The Seven Binyanim at a Glance

Every Hebrew verb belongs to exactly one of seven moulds. The mould is called a בִּנְיָין (binyán, "building"), and it decides the verb's vowels, its prefixes, and its voice — whether the subject does the action, undergoes it, or does it to itself. This page is the recognition sheet: seven rows, one honest look at each, and the tricks that let you name a binyan from an unpointed word. No full paradigms — those live with each binyan.

The seven, with a real verb in each slot

The names are read off the dummy root פ־ע־ל poured into each mould, a convention explained on patterns. Each row below uses a verb that genuinely lives in that binyan.

The two blank cells are not gaps in the table. פועל and הופעל have no infinitive and no imperative anywhere in the language — they are the passive counterparts of פיעל and הפעיל, and a passive has nothing to command and no independent action to name. There is no לסופר and no להוזמן, and there never was.

One root across the binyanim it happens to fill

Take ל־ב־שׁ, "wear". It fills five of the seven — four of them solidly and one barely — and the other two cells are simply empty, which is the normal state of affairs. Very few roots fill all seven; ג־ל־ה is one that does.

Beware one trap in that empty פיעל cell. לְיַבֵּשׁ leyabésh "to dry" looks close enough to tempt you into filing it there, and it belongs to a different root entirely — י־ב־שׁ, the root of יָבֵשׁ "dry" and יוֹבֶשׁ "dryness". The ל you can see at the front is the infinitive's own ל, not a radical; ל־ב־שׁ has no פיעל, and no amount of squinting will produce one.

Two shortcuts that work

A מ־ at the front of a present-tense verb narrows it to five: פיעל, פועל, הפעיל, הופעל or התפעל. It is never פעל and never נפעל, because those two build their present tense out of the root itself (כּוֹתֵב, נִכְנָס) with no prefix to add.

A ת sitting second, right behind the opening letter points to התפעל, and it is there in every tense: הִתְלַבֵּשׁ, מִתְלַבֵּשׁ, יִתְלַבֵּשׁ, לְהִתְלַבֵּשׁ. Two things disturb it. A root beginning with ס, שׂ, שׁ, צ or ז makes the ת swap places with the first radical — הִסְתַּדֵּר, not *הִתְסַדֵּר — and after צ and ז the ת changes as well, הִצְטַלֵּם and הִזְדַּקֵּן. That swap has its own page, metathesis in hitpa'el.

The second is that a הת־ at the front is not proof on its own: הִתְחִיל "began", הִתְאִים "fitted" and הִתְמִיד "kept at it" are הפעיל verbs whose first root letter simply happens to be ת (ת־ח־ל, ת־א־ם, ת־מ־ד). The vowels separate them cleanly — הפעיל runs i–i (הִתְחִיל, מַתְחִיל, לְהַתְחִיל) where התפעל runs a–e (הִתְלַבֵּשׁ, מִתְלַבֵּשׁ, לְהִתְלַבֵּשׁ) — so although מתחיל and מתלבש open with the same two letters on the page, they sound nothing alike: matkhíl against mitlabésh.

The shortcut that does not work

The obvious third rule would be "a נ at the front of a past-tense verb means נפעל". It is false, and it will mislead you weekly, because Hebrew has a pile of common פעל verbs whose first root letter simply happens to be נ:

The reliable discriminator is the infinitive. Every נפעל infinitive opens להי־ — לְהִיכָּנֵס, לְהִישָּׁבֵר, and where a guttural or a ר blocks the assimilation, לְהֵירָשֵׁם — and no פעל infinitive ever does. Look down the last column: לִיפּוֹל, לִנְסוֹעַ, לָתֵת and לָגַעַת are four different פעל shapes, and not one of them starts להי־. So when you meet an unpointed נ־verb and need to know what it is, ask how you would say "to do it".

Which of the seven you will actually use

פעל, פיעל, הפעיל and התפעל carry the great majority of the verbs a learner ever produces, and if you learn those four thoroughly you can hold a conversation. נפעל is close behind and unavoidable — נכנס, נגמר, נשבר, נרשם are everyday words.

פועל and הופעל are a different case. They are largely a written-register phenomenon: a news bulletin says הוּזְמְנוּ where speech says הזמינו אותם. What you will meet constantly is their present participle used as an ordinary adjective, where nobody thinks of it as a verb at all — מְסוּדָּר "tidy", מְעוּנְיָין "interested", מוּכָן "ready", מוּזָר "strange". Recognising those as פועל and הופעל forms is most of the value these two binyanim have for a beginner; see why פועל is rare.

Common Mistakes

1. Calling any נ־initial past verb a נפעל. Four of the five verbs in the table above are פעל.

2. Building an infinitive for פועל or הופעל. Learners reach for one because English has to be invited.

3. Assuming a root must fill every binyan. An empty cell is the normal case, and filling it by guesswork lands you on an unrelated root.

4. Using a פועל or הופעל participle as a past tense. מוזמן is a present form; it cannot carry אתמול.

Key Takeaways

• There are exactly seven binyanim, named on פ־ע־ל: פעל, נפעל, פיעל, פועל, הפעיל, הופעל, התפעל.
• פועל and הופעל have no infinitive and no imperative. They are the passives of פיעל and הפעיל, and that is a fact about the system, not a hole in the table.
• Almost no root fills all seven — ג־ל־ה does, most do not. ל־ב־שׁ fills five, one of them barely; the empty cells are ordinary, and ליבש belongs to a different root.
• מ־ on a present-tense verb rules out פעל and נפעל. A ת sitting second in the word points to התפעל — subject to the ס/שׂ/שׁ/צ/ז swap, and to the ת־initial הפעיל verbs הִתְחִיל, הִתְאִים, הִתְמִיד, which the i–i vowels give away.
• A נ at the front of a past verb proves nothing — נפל, נסע, נתן and נגע are all פעל. The infinitive is the reliable test: a נפעל infinitive always opens להי־ (לְהִיכָּנֵס, לְהֵירָשֵׁם) and a פעל infinitive never does.
• פעל, פיעל, הפעיל, התפעל (and נפעל close behind) are what you will produce; פועל and הופעל are mostly written register, and you will meet them far more often as adjectives — מוכן, מסודר, מוזר — than as finite verbs.