ל״ה is a root whose third letter is written ה — ק־נ־ה, ר־א־ה, נ־ס־ה, ע־ל־ה, שׁ־נ־ה, ג־ל־ה. It is the largest weak class in Hebrew, and unlike פ״נ or ע״ו it is not really an obstacle course. It is a single set of endings that replaces the last syllable of every cell, in every binyan, identically.
The reason is that the ה is not a consonant at all. It is a mater lectionis, a letter written to show a final vowel, standing in for an original י — which is exactly why the yod resurfaces the moment an ending arrives: קָנָה but קָנִיתִי. So the class does not deform anything; it simply has no third consonant for the binyan to attach to, and every binyan solves that the same way.
Six endings, seven binyanim
| בניין | Verb | past (he) | past (I) | present m.sg. | future (he) | infinitive |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| pa'al | ק־נ־ה buy | קָנָה kaná | קָנִיתִי kaníti | קוֹנֶה koné | יִקְנֶה yikné | לִקְנוֹת liknót |
| nif'al | ר־א־ה look, seem | נִרְאָה nir'á | נִרְאֵיתִי nir'éti | נִרְאֶה nir'é | יֵירָאֶה yera'é | לְהֵירָאוֹת lehera'ót |
| pi'el | נ־ס־ה try | נִיסָּה nisá | נִיסִּיתִי nisíti | מְנַסֶּה menasé | יְנַסֶּה yenasé | לְנַסּוֹת lenasót |
| pu'al | נ־ס־ה be tried | נוּסָּה nusá | — | מְנוּסֶּה menusé | יְנוּסֶּה yenusé | — none exists |
| hif'il | ר־א־ה show | הֶרְאָה her'á | הֶרְאֵיתִי her'éti | מַרְאֶה mar'é | יַרְאֶה yar'é | לְהַרְאוֹת lehar'ót |
| huf'al | ע־ל־ה be raised | הוּעֲלָה hu'alá | — | מוּעֲלֶה mu'alé | יוּעֲלֶה yu'alé | — none exists |
| hitpa'el | שׁ־נ־ה change | הִשְׁתַּנָּה hishtaná | הִשְׁתַּנֵּיתִי hishtanéti | מִשְׁתַּנֶּה mishtané | יִשְׁתַּנֶּה yishtané | לְהִשְׁתַּנּוֹת lehishtanót |
Read the last five columns straight down and the binyan changes at the front of every word while the tail stays put. That gives six constants, and they hold everywhere:
- Past 1st and 2nd person: a yod before the ending — ־יתִי, ־יתָ, ־ית, ־ינוּ. קָנִיתִי · נִרְאֵיתִי · נִיסִּיתִי · הֶרְאֵיתִי · הִשְׁתַּנֵּיתִי.
- Past 3rd feminine singular: a ת appears — ־תָה. קָנְתָה · נִרְאֲתָה · נִיסְּתָה · הֶרְאֲתָה · הִשְׁתַּנְּתָה.
- Past 3rd plural: the radical vanishes entirely — bare ־וּ. קָנוּ · נִרְאוּ · נִיסּוּ · הֶרְאוּ · הִשְׁתַּנּוּ.
- Present singular: ־ה for both genders, with only the vowel separating them.
- Future singular: ־ֶה — and it drops the moment an ending is added. יִקְנֶה · יֵירָאֶה · יְנַסֶּה · יַרְאֶה · יִשְׁתַּנֶּה, against plural יִקְנוּ yiknú and 2fs תִּקְנִי tikní, where the tail is bare exactly as it is in the 3pl past.
- Infinitive: ־וֹת — לִקְנוֹת, לְהֵירָאוֹת, לְנַסּוֹת, לְהַרְאוֹת, לְהִשְׁתַּנּוֹת.
Constant 5 is where a learner most often reaches for a strong-verb ending, because the singular already looks finished: יִקְנֶה. The plural does not add to it — it takes the ־ֶה off and puts the ending in that slot, יִקְנוּ, exactly as the 3pl past does in קָנוּ. Same for the 2fs, תִּקְנִי.
