נראה nir'é, “look, seem, appear; be seen,” is nif'al, root ר־א־ה. It combines two weak-root effects: the middle א keeps a vowel break, while final ה disappears or becomes a vowel in many inflected forms. Its morphology is demanding, but its greater difficulty is lexical: the same unpointed נראה represents four common verb forms.
The broader lexical contrast with “sound/seem” is developed on נראה and נשמע; this card concentrates on the full paradigm and the homographs of נראה itself.
Complete paradigm
| Person | Past | Future |
|---|---|---|
| אני | נִרְאֵיתִי nir'éti | אֵירָאֶה era'é |
| אתה | נִרְאֵיתָ nir'éta | תֵּירָאֶה tera'é |
| את | נִרְאֵית nir'ét | תֵּירָאִי tera'í |
| הוא | נִרְאָה nir'á | יֵירָאֶה yera'é |
| היא | נִרְאֲתָה nir'atá | תֵּירָאֶה tera'é |
| אנחנו | נִרְאֵינוּ nir'énu | נֵירָאֶה nera'é |
| אתם · אתן | נִרְאֵיתֶם · נִרְאֵיתֶן nir'étem · nir'éten | תֵּירָאוּ tera'ú |
| הם · הן | נִרְאוּ nir'ú | יֵירָאוּ yera'ú |
| Form type | Forms | Register and use |
|---|---|---|
| present | נִרְאֶה nir'é · נִרְאֵית nir'ét · נִרְאִים nir'ím · נִרְאוֹת nir'ót | neutral, everyday |
| imperative | הֵירָאֵה hera'é · הֵירָאִי hera'í · הֵירָאוּ hera'ú | tabulated but not used as ordinary conversational commands |
| infinitive | לְהֵירָאוֹת lehera'ót | neutral, everyday |
| related noun | מַרְאֶה mar'é | appearance, look; not a regular action noun meaning “seeming” |
Modern Hebrew uses תיראו / ייראו for plural groups of every gender. Dedicated feminine-plural forms survive in formal or literary paradigms. The true imperatives are structurally regular but pragmatically strange: commanding somebody to “appear/be visible” requires a specialized context, so everyday Hebrew normally chooses another verb or a future-shaped instruction.
אני רוצה להיראות רגוע בריאיון, לא לחוץ.
aní rotsé lehera'ót ragúa bare'ayón, lo lakhúts
I want to look relaxed in the interview, not nervous. (m. speaker)
Appearance: subject + נראה + predicate
With a person or thing as subject, נראה links it directly to an appearance predicate. Hebrew has no infinitive corresponding to English to be in “seems to be tired”: הוא נראה עייף is complete. The predicate agrees with the subject where the adjective itself distinguishes gender or number.
אתה נראה מותש; עבדת כל הלילה?
atá nir'é mutásh; avádta kol haláyla?
You look exhausted; did you work all night? (to a man)
הדירה נראית מצוין בתמונות, אבל כדאי לראות אותה.
hadirá nir'ét metsuyán batmunót, avál kedái lir'ót otá
The apartment looks great in the photos, but it's worth seeing it.
הפרויקט נראה מבטיח, אבל עוד מוקדם להחליט.
haproyékt nir'é mavtíakh, avál od mukdám lehakhlít
The project looks promising, but it's still too early to decide.
Impression and judgment: נראה לי
In נראה לי ש־, inflected ל־ marks whose impression is being reported. The default masculine singular נראה evaluates the following clause or proposition rather than agreeing with the experiencer.
נראה לי שהוא צודק הפעם.
nir'é li shehú tsodék hapá'am
I think he is right this time. (literally, 'it seems to me')
זה נראה לי מוזר שהיא לא התקשרה.
ze nir'é li muzár shehí lo hitkashrá
It seems strange to me that she didn't call.
לא נראה לי שזה יצליח בלי תקציב נוסף.
lo nir'é li shezé yatslíakh bli taktsív nosáf
I don't think this will work without additional funding.
English I think covers both tentative impressions and deliberate opinions. Hebrew often uses נראה לי for an inference, impression or softened judgment. אני חושב ש־ is equally living Hebrew but presents the thought more explicitly as the speaker's considered view. The two overlap, yet neither is a register replacement for the other: the intended stance chooses between them.
