A hollow root has a ו or a י in its middle slot and never lets it surface as a consonant. In pa'al the two kinds stay visibly apart — ק־ו־ם gives לָקוּם with a u, שׂ־י־ם gives לָשִׂים with an i. In hif'il they merge completely. Every hollow root, whichever letter sits in the middle, comes out on one template: הֵ־ִי־. That is why this page treats them as one class, and it is also why learners assume they always were one.
The merge, and why it matters
| Root | Middle letter | pa'al | hif'il |
|---|---|---|---|
| ק־ו־ם | ו | לָקוּם lakúm get up | הֵקִיםhekím set up, found |
| ר־ו־ץ | ו | לָרוּץ larúts run | הֵרִיץheríts run something, send running |
| ט־ו־ס | ו | לָטוּס latús fly | הֵטִיסhetís fly a plane, fly someone |
| כ־ו־ן | ו | — | הֵכִיןhekhín prepare |
| ב־ו־א | ו | לָבוֹא lavó come | הֵבִיאheví bring |
| ב־י־ן | י | — (biblical בִּינוּ) | הֵבִיןhevín understand |
| ר־י־ח | י | — | הֵרִיחַheríakh smell |
| ס־י־ר | י | — | הֵסִירhesír remove |
Look at ר־ו־ץ. In pa'al the ו is audible as the u of larúts; in hif'il it is gone and an i stands where it was. And then look at ב־י־ן two rows down: a completely different root, with a different middle letter, landing on exactly the same shape. הֵבִין is not ב־ו־ן. Pealim, Milog (בי״נ) and ויקימילון all file it under ב־י־ן, and so do the derived words — בִּינָה, תְּבוּנָה, נָבוֹן.
הבין in full
| Pointed | Written | Reading | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Present m.sg / f.sg | מֵבִין · מְבִינָה | מבין · מבינה | mevín · meviná |
| Present m.pl / f.pl | מְבִינִים · מְבִינוֹת | מבינים · מבינות | meviním · mevinót |
| Past 1 sg / pl | הֵבַנְתִּי · הֵבַנּוּ | הבנתי · הבנו | hevánti · hevánu |
| Past 2 m.sg / f.sg | הֵבַנְתָּ · הֵבַנְתְּ | הבנת · הבנת | hevánta · hevánt |
| Past 2 m.pl / f.pl | הֲבַנְתֶּם · הֲבַנְתֶּן | הבנתם · הבנתן | havantém · havantén (formal) |
| Past 3 m / f / pl | הֵבִין · הֵבִינָה · הֵבִינוּ | הבין · הבינה · הבינו | hevín · hevína · hevínu |
| Future 1 sg / pl | אָבִין · נָבִין | אבין · נבין | avín · navín |
| Future 2 m.sg / f.sg | תָּבִין · תָּבִינִי | תבין · תביני | tavín · tavíni |
| Future 3 m / pl | יָבִין · יָבִינוּ | יבין · יבינו | yavín · yavínu |
| Infinitive · Imperative | לְהָבִין · הָבֵן | להבין · הבן | lehavín · havén (formal) |
Three vowel facts fall out of that table and they run through the whole class:
- Only the masculine singular present has the tsere. מֵבִין against מְבִינָה, מְבִינִים, מְבִינוֹת — the same split as מֵכִין / מְכִינָה and מֵבִיא / מְבִיאָה.
- The 2nd-person plural past swaps the tsere for a chataf-patach: הֲבַנְתֶּם, הֲבַנְתֶּן, הֲכַנְתֶּם, הֲבֵאתֶם. In careful speech that is havantém, stressed on the ending. Everyday Israeli says hevántem, keeping the tsere and the stem stress — a real register split, not an error.
- The future prefix takes a kamatz: אָבִין, תָּבִין, יָבִין — not the patach of יַסְבִּיר and יַתְחִיל. The geminate roots do the same (הֵסֵב → יָסֵב, הֵקֵל → יָקֵל), and for the same reason: both classes have a two-consonant stem, so both take the hollow prefix vowels.
לא הבנתי כלום מההרצאה, אבל לא רציתי להפריע.
lo hevánti klum mehahartsa'á, avál lo ratsíti lehafría
I didn't understand a thing in the lecture, but I didn't want to interrupt.
אני לא מבינה למה הם עדיין לא ענו.
aní lo meviná láma hem adáyin lo anú
I don't understand why they still haven't replied. (f. speaker)
תכיני משהו לאכול, אני מת מרעב.
takhíni máshehu le'ekhól, aní met mera'áv
Make something to eat, I'm starving. (m. speaker, to a woman)
הריצו את התוכנית שוב והפעם זה עבד.
herítsu et hatokhnít shuv vehapá'am ze avád
They ran the program again and this time it worked.