קניתי כרטיסים לשבת ואז גיליתי שאני עובד.
kaníti kartisím leshabát ve'áz gilíti she'aní ovéd
I bought tickets for Saturday and then found out I'm working. (m. speaker)
הכרטיסים נקנים באפליקציה, אין יותר קופה.
hakartisím nikním ba'aplikátsya, ein yotér kupá
Tickets are bought in the app now — there's no ticket window any more.
הרופאה הראתה לי את הצילום והסבירה מה רואים.
harof'á her'atá li et hatsilúm vehisbíra ma ro'ím
The doctor showed me the scan and explained what you can see. (f. doctor)
הנושא הועלה כבר בישיבה הקודמת ואף אחד לא הגיב.
hanosé hu'alá kvar bayeshivá hakodémet ve'áf ekhád lo hegív
The matter was already raised at the previous meeting and nobody responded. (formal)
One root, all seven: ג־ל־ה
Most roots fill three or four binyanim. ג־ל־ה fills all seven, which makes it the best single proof that the endings belong to the class and not to any one binyan.
| בניין | past (he) | present m.sg. | infinitive | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| pa'al | גָּלָה galá | גּוֹלֶה golé | לִגְלוֹת liglót | went into exile (literary / historical) |
| nif'al | נִגְלָה niglá | נִגְלֶה niglé | לְהִיגָּלוֹת lehigalót | became visible, was revealed |
| pi'el | גִּילָּה gilá | מְגַלֶּה megalé | לְגַלּוֹת legalót | discovered, found out |
| pu'al | גּוּלָּה gulá | מְגוּלֶּה megulé | — none exists | was uncovered |
| hif'il | הִגְלָה higlá | מַגְלֶה maglé | לְהַגְלוֹת lehaglót | deported, exiled (formal) |
| huf'al | הוּגְלָה huglá | מוּגְלֶה muglé | — none exists | was deported (formal) |
| hitpa'el | הִתְגַּלָּה hitgalá | מִתְגַּלֶּה mitgalé | לְהִתְגַּלּוֹת lehitgalót | came to light, turned out |
Seven past forms, and every one of them ends in ־ָה. Seven participles, and every one of them ends in ־ֶה. Five infinitives, and every one of them ends in ־וֹת. Nothing that changes between the rows lives in the last syllable.
גיליתי רק אחרי שנה שהוא בכלל לא עבד שם.
gilíti rak akharéi shaná shehú bikhlál lo avád sham
It was only a year later that I found out he'd never worked there at all.
הכול התגלה בסוף, כמו תמיד.
hakól hitgalá basóf, kmo tamíd
It all came out in the end, the way it always does.
The vowel nobody writes
Constant 4 is the one that costs you something. The two singular present forms are one string in every binyan, separated by a vowel that unpointed Hebrew does not print:
| Written | Masculine | Feminine | בניין |
|---|---|---|---|
| קונה | קוֹנֶה koné | קוֹנָה koná | pa'al |
| נראה | נִרְאֶה nir'é | נִרְאָה nir'á | nif'al |
| מנסה | מְנַסֶּה menasé | מְנַסָּה menasá | pi'el |
| מראה | מַרְאֶה mar'é | מַרְאָה mar'á | hif'il |
| משתנה | מִשְׁתַּנֶּה mishtané | מִשְׁתַּנָּה mishtaná | hitpa'el |
היא מנסה כבר חודש להשיג אותם בטלפון.
hi menasá kvar khódesh lehasíg otám batélefon
She's been trying to get hold of them by phone for a month.
המצב משתנה כל יום, אי אפשר לתכנן כלום.
hamatsáv mishtané kol yom, i efshár letakhnén klum
The situation changes daily — you can't plan anything.
היא עורכת דין מנוסה, היא תדע מה לעשות.
hi orékhet din menusá, hi tedá ma la'asót
She's an experienced lawyer, she'll know what to do.
