פ״נ is a root whose first letter is נ — נ־פ־ל, נ־ג־שׁ, נ־צ־ל, נ־ס־ע, נ־ג־ע, נ־ת־ן. Set against the sound-root grid on שלמים, the whole class comes down to a single sentence, and it is a phonetic sentence rather than a morphological one.
A נ with no vowel of its own, pressed against the next consonant, disappears into it — and the consonant takes a dagesh chazak to record the merger. Where the נ has a vowel, nothing happens to it at all. So the class does not divide into strong and weak binyanim so much as into cells where a prefix took the vowel and cells where it did not.
One qualification belongs before the grid, because the rule is not exceptionless in the way that sentence sounds. In the derived binyanim it is regular — nif'al, hif'il and huf'al assimilate a vowelless נ by rule, and the two things that block the merger there, a guttural second radical and modern coinage, are themselves systematic. In the pa'al future and infinitive it is lexical, and each root has to be checked. נ־ס־ע does both at once: future יִסַּע yisá, written ייסע, with the נ gone — but infinitive לִנְסוֹעַ, with it written out. And Pealim prints נ־פ־ל with two infinitives side by side, לִיפּוֹל and לִנְפּוֹל, both current and neither an error. So an unassimilated נ in a pa'al form is the lexicon speaking, not a rule breaking.
Niqqud is on throughout this page. The dagesh is the entire evidence, and ktiv male erases it.
The grid, on נ־פ־ל and נ־ג־שׁ
| בניין | נ־פ־ל | נ־ג־שׁ | What the נ did |
|---|---|---|---|
| pa'al | נָפַל nafál · לִיפּוֹל ~ לִנְפּוֹל lipól ~ linpól | נִיגַּשׁ nigásh · לָגֶשֶׁת lagéshet | survives in the past; the infinitive goes both ways |
| nif'al | gap — neither root has one (on Pealim's pa'al reading of ניגש) | — | |
| pi'el | gap | — | |
| pu'al | gap | — | |
| hif'il | הִפִּיל hipíl dropped | הִגִּישׁ higísh served · הִנְגִּישׁhingísh made accessible | absorbed — except in the modern הנגיש |
| huf'al | הוּפַּל hupál · מוּפָּל mupál | הוּגַּשׁ hugásh · מוּגָּשׁ mugásh | absorbed |
| hitpa'el | הִתְנַפֵּל hitnapél pounced | הִתְנַגֵּשׁ hitnagésh collided | survives — it carries a patach |
Look at the last two rows together. הוּפַּל and הִתְנַפֵּל come from one root, and the נ is invisible in the first and written out in the second. Nothing about the letter changed; what changed is that huf'al's הוּ־ takes the vowel and hitpa'el's הִת־ leaves one behind for the radical.
הרוח הפילה את כל העציצים מהמרפסת.
harúakh hipíla et kol ha'atsitsím mehamirpéset
The wind knocked all the plant pots off the balcony.
הכלב התנפל על השקית ברגע שהנחתי אותה.
hakélev hitnapél al hasakít baréga shehinákhti otá
The dog went straight for the bag the second I put it down.
ניגשתי לדלפק וגיליתי שאין תור בכלל.
nigáshti ladelpék vegilíti she'éin tor bikhlál
I went up to the counter and found there was no queue at all.
התלונה הוגשה כבר לפני חודש ועדיין אין תשובה.
hatluná hugshá kvar lifnéi khódesh va'adáyin ein tshuvá
The complaint was filed a month ago and there's still no answer. (formal)
שתי מכוניות התנגשו בצומת והכביש נסגר לשעה.
shtei mekhoniyót hitnagshú batsómet vehakvísh nisgár lesha'á
Two cars collided at the junction and the road was closed for an hour.
One root, six binyanim: נ־צ־ל
נ־צ־ל is the class's showpiece, because it fills six of the seven and splits them exactly along the vowel line.
| בניין | past (he) | present m.sg. | Meaning | נ? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| pa'al | gap — Pealim lists no pa'al on this root | |||
| nif'al | נִיצַּל nitsál | נִיצָּל nitsál | was rescued, survived | absorbed |
| pi'el | נִיצֵּל nitsél | מְנַצֵּל menatsél | used up; exploited | written |
| pu'al | נוּצַּל nutsál | מְנוּצָּל menutsál | was exploited | written |
| hif'il | הִצִּיל hitsíl | מַצִּיל matsíl | rescued | absorbed |
| huf'al | הוּצַּל hutsál | מוּצָּל mutsál | was rescued (formal) | absorbed |
| hitpa'el | הִתְנַצֵּל hitnatsél | מִתְנַצֵּל mitnatsél | apologised | written |
The nif'al row is the one to sit with. נִיצַּל has a נ at the front, and it is not the root's. It is the binyan's prefix; the root's own נ is inside the dagesh in the צ. So this single word carries both a written נ and a swallowed one, and reading it as a plain three-letter נ־צ־ל stem is what sends learners looking for a nonexistent pa'al.
