ירד yarád, “go down, descend,” has the root י־ר־ד in pa'al. It belongs to the large פ״י class whose initial י disappears in the future, imperative and infinitive. The physical idea is downward movement, but Hebrew extends that idea naturally to leaving a vehicle, precipitation, prices, temperature, body weight, and sites or servers going offline.
Principal parts
| Part | Pointed ktiv male | Reading | Core meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3ms past | יָרַד | yarád | he went down |
| ms present | יוֹרֵד | yoréd | goes down / is descending |
| 3ms future | יֵרֵד | yeréd | he will go down |
| infinitive | לָרֶדֶת | larédet | to go down / get off |
| verbal noun | יְרִידָה | yeridá | descent, decline, getting off |
הירידה לחוף תלולה, אז תלכו לאט.
hayeridá lakhóf tlulá, az telkhú le'át
The descent to the beach is steep, so walk slowly. (to a group)
Conjugation
| Person | Past | Future |
|---|---|---|
| אני | יָרַדְתִּי yarádti | אֵרֵד eréd |
| אתה | יָרַדְתָּ yarádta | תֵּרֵד teréd |
| את | יָרַדְתְּ yarádt | תֵּרְדִי terdí |
| הוא | יָרַד yarád | יֵרֵד yeréd |
| היא | יָרְדָה yardá | תֵּרֵד teréd |
| אנחנו | יָרַדְנוּ yarádnu | נֵרֵד neréd |
| אתם / אתן | יְרַדְתֶּם / יְרַדְתֶּן yeradtém / yeradtén | תֵּרְדוּ terdú |
| הם / הן | יָרְדוּ yardú | יֵרְדוּ yerdú |
| formal/literary feminine plural | — | תֵּרַדְנָה terádna |
| Present agreement | Form |
|---|---|
| masculine singular | יוֹרֵד yoréd |
| feminine singular | יוֹרֶדֶת yorédet |
| masculine plural | יוֹרְדִים yordím |
| feminine plural | יוֹרְדוֹת yordót |
Careful formal recitation has יְרַדְתֶּם / יְרַדְתֶּן, with final stress. Everyday speech normally has יָרַדְתֶּם / יָרַדְתֶּן, yarádtem / yarádten. Modern plural future תרדו / ירדו serves every gender; תרדנה is (formal or literary) and absent from ordinary conversation.
ירדתי מהאוטובוס בכיכר והמשכתי ברגל.
yarádti meha'otobús bakikár vehimshákhti barégel
I got off the bus at the square and continued on foot.
מחר נרד מוקדם לארוחת הבוקר.
makhár neréd mukdám la'arukhát habóker
Tomorrow we'll come down early for breakfast.
The missing yod and the forms that overlap
The future replaces root-initial י with a tsere in the prefix: יֵרֵד, not a three-radical form modeled on יִכְתּוֹב. Ktiv male writes that tsere without a second yod. The imperative drops the י outright, and the infinitive has לָ־ plus ־ֶת: לָרֶדֶת. Learn it with לָלֶכֶת, לָשֶׁבֶת, לָדַעַת and לָצֵאת as one high-frequency family, then see the full system on the פ״י page.
| Unpointed form | Reading one | Reading two |
|---|---|---|
| ירד | יָרַד yarád — he went down | יֵרֵד yeréd — he will go down |
| ירדו | יָרְדוּ yardú — they went down | יֵרְדוּ yerdú — they will go down |
| תרד | תֵּרֵד teréd — you will go down (m.sg) | תֵּרֵד teréd — she will go down |
Time and an explicit subject usually settle the first two. The third is a genuine person/gender syncretism even with niqqud and sound.
Imperative and governed forms
| Addressee | Imperative |
|---|---|
| one man | רֵד red |
| one woman | רְדִי redí |
| group | רְדוּ redú |
The true imperative is fully current for short practical instructions. The future can sound less clipped. תרד רגע is a natural conversational request; רד! can be a firm order.
תרד רגע, אני מחכה למטה.
teréd réga, aní mekhaká lemáta
Come down for a second, I'm waiting downstairs. (informal, f. speaker, to a man)
Use מ־ for a source or point left: ירד מההר, ירד מהאוטובוס. Use ל־ for the lower endpoint or new level: ירד לחוף, ירד לעשרים מעלות. Use ב־ for the amount of change: ירד בחצי, ירד בחמישה קילו. English often leaves these relations implicit; Hebrew marks them consistently.
Physical and measured descent
For people, ירד covers walking downward and getting off a vehicle. For a measurable subject, it means “fall, decrease”: prices, temperature, water level and weight can all serve as grammatical subjects.
המחיר ירד בחצי אחרי סוף העונה.
hamekhír yarád bakhétsi akharéi sof ha'oná
The price fell by half after the end of the season.
הטמפרטורה תרד הלילה לעשר מעלות.
hatemperatúra teréd haláyla le'éser ma'alót
The temperature will fall to ten degrees tonight.
ירדתי חמישה קילו מאז שהתחלתי להתאמן.
yarádti khamishá kílo me'áz shehitkhálti lehit'amén
I've lost five kilos since I started training.
In the weight construction the person is the subject and the amount can appear directly, without ב־. ירדתי בחמישה קילו is also possible when the amount of change is foregrounded.
Weather: the rain is the subject
Hebrew has no dummy it in “it is raining.” The precipitation noun is the grammatical subject: יורד גשם, literally “rain is coming down.” The masculine singular verb agrees with גשם. With שלג, the same agreement appears; past ירד is natural for a completed episode.
ירד גשם כל הלילה והרחובות הוצפו.
yarád géshem kol haláyla veharekhovót hutsfú
It rained all night and the streets flooded.
בחורף יורד שלג בחרמון.
bakhóref yoréd shéleg bakhermón
In winter it snows on Mount Hermon.
Connections, emigration and idioms
In informal technology talk, האתר ירד / השרת ירד can mean that a site or server went offline. For an internet connection, Israelis normally say האינטרנט נפל or החיבור התנתק; מהירות האינטרנט ירדה means the speed decreased.
האתר ירד לכמה דקות וחזר.
ha'atár yarád lekamá dakót vekhazár
The site went offline for a few minutes and came back. (informal)
ירד מהארץ means “emigrated from Israel.” It is the conventional mirror of עלה לארץ, but the opposition is sociohistorically loaded: one motion verb encodes immigration as ascent and the other emigration as descent. Use it as current vocabulary, not as a judgment about an individual's decision.
Common extensions include ירד עליי “picked on / mocked me” (informal), תרד מזה “drop it / forget it” (informal), ירד לפרטים “went into detail,” and ירד מהפסים “went off the rails.” Literal context remains possible with some of these, so the object and situation choose the reading.
בישיבה המנהלת ירדה לפרטים וביקשה לוח זמנים מדויק.
bayeshivá hamenahélet yardá lifratím uvikshá lúakh zmaním meduyák
At the meeting, the manager went into detail and asked for an exact timetable.
Key Takeaways
- Learn יָרַד – יוֹרֵד – יֵרֵד – לָרֶדֶת as one פ״י set.
- Unpointed ירד and ירדו can be past or future; תרד serves both 2ms and 3fs future.
- Use מ־ for the source, ל־ for the endpoint and ב־ for an amount of decrease.
- ירד covers getting off a vehicle, falling prices or temperatures, losing weight, and a site or server going down.
- In יורד גשם, “it is raining,” גשם is the grammatical subject; Hebrew supplies no dummy pronoun.
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