The yod comes and goes on the page
This is the practical hazard of the class, and it is a spelling problem more than a grammar one. The long i is written with a yod — but only where there is a long i, and the suffixed past forms do not have one.
| With a yod | Without |
|---|---|
| הבין · הבינה · הבינו · מבין · יבין · להבין | הבנתי · הבנת · הבנו · הבנתם |
| הכין · הכינה · הכינו · מכין · תכין | הכנתי · הכנת · הכנו · הכנתם |
| הקים · הקימה · הקימו · מקים · נקים | הקמתי · הקמת · הקמנו |
Two ambiguities come out of the right-hand column and both are genuine. הבנת is hevánta "you (m.) understood" and hevánt "you (f.) understood" — one string, two people. And הבנו hevánu "we understood" sits one yod away from הבינו hevínu "they understood"; drop the yod by accident and you have changed the subject of the sentence.
הכנתי לך קפה, הוא על השיש.
hekhánti lekhá kafé, hu al hasháyish
I made you a coffee, it's on the counter. (to a man)
הקימו את החברה לפני חמש שנים ומכרו אותה בשנה שעברה.
hekímu et hakhevrá lifnéi khamésh shaním umakhrú otá bashaná she'avrá
They founded the company five years ago and sold it last year.
הרחתי ריח של שרוף ורצתי למטבח לכבות את הגז.
herákhti réiakh shel saróf verátsti lamitbákh lekhabót et hagáz
I smelled burning and ran into the kitchen to turn the gas off.
הביא: hollow and ל״א at once
ב־ו־א is doubly weak — hollow and ל״א — and since it is one of the twenty commonest verbs in Hebrew it is worth its own table. The א takes the place of the נ/ת/מ that the other verbs shorten to, so the suffixed past has a tsere where הבין has a patach.
| Pointed | Written | Reading | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 sg / pl | הֵבֵאתִי · הֵבֵאנוּ | הבאתי · הבאנו | hevéti · hevénu |
| 2 m.sg / f.sg | הֵבֵאתָ · הֵבֵאת | הבאת · הבאת | hevéta · hevét |
| 2 m.pl / f.pl | הֲבֵאתֶם · הֲבֵאתֶן | הבאתם · הבאתן | havetém · havetén (formal) |
| 3 m / f / pl | הֵבִיא · הֵבִיאָה · הֵבִיאוּ | הביא · הביאה · הביאו | heví · heví'a · heví'u |
| Future | אָבִיא · תָּבִיא · יָבִיא · תָּבִיאִי | אביא · תביא · יביא · תביאי | aví · taví · yaví · taví'i |
| Infinitive · Imperative | לְהָבִיא · הָבֵא | להביא · הבא | lehaví · havé (formal) |
תביאי לי כוס מים, אני כבר חוזר.
taví'i li kos máyim, aní kvar khozér
Bring me a glass of water, I'll be right back. (m. speaker, to a woman)
הבאתי לכם משהו קטן מהנסיעה.
hevéti lakhém máshehu katán mehansi'á
I brought you something small from the trip. (to a group)
It is not a pi'el, and the infinitive proves it
מבין and מכין are four letters starting with מ, which is exactly the shape of מדבר and מסדר. Learners who meet pi'el first read them as pi'el, and then look in vain for a past בִּיֵּין. The discriminator is the infinitive, and it never fails: hif'il writes ל plus ה — לְהָבִין, לְהָכִין, לְהָבִיא — where pi'el has a bare ל: לְדַבֵּר, לְסַדֵּר. The same ה shows up in the past (הֵבִין against דִּיבֵּר), which is the other place to check.
The verbal noun carries its own signature and it is worth recognising on sight: hollow hif'il gives הֲבָנָה, הֲכָנָה, הֲקָמָה, הֲבָאָה, הֲרָמָה — a chataf-patach under the ה, never the plain patach of הַזְמָנָה and הַגָּעָה. The geminate roots share that too — הֲפָרָה "breach" is פ־ר־ר, הֲגָנָה "defence" is ג־נ־ן — so a הֲ־ָ־ָה noun tells you the stem had two consonants, not which of the two classes it came from.
Common Mistakes
1. Keeping the long i in the suffixed past. You learn הֵבִין and add ־תי to it, which is what every regular verb would let you do.
❌ לא הבינתי מה הוא אמר
Incorrect — the long i belongs to the third person only. With a personal ending the stem contracts: לא הבנתי מה הוא אמר, hevánti. Likewise הכנתי, הקמתי, הבאתי — never *הכינתי, *הקימתי, *הביאתי.