The 3fs cell, and why שתתה is not a typo
Constant 2 inserts a ת where a strong verb has a bare ־ָה, and the resulting cluster is what learners flatten. In pa'al it comes out as a two-consonant onset — קָנְתָה kantá, רָצְתָה ratstá, עָשְׂתָה astá — and one member of the class looks alarming on the page:
שָׁתְתָה shatetá "she drank" has two tavs, one from the root and one from the ending, and it is three syllables rather than two. A shva before an identical consonant is vocal, so it cannot reduce to shattá.
הִשְׁתַּנְּתָה and הִתְגַּלְּתָה look like the same problem and are not. There the two consonants meeting are different — נ then ת, ל then ת — so the shva between them is נח, silent, and nothing is added: hishtantá, hitgaltá, with the ת of constant 2 clipped straight on to the stem. It is only the identical pair in שָׁתְתָה that forces an extra beat.
היא שתתה קפה אחד ודיברה שלוש שעות.
hi shatetá kafé ekhád vedibrá shalósh sha'ót
She had one coffee and talked for three hours.
The reading payoff, and its limit
A Hebrew verb ending in ־ה or in ־ות is almost always ל״ה. That is a genuinely useful heuristic, and it is why the class is worth naming even before you can conjugate it: the infinitive tells you the whole tail of the paradigm.
The limit is the class next door. ל״א roots — מ־צ־א, ק־ר־א, מ־ל־א — end in a silent א, which behaves nothing like the ה: it stays written in every form and it does not produce a ־ות infinitive. לִמְצוֹא, לִקְרוֹא and לְהִיקָּרֵא are ל״א; לִקְנוֹת, לִרְאוֹת and לְהֵירָאוֹת are ל״ה. The one-letter difference is the whole test, and it is on pa'al ל״א.
And the historical footnote that makes constant 1 make sense: the original third radical was a י, not a ה. Hebrew writes ה at the end of a word as a matter of spelling convention, and the moment an ending puts that slot in the middle of the word the old letter comes back. קָנָה is the exception; קָנִיתִי is the truth.
You cannot postpone this class
Look at what is in it: היה be, עשה do, ראה see, רצה want, קנה buy, שתה drink, בנה build, ענה answer, עלה go up, קרה happen — ten verbs from the first hundred anybody learns. Add נראה, נהנה, ניסה, חיכה, קיווה, ניקה, גילה, הראה, העלה, השתנה and התגלה from the other binyanim and there is no stage of Hebrew at which you are not using this class.
לא עשינו כלום כל היום וזה היה מושלם.
lo asínu klum kol hayóm vezé hayá mushlám
We did absolutely nothing all day and it was perfect.
אין לי כוח לענות לכולם עכשיו, אני אעשה את זה מחר.
ein li kóakh la'anót lekhulám akhsháv, aní e'esé et ze makhár
I haven't got the energy to answer everyone now — I'll do it tomorrow.
Common Mistakes
1. Flattening the 3fs past. The extra ת has no counterpart in a strong verb, so it gets left out and the feminine comes out looking masculine — in every binyan.
❌ החנות נבנה בשנה שעברה ליד התחנה
Incorrect — a ל״ה 3fs past inserts a ת before the ending: החנות נבנתה בשנה שעברה, nivnetá. נבנה on its own is the masculine, ‘it was built’.
✅ החנות נבנתה בשנה שעברה ליד התחנה ומאז אין שם חנייה.
hakhanút nivnetá bashaná she'avrá leyád hatakhaná ume'áz ein sham khanayá
The shop was built last year next to the station and there's been no parking since.
2. Dropping the yod from the suffixed past. Constant 1 is written, and leaving it out usually lands you on a different cell of the same verb.
❌ נראתי נורא בתמונות מהחתונה
Incorrect as ktiv male for nir'éti — the ל״ה past writes the old root's yod, and it is a letter of the word rather than a vowel sign, so no spelling convention drops it: נראיתי נורא בתמונות מהחתונה. Same for ניסיתי, גיליתי, הראיתי, השתניתי.