Literal “be seen”
The passive sense has not disappeared. In a discovery report, witness account or formal description, נראה can mean “was seen / is visible.” A place or time phrase often selects this reading, while a predicate adjective normally selects “look/seem.”
הוא נראה אתמול ליד התחנה המרכזית.
hu nir'á etmól leyád hatakhaná hamerkazít
He was seen yesterday near the central bus station. (literal passive)
Compare הוא נראה טוב, “he looks well,” with הוא נראה ברחוב, “he was seen in the street.” The form alone does not choose the sense; the complement does.
Four verbs in נראה
Bare נראה is the centre of the card because its four readings cross three binyanim:
| Pointed | Reading | Analysis | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| נִרְאָה | nir'á | nif'al past 3ms | looked, appeared; was seen |
| נִרְאֶה | nir'é | nif'al present ms | looks, seems; is visible |
| נִרְאֶה | nir'é | pa'al future 1pl | we will see |
| נַרְאֶה | nar'é | hif'il future 1pl | we will show |
The nif'al future remains outside this bare pile because ktiv male writes an extra yod: איראה, ניראה, תיראה, ייראה. Bare נראית is past 2ms נִרְאֵיתָ nir'éta, past 2fs נִרְאֵית nir'ét, or feminine present נִרְאֵית nir'ét.
נראה, אולי יהיה לנו זמן מחר.
nir'é, ulái yihyé lánu zmán makhár
We'll see; perhaps we'll have time tomorrow. (pa'al future, not nif'al)
נראה את הדירה מחר ונראה לך את התמונות בערב.
nir'é et hadirá makhár venar'é lekhá et hatmunót ba'érev
We'll see the apartment tomorrow and show you the photos in the evening. (to a man)
מראה: appearance, mirror, or showing
The related noun is מַרְאֶה mar'é, “appearance, look.” It is not an everyday action noun meaning “seeming.” Unpointed מראה also hides the feminine noun מַרְאָה mar'á, “mirror,” and the hif'il present forms מַרְאֶה / מַרְאָה, “shows” masculine or feminine singular.
המראה הכללי טוב, אבל חסר צבע בחדר.
hamar'é haklalí tov, avál khasér tséva bakhéder
The overall appearance is good, but the room lacks color.
איך זה נראה לך במראה?
eikh ze nir'é lekhá bamar'á?
How does it look to you in the mirror? (to a man)
The colloquial question מה זה נראה לך? can be genuinely informational, but with sharp intonation it becomes a challenge: “What do you think this is?” Register and tone matter more than the words alone.
מה זה נראה לך, משחק ילדים?
ma ze nir'é lekhá, miskhák yeladím?
What do you think this is, child's play? (informal, confrontational; to a man)
Key Takeaways
- The weak-root set is נראה – נראה – ייראה – להיראות, with ל״ה endings throughout.
- Use subject + נראה
- predicate for appearance, and נראה לי ש־ for an impression or softened judgment.
- Literal passive “was seen” remains live and is selected by context.
- Bare נראה has four readings across nif'al, pa'al and hif'il; nif'al future ניראה / ייראה carries an extra yod.
- מראה can be appearance, mirror, or a hif'il form meaning “shows.”
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- נראה and נשמע: Seeming and SoundingB1 — Two nif'al verbs whose everyday meanings have drifted a long way from 'is seen' and 'is heard'. נראה means looks or seems, נשמע means sounds — and both are homographs with a pa'al future, so the same four letters can be three different verbs.
- ראה — to seeA1 — Conjugate ראה across the core tenses, distinguish its look-alike forms, and choose naturally among seeing, looking and watching.
- Pa'al ל״ה: רצה, קנה, ראה, עשהB1 — The ה of רצה is not a root consonant at all — it is a vowel letter standing in for an original י, which is why it vanishes the moment an ending arrives and comes back as a yod in רָצִיתִי. This is Hebrew's largest weak class and it holds want, see, do, buy and drink.
- Reading Unpointed Hebrew: Supplying the Vowels YourselfA2 — Unpointed Hebrew is not pointed Hebrew with the dots rubbed out — it is read by a different method, in which the reader supplies the vowels from the word, the pattern and the sentence. Here is that method, step by step.