כולם ניצלו, אף אחד לא נפגע ברצינות.
kulám nitslú, af ekhád lo nifgá birtsinút
Everyone got out — nobody was seriously hurt.
הם ניצלו את ההנחה בשנייה האחרונה.
hem nitslú et hahanakhá bashniyá ha'akharoná
They used the discount at the very last second.
הוא התנצל, אבל זה נשמע כאילו מישהו הכריח אותו.
hu hitnatsél, avál ze nishmá ke'ílu míshehu hikhríakh otó
He apologised, but it sounded as if somebody had made him.
Those first two sentences carry the same written word — ניצלו — in two different binyanim, pronounced alike in Israeli Hebrew: nitslú "they were rescued" is nif'al, nitslú "they exploited, they made use of" is pi'el. Only the sentence tells you which.
Where the נ never left
Two groups keep the נ in cells where a dagesh was available.
Second radical is a guttural. א, ה, ח, ע and ר cannot take a dagesh, so the merger has nowhere to go: הִנְהִיג (נ־ה־ג) "led", הִנְחִית (נ־ח־ת) "landed a plane".
Modern formations. The hif'il pair already in the grid is the type case — inherited הִגִּישׁ "serve, submit" beside הִנְגִּישׁ "make accessible", coined on the adjective נָגִישׁ. ויקימילון marks the second עברית חדשה and says plainly that the root is functioning there as a secondary root, conjugated like a sound root. The same holds for הִנְפִּיק "issue", הִנְצִיחַ "commemorate", הִנְמִיךְ "turn down". The old assimilation applies to the old words.
הם מנגישים את כל ההרצאות עם כתוביות.
hem mangishím et kol hahartsa'ót im ktuviyót
They're making all the lectures accessible with subtitles. (formal)
תנגב את השולחן לפני שאתה שם את הצלחות.
tenagév et hashulkhán lifnéi she'atá sam et hatsalakhót
Wipe the table before you put the plates down. (to a man)
נִיגֵּב nigév "wipe dry", from נ־ג־ב, shows the converse cleanly: pi'el gives the first radical a chirik of its own, and a נ with a vowel has no reason to go anywhere.
The recognition skill, and its limit
The skill is real: an unexplained doubled consonant in a verb with only two visible radicals means a first radical assimilated. The limit is equally real, and this is where competing sources get it wrong. It does not mean the letter was a נ.
הִצִּיעַ "suggested", הִצִּיג "presented" and הִצִּית "set alight" look exactly like הִצִּיל. Their roots are י־צ־ע, י־צ־ג, י־צ־ת — גזרת חפי״צ, a closed set of eight roots whose first letter is י and whose second is צ or ז. A vowelless yod assimilates exactly as a נ does, so the surface result is identical.
The test is the heavy binyanim, because they squeeze nothing: put the root into pi'el or hitpa'el and a yod that was there comes back — לְיַיצֵּג "represent", לְהִתְיַיצֵּב "report, present oneself". A נ never does that, for the good reason that it never left. So the lookup order is: try נ, then try י with צ or ז in second position, then check the pi'el.
ניגש: the label is disputed, the forms are not
נִיגַּשׁ nigásh "approached", infinitive לָגֶשֶׁת, is filed by Pealim as pa'al. Classical grammars analyse the same forms as nif'al, and the present נִיגָּשׁ does have the nif'al shape. Both readings are in print and both are defensible; nothing about producing the verb depends on which you adopt. Take the label as an open question.
Common Mistakes
1. Assimilating the נ where it has a vowel. The rule is about vowelless נ, and over-applying it is the class's own trap.
❌ הוא בכלל לא התצל על האיחור
Incorrect — in hitpa'el the נ carries a patach and stays written: הוא בכלל לא התנצל על האיחור. There is no form ‘hitatsél’.
✅ הוא בכלל לא התנצל על האיחור, פשוט התיישב ופתח את המחשב.
hu bikhlál lo hitnatsél al ha'ikhúr, pashút hityashév ufatákh et hamakhshév
He didn't apologise for being late at all — he just sat down and opened his laptop.
2. Writing נתן's final נ where it has already merged. That נ assimilates at the end of the word as readily as at the front, and the split is by ending: consonant-initial ־תִּי, ־תָּ and ־נוּ swallow it; vowel-initial ־ָה and ־וּ leave it alone (נָתְנָה, נָתְנוּ).
❌ נתנתי לו את המפתחות ביום שישי
Incorrect as the 1s past of נתן — the final נ merges into the ת of the ending, giving נָתַתִּי, written נתתי: נתתי לו את המפתחות ביום שישי. (The letters do spell the nif'al נִתַּנְתִּי ‘I was given’, which is not what the sentence means.)
