology concrete: כתובת “address,” כתב יד “handwriting / manuscript,” מכתב “letter,” כתובה “Jewish marriage contract,” and התכתבות “correspondence.” The consonants remain recognizable while each pattern contributes its own word class and meaning.

Key Takeaways

• כָּתַב – כּוֹתֵב – יִכְתּוֹב – לִכְתּוֹב is the model strong pa'al set.
• Hear initial כּ as /k/ in katáv, kotév, but כ as /kh/ after a prefix in yikhtóv, likhtóv; final ב is /v/ throughout.
• Ktiv-male נכתוב “we will write” keeps its vav and stays distinct from נכתב “was/is written.”
• A definite thing written takes את; use ל־ for the addressee, על־ for the topic and ב־ for the language or medium.
• Context separates כתב “wrote / script / reporter” and כתוב “write! / written.”