נפגש nifgásh, “meet, meet up,” is a strong nif'al verb, root פ־ג־ש. Its meaning belongs to the small reciprocal nif'al class: the meeting involves both parties. When one party is the grammatical subject, the other follows עם; when both are included in a plural subject, no complement is needed. Transitive pa'al פגש instead profiles someone encountering another person and takes את.
Complete paradigm
| Person | Past | Future |
|---|---|---|
| אני | נִפְגַּשְׁתִּי nifgáshti | אֶפָּגֵשׁ epagésh |
| אתה | נִפְגַּשְׁתָּ nifgáshta | תִּיפָּגֵשׁ tipagésh |
| את | נִפְגַּשְׁתְּ nifgásht | תִּיפָּגְשִׁי tipagshí |
| הוא | נִפְגַּשׁ nifgásh | יִיפָּגֵשׁ yipagésh |
| היא | נִפְגְּשָׁה nifgeshá | תִּיפָּגֵשׁ tipagésh |
| אנחנו | נִפְגַּשְׁנוּ nifgáshnu | נִיפָּגֵשׁ nipagésh |
| אתם / אתן | נִפְגַּשְׁתֶּם / נִפְגַּשְׁתֶּן nifgáshtem / nifgáshten | תִּיפָּגְשׁוּ tipagshú |
| הם / הן | נִפְגְּשׁוּ nifgeshú | יִיפָּגְשׁוּ yipagshú |
| Form | Paradigm | Use |
|---|---|---|
| present | נִפְגָּשׁ nifgásh · נִפְגֶּשֶׁת nifgéshet · נִפְגָּשִׁים nifgashím · נִפְגָּשׁוֹת nifgashót | neutral |
| imperative | הִיפָּגֵשׁ hipagésh · הִיפָּגְשִׁי hipagshí · הִיפָּגְשׁוּ hipagshú | grammatical; future commands are more conversational |
| infinitive | לְהִיפָּגֵשׁ lehipagésh | neutral and frequent |
| action noun | פְּגִישָׁה pegishá | meeting, appointment, date |
The specifically feminine plural future תִּיפָּגֵשְׁנָה tipagéshna is (formal or literary); ordinary Hebrew uses תיפגשו. Positive commands likewise usually use future תיפגש / תיפגשי / תיפגשו rather than the true imperative.
בוא ניפגש בחמש ליד הקפה.
bo nipagésh bekhamésh leyád hakafé.
Let's meet at five by the café. (to a man)
הם נפגשים כל שבוע אחרי העבודה.
hem nifgashím kol shavúa akharéi ha'avodá.
They meet every week after work.
נפגש עם versus פגש את
Nif'al נפגש עם treats the event as mutual: “meet with.” Pa'al פגש את is transitive: one participant encounters the other. Planned meetings strongly favor נפגש, while chance encounters often favor פגש, but chance alone does not determine the verb. If both speakers jointly construe the encounter as a meeting, נפגשנו במקרה is natural too.
| Frame | Perspective | Model |
|---|---|---|
| פגש את + person | one person encountered another | פגשתי את רות ברחוב |
| נפגש עם + person | the parties met one another | נפגשתי עם רות בקפה |
| plural subject + נפגש | all parties are already in the subject | נפגשנו בקפה |
פגשתי את רות ברחוב בדרך לעבודה.
pagáshti et Rut barekhóv badérekh la'avodá.
I ran into Ruth in the street on my way to work.
נפגשתי עם רות בקפה ודיברנו שעה.
nifgáshti im Rut bakafé vedibárnu sha'á.
I met Ruth at a café and we talked for an hour.
נפגשנו במקרה בשוק ולא זיהינו זה את זה מיד.
nifgáshnu bemikré bashúk velo zihínu ze et ze miyád.
We met by chance at the market and didn't recognize each other immediately.
When עם disappears
If a plural subject already names all participants, adding עם would unnecessarily repeat one of them. נפגשנו בשמונה means “we met at eight”; דנה ויואב נפגשו means Dana and Yoav met. Place takes ב־, time may be bare or take ב־, and purpose can follow as an infinitive.
נפגשנו בשמונה בכניסה לתיאטרון.
nifgáshnu bishmóne baknisá late'atrón.
We met at eight at the theater entrance.
קבענו להיפגש כדי לעבור על החוזה.
kavánu lehipagésh kdei la'avór al hakhóze.
We arranged to meet to go over the contract.
הוועדה תיפגש בשבוע הבא לדון בתקציב.
hava'adá tipagésh bashavúa habá ladún bataktsív.
The committee will meet next week to discuss the budget. (formal/institutional)
ניפגש as a leave-taking formula
First-person plural future ניפגש literally means “we'll meet.” On its own or with a time phrase it also closes a conversation: “See you.” It is less formulaic than להתראות and often presupposes an actual next meeting.
טוב, ניפגש מחר. לילה טוב.
tov, nipagésh makhár. láyla tov.
Okay, see you tomorrow. Good night.
The noun family supplies פגישה, פגישת עבודה, פגישה ראשונה, and passive נקבעה פגישה “a meeting was scheduled.” These nouns do not change the verb's government: פגישה עם דנה, just like נפגש עם דנה.
פגישה can be a work meeting, medical appointment, social meeting, or date; context normally makes the type clear. פגישה ראשונה may therefore mean a first meeting or a first date. Institutional prose often pairs it with קבע / נקבע “schedule / was scheduled,” while conversational Hebrew favors קבענו להיפגש “we arranged to meet.” The event noun keeps the same reciprocal participant marker עם.
נקבעה פגישה עם המנהלת ליום שני.
nikbe'á pegishá im hamenahélet leyóm shení.
A meeting with the manager was scheduled for Monday.
Reading overlaps
Bare נפגש is past masculine singular נִפְגַּשׁ and present masculine singular נִפְגָּשׁ. Bare נפגשת is past second-person masculine nifgáshta, past second-person feminine nifgásht, or present feminine nifgéshet. The future is visibly different in ktiv male: תיפגש, ייפגש, ניפגש contain י.
Key Takeaways
- Reciprocal נפגש takes עם; transitive פגש takes definite-object את.
- When all participants form a plural subject, no עם phrase is needed: נפגשנו.
- Planning favors נפגש and an encounter often favors פגש, but both can describe a chance event from different perspectives.
- The future is written ניפגש / תיפגש / ייפגש with י.
- ניפגש is also a natural “See you” formula when another meeting is expected.
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Start learning Hebrew →Related Topics
- Reciprocal Nif'al: נפגשנו, נלחמו, נדברנוC1 — A small closed set of nif'al verbs describes two parties acting on each other — and each of them governs a preposition you have to learn with the verb, because נפגש takes עם and never את, while נלחם spreads across four prepositions with a real difference in meaning.
- Reciprocals: התפעל vs אחד את השניB2 — Hebrew expresses ‘each other’ either inside lexical hitpa'el and nif'al verbs or with two-part frames such as זה את זה, זה לזה and אחד לשני.
- עם: WithA1 — עם is company — a person, a dog, or the milk in your coffee. It is not the 'with' of tools, which is ב־. And it hides the strangest paradigm in the language: 'with me' is איתי, a word that shares not one letter with עם.
- Verbs Taking a Direct Object with אתA2 — Identify a Hebrew verb's direct object, add את only when that object is definite, and use fused object-pronoun forms such as אותי and אותו.