✅ לא הבנתי מה הוא אמר, אבל הנהנתי בכל זאת.
lo hevánti ma hu amár, avál hinhánti bekhól zot
I didn't understand what he said, but I nodded anyway.
2. Writing the yod into הבאתי. ב־ו־א's third-person forms all show a yod, so it gets carried into the past.
❌ הביאתי לך את הספר שביקשת
Incorrect — the suffixed past of הביא has a tsere and no yod: הבאתי לך את הספר שביקשת, hevéti. The yod appears only in הביא, הביאה, הביאו and in the future and infinitive.
3. Mixing up the two plural pasts. One yod separates "we" from "they", and the verb is common enough that the slip is costly.
❌ הם הבנו את הבדיחה רק אחרי חצי שעה
Incorrect — הבנו is 1st person plural, 'we understood'. 'They understood' is הבינו, with the yod: הם הבינו את הבדיחה רק אחרי חצי שעה.
4. Reconstructing the root from the hif'il. The hif'il shape is silent about which letter sat in the middle.
❌ הבין ← השורש ב־ו־ן
Incorrect — the root is ב־י־ן, as Pealim, Milog and ויקימילון all have it, and as בִּינָה and תְּבוּנָה show. Hif'il gives ע״ו and ע״י the same template, so הֵקִים and הֵבִין look alike while being ק־ו־ם and ב־י־ן.
Key Takeaways
- ע״ו and ע״י merge in hif'il and nowhere else. One template, הֵ־ִי־: הֵקִים, הֵרִיץ, הֵטִיס, הֵכִין, הֵבִיא (all ו) beside הֵבִין, הֵרִיחַ, הֵסִיר (all י).
- הבין is ב־י־ן, not ב־ו־ן — three dictionaries agree, and בִּינָה, תְּבוּנָה, נָבוֹן confirm it.
- Nothing inside the hif'il paradigm identifies the class. In pa'al it is audible — לָקוּם against לָשִׂים — but here you have to look the root up.
- Only the m.sg present has the tsere: מֵבִין but מְבִינָה, מְבִינִים, מְבִינוֹת.
- The 2nd-person plural past takes a chataf-patach: הֲבַנְתֶּם, הֲכַנְתֶּם, הֲבֵאתֶם (formal havantém; everyday Israeli hevántem).
- The future prefix takes a kamatz, unlike the strong root: אָבִין, תָּכִין, יָקִים — shared with the geminate roots (יָסֵב, יָקֵל), not with יַסְבִּיר.
- The suffixed past loses the yod in writing: הבנתי, הכנתי, הקמתי, הבאתי. הבנת covers both genders, and הבנו "we understood" is one yod from הבינו "they understood".
- הביא is doubly weak (hollow + ל״א) and takes a tsere in the suffixed past: הבאתי, הבאת, הבאנו.
- מבין is not a pi'el. The infinitive settles it: hif'il has ל plus ה (להבין, להכין), pi'el has a bare ל (לדבר, לסדר).
- The verbal noun of this class starts with a chataf-patach: הֲבָנָה, הֲכָנָה, הֲקָמָה, הֲבָאָה — as do the geminates' (הֲגָנָה, הֲפָרָה), so it marks a two-consonant stem rather than this class specifically.
Now practice Hebrew
Reading grammar gets you part of the way. The exercises are where it sticks — free, no signup needed.
Start learning Hebrew →Related Topics
- ע״ו and ע״י (Hollow Roots) Across the BinyanimB2 — A root whose middle letter is ו or י has no middle consonant to build on, so each binyan solves the problem differently: pa'al shows two letters, hif'il inserts a long i, and the pi'el slot is taken over by the polel. Pa'al is also the only binyan that keeps ע״ו and ע״י apart — everywhere else the letter on the page is the mould's, not the root's.
- Doubly Weak Roots: היה, בא, ראה, יצאC1 — The most frequent verbs in Hebrew look the most irregular because they carry two weaknesses at once. But the deformations stack rather than collide: each class does exactly what it does elsewhere, in its own half of the word — which means these verbs can be parsed instead of memorised.
- Pa'al ע״ו Hollow Verbs: קם, גר, בא, טסB1 — Roots whose middle letter is ו lose it entirely — you hear two consonants, never three. The past is stressed on the stem and the future is built on a long u, which together produce the most useful stress contrast a Hebrew learner will meet: bá'a 'she came' against ba'á 'she comes'.
- Pa'al ע״י Hollow Verbs: שם, שר, רבB1 — ע״י verbs are ע״ו verbs with one substitution: a long i where the other class has a long u. Past and present are identical in shape, which means nothing on the page tells you whether a hollow verb gives אָקוּם or אָשִׂים — that has to be learned with the word.