✅ נראיתי נורא בתמונות מהחתונה, אבל אף אחד חוץ ממני לא שם לב.
nir'éti norá batmunót mehakhatuná, avál af ekhád khuts miméni lo sam lev
I looked terrible in the wedding photos, but nobody except me noticed.
3. Extending the ־ות infinitive to ל״א. The heuristic is good and this is where it stops.
❌ הם ביקשו להיקראות בשם אחר
Incorrect — ק־ר־א ends in א, not ה, so it keeps the ordinary nif'al ending: להיקרא. Pealim returns nothing for להיקראות. Compare להיראות, from ר־א־ה, which is genuinely ל״ה.
✅ הם ביקשו להיקרא בשם אחר, וזה לקח למשרד שנתיים.
hem bikshú lehikaré beshém akhér, vezé lakákh lamisrád shnatáyim
They asked to be called by a different name, and it took the ministry two years.
4. Writing היה without its yod. The most frequent ל״ה verb in the language takes constant 1 like everything else.
❌ היתי שם אתמול בערב
Incorrect as ktiv male for hayíti — the yod of the ל״ה past is written: הייתי שם אתמול בערב. Likewise היית, היינו, הייתם.
Key Takeaways
- The third radical is written ה only in the citation form. It is a vowel letter standing in for an original י, which comes back the moment an ending arrives: קָנָה → קָנִיתִי.
- Six constants, in every binyan: a yod before the 1st/2nd-person past endings; a ת in the 3fs past; a bare ־וּ in the 3pl past; ־ה for both genders in the singular present; ־ֶה in the singular future, dropped before an ending (יִקְנֶה but יִקְנוּ, תִּקְנִי); and ־וֹת in the infinitive.
- ג־ל־ה fills all seven binyanim — גָּלָה, נִגְלָה, גִּילָּה, גּוּלָּה, הִגְלָה, הוּגְלָה, הִתְגַּלָּה — and the tail of every one of them is identical.
- The singular present is one spelling for two genders in every binyan: קונה, נראה, מנסה, מראה, משתנה. Learn these aloud in pairs.
- The 3fs adds a ת, giving clusters learners flatten: קָנְתָה, רָצְתָה, עָשְׂתָה, and שָׁתְתָה shatetá with two tavs and three syllables.
- A verb ending in ־ה or ־ות is almost always ל״ה — but not if the letter is an א. ל״א keeps its silent א and its ordinary endings: לִמְצוֹא, לִקְרוֹא, לְהִיקָּרֵא.
- The class holds היה, עשה, ראה, רצה, קנה, שתה, בנה, ענה, עלה, קרה plus נראה, ניסה, חיכה, הראה, העלה and השתנה. It is unavoidable from week one.
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- 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.
- Pi'el ל״ה: ניסה, חיכה, קיווה, ניקהB1 — The third root letter never surfaces as a ה. It shows up as a yod in most of the past, as ־ה or ־ות elsewhere, and disappears entirely before ־וּ — and the two present-tense singulars end up spelled identically, separated only by a vowel nobody writes.
- Hif'il ל״ה: הראה, השווה, הקנהB1 — When the third root letter is ה it never surfaces as a consonant — it becomes a yod in the past, a bare vowel elsewhere, and ־ות in the infinitive. The class also produces the guide's best homograph: מראה is four different words.
- Hitpa'el ל״ה: השתנה, התנסה, התרפאB1 — A weak third radical rewrites the last syllable of every cell — an infinitive in ־ות, a 3fs in ־תה, and one spelling that covers both singular present forms. Plus התרפא, which looks like a member and is not.
- Nif'al of Weak Roots: נולד, נבנה, נמצא, נהנהB1 — To be born, to be built, to be located, to be enjoyed and to be considered are all nif'al verbs with a weak root letter — so the four classes on this page are not an appendix to the binyan, they are most of the vocabulary you will actually use.