✅ נתתי לו את המפתחות ביום שישי והוא עדיין לא החזיר.
natáti lo et hamaftekhót beyóm shishí vehú adáyin lo hekhezír
I gave him the keys on Friday and he still hasn't given them back.
3. Building the infinitive off the past tense. The pa'al infinitives of this class are lexical, and ניגש is the least predictable of them.
❌ אני רוצה לניגש לבחינה בקיץ
Incorrect — there is no such infinitive; Pealim returns nothing for it. The infinitive is לגשת: אני רוצה לגשת לבחינה בקיץ.
✅ אני רוצה לגשת לבחינה כבר בקיץ ולא לחכות עוד שנה.
aní rotsé lagéshet lavkhiná kvar bakáyits veló lekhakót od shaná
I want to sit the exam this summer rather than wait another year.
4. The same merger, one cell over. Before ־נוּ the נ lands on another נ, so the doubling is inaudible and invisible — exactly when the letter gets written twice.
❌ נתננו להם עוד שבוע והם עדיין לא ענו
Incorrect — the root's final נ merges into the ־נוּ of the ending: נתנו להם עוד שבוע, natánu. Written נתנו, the same four letters as natnú ‘they gave’.
✅ נתנו להם עוד שבוע והם עדיין לא ענו.
natánu lahém od shavúa vehém adáyin lo anú
We gave them another week and they still haven't replied.
Key Takeaways
- One rule covers the class: a נ with no vowel of its own merges into the next consonant, leaving a dagesh chazak. A נ that has a vowel stays put.
- That splits the grid by prefix, not by binyan family: the נ is absorbed in nif'al, hif'il and huf'al and written in pi'el, pu'al and hitpa'el — as נ־צ־ל shows across one root.
- נִיצַּל carries two נs: the visible one is nif'al's prefix, the root's is inside the dagesh.
- The נ also survives before a guttural (הִנְהִיג, הִנְחִית) and in modern coinages — נ־ג־שׁ has both הִגִּישׁ "serve" and הִנְגִּישׁ "make accessible", which ויקימילון marks עברית חדשה and treats as a secondary root.
- A dagesh proves an assimilation, not a letter. הִצִּיעַ, הִצִּיג and הִצִּית are י־צ־ע, י־צ־ג, י־צ־ת of גזרת חפי״צ, and the yod resurfaces in לְיַיצֵּג and לְהִתְיַיצֵּב.
- נגמר, נשבר and נכנס are not פ״נ. They are nif'als of ג־מ־ר, שׁ־ב־ר and כ־נ־ס, and their להי־ infinitives say so.
- ניגש is pa'al for Pealim and nif'al for the classical grammars; the forms נִיגַּשׁ · נִיגָּשׁ · לָגֶשֶׁת are agreed on by both.
- The merger is regular in nif'al, hif'il and huf'al, lexical in the pa'al future and infinitive: נ־ס־ע assimilates in יִסַּע but not in לִנְסוֹעַ, and Pealim gives נ־פ־ל both לִיפּוֹל and לִנְפּוֹל. Nothing predicts the pa'al infinitive from the class — לִיפּוֹל, לִנְסוֹעַ, לָגַעַת, לָתֵת, לָגֶשֶׁת are five different outcomes.
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- Pa'al פ״נ: The Disappearing נ (נפל, נסע, נגע)B1 — The initial נ of נפל, נסע and נתן is fully present in the past and the present, and in the future it is swallowed by the next letter, leaving only a dagesh — which is why יִפֹּל is yipól with a hard p. The infinitives, though, have to be learned one by one.
- Hif'il פ״נ: הגיע, הכיר, הפילB1 — In hif'il the initial נ of נ־ג־ע, נ־כ־ר and נ־פ־ל never appears at all — it is swallowed by the next letter and leaves only a dagesh, giving הִגִּיעַ, הִכִּיר, הִפִּיל. But a dagesh only proves that something was absorbed, not that it was a נ: הִצִּיעַ looks identical and is י־צ־ע.
- שלמים: The Sound Root in Every BinyanB1 — A root with no weak letter behaves identically in all seven binyanim — which makes it the control case. Here is one grid, two roots, and the honest gaps in both, so that every weak class on the pages that follow can be read as a documented deviation from this.
- Weak Roots (גזרות): Why Some Words Look BrokenA2 — קם has two consonants, יפול has lost its נ, and קנה ends in a letter nobody pronounces. None of these verbs is irregular — each belongs to a גזרה, a root class where one weak letter behaves predictably. Here are the classes, the reason a letter goes missing, and where each one is taught in full.
- פ״י Across the BinyanimB2 — The first radical of ישב, ירד and ידע is a י that was once a ו, and it surfaces as a different letter in almost every binyan: nothing in pa'al's future, a cholam in hif'il, a full consonant in pi'el and hitpa'el. Name the class and the opaque infinitives stop being arbitrary.