נשאר — to stay, to remain | Hebrew Grammar

נשאר nish'ár, “stay, remain, be left,” is nif'al, root ש־א־ר. In the future, the assimilated nif'al נ doubles the first radical ש: אֶשָּׁאֵר, תִּישָּׁאֵר, יִישָּׁאֵר. Its past–present contrast נִשְׁאַר / נִשְׁאָר follows the ordinary nif'al vocalic contrast also seen in the strong-root pair נִגְמַר / נִגְמָר. The middle guttural א becomes especially visible in forms such as נִשְׁאֲרָה, נִשְׁאֲרוּ, and תִּישָּׁאֲרִי. The verb has two central frames: a person stays somewhere, or a thing remains to someone.

Complete paradigm

Person	Past	Future
אני	נִשְׁאַרְתִּי nish'árti	אֶשָּׁאֵר esha'ér
אתה	נִשְׁאַרְתָּ nish'árta	תִּישָּׁאֵר tisha'ér
את	נִשְׁאַרְתְּ nish'árt	תִּישָּׁאֲרִי tisha'arí
הוא	נִשְׁאַר nish'ár	יִישָּׁאֵר yisha'ér
היא	נִשְׁאֲרָה nish'ará	תִּישָּׁאֵר tisha'ér
אנחנו	נִשְׁאַרְנוּ nish'árnu	נִישָּׁאֵר nisha'ér
אתם · אתן	נִשְׁאַרְתֶּם · נִשְׁאַרְתֶּן nish'ártem · nish'árten	תִּישָּׁאֲרוּ tisha'arú
הם · הן	נִשְׁאֲרוּ nish'arú	יִישָּׁאֲרוּ yisha'arú

Form type	Forms	Register and use
present	נִשְׁאָר nish'ár · נִשְׁאֶרֶת nish'éret · נִשְׁאָרִים nish'arím · נִשְׁאָרוֹת nish'arót	neutral, everyday
true imperative	הִישָּׁאֵר hisha'ér · הִישָּׁאֲרִי hisha'arí · הִישָּׁאֲרוּ hisha'arú	current in signs and firm instructions; conversational commands usually use the future
infinitive	לְהִישָּׁאֵר lehisha'ér	neutral, everyday
action noun	הִישָּׁאֲרוּת hisha'arút	formal: staying, remaining
related plain noun	שְׁאֵרִית she'erít	remainder, remnant

Modern Hebrew uses תישארו / יישארו / הישארו for plural groups of every gender. The specifically feminine-plural forms remain formal or literary. The conversational command is commonly future-shaped תישאר / תישארי / תישארו, while the true imperative can sound firmer or more written.

נשארתי בבית כל היום כי חיכיתי לטכנאי.

nish'árti babáyit kol hayóm ki khikíti latekhnái

I stayed home all day because I was waiting for the technician.

תישארו בקשר ותכתבו כשתגיעו.

tisha'arú bekésher vetikhtevú kshetagí'u

Keep in touch and write when you arrive. (to a group)

A lexical middle, not an agentive passive

With נשאר, the subject persists in a place, state or situation. The sentence does not demote an agent in the way a true passive does; נשארתי בבית does not invite the question “by whom was I stayed?” Hebrew does have causative השאיר, “leave/keep someone or something,” but נשאר is not its morphological passive. Compare השארתי את התיק בבית “I left the bag at home” with התיק נשאר בבית “the bag remained at home.”

That makes this a lexical middle or stative nif'al. The subject is the participant that remains, and the verb agrees with that participant.

היא נשארה ערה עד שתיים כדי לסיים את הדוח.

hi nish'ará erá ad shtáyim kdei lesayém et hadúakh

She stayed awake until two to finish the report.

התיק נשאר במונית, אבל הנהג החזיר אותו.

hatík nish'ár bamonít, avál hanahág hekhzír otó

The bag was left in the taxi, but the driver returned it. (literally, 'the bag remained')

💡

Ask what continues to exist in the place or state. That noun is the subject of נשאר and controls agreement. The person who owns or cares about it may appear separately with ל־.

The dative frame: what remains to whom

In נשאר לי כסף, Hebrew makes the leftover item the grammatical subject and puts the affected possessor in an inflected ל־ phrase: לי, לך, לו, לה, לנו. This resembles possession with יש לי, but the verb still agrees. English instead makes the person the subject of “have left,” which is why learners often look at the wrong noun.

נשאר לי רק שקל אחד עד סוף השבוע.

nish'ár li rak shékel ekhád ad sof hashavúa

I have only one shekel left until the end of the week.

נשארו לנו שתי מנות, רוצים אחת?

nish'arú lánu shtéi manót, rotsím akhát?

We have two portions left—do you want one? (to a group)

לא נשאר זמן לקפה לפני הרכבת.

lo nish'ár zmán lekafé lifnéi harakévet

There's no time left for coffee before the train.

The agreement contrast is visible: singular masculine שקל gives נשאר, feminine plural מנות gives נשארו, and mass-like זמן gives singular נשאר. The dative לי / לנו never controls the verb.

Homographs

Bare נשאר is past 3ms נִשְׁאַר or present ms נִשְׁאָר. In contemporary Israeli pronunciation both are nish'ár. Bare נשארת has three readings:

Pointed	Reading	Function
נִשְׁאַרְתָּ	nish'árta	you stayed, masculine singular
נִשְׁאַרְתְּ	nish'árt	you stayed, feminine singular
נִשְׁאֶרֶת	nish'éret	feminine-singular present

Chunks worth learning whole

נשאר לבד means remain alone; נשאר בחיים, stay alive; נשאר בלי כלום, be left with nothing; מה נשאר?, what is left?; and נשאר על הכוונת, remain in the crosshairs or under scrutiny. Their meanings extend naturally from persistence, but the combinations are frequent enough to store as units.

אחרי שכולם יצאו, הוא נשאר לבד במשרד.

akharéi shekulám yats'ú, hu nish'ár levád bamisrád

After everyone left, he remained alone in the office.

מה נשאר לעשות לפני שפותחים?

ma nish'ár la'asót lifnéi shepotkhím?

What's left to do before we open?

למרות החקירה, המנהל נשאר במוקד הביקורת.

lamrót hakhakirá, hamenahél nish'ár bemokéd habikóret

Despite the investigation, the manager remained the focus of criticism. (journalistic)

💡

נשאר לי and נגמר לי share the same syntax. In both, the thing is the subject and the person is dative; the difference is semantic: with נשאר some quantity persists, while with נגמר it reaches zero or an endpoint.

Key Takeaways

The middle guttural א gives the distinctive set נשאר – נשאר – יישאר – להישאר.
This is a lexical middle/stative: the subject remains; it is not a passive with a hidden agent.
In the personal frame, the staying person controls agreement. In נשאר לי X, the leftover X controls agreement and לי names the possessor or affected person.
נשאר / נשארת are past–present and person homographs in unpointed text.
Learn the everyday chunks נשאר בקשר, נשאר לבד, נשאר בחיים, מה נשאר.

Now practice Hebrew

Reading grammar gets you part of the way. The exercises are where it sticks — free, no signup needed.

Start learning Hebrew →