Hif'il Infinitive (להתחיל) and Imperative | Hebrew Grammar

In pi'el the infinitive is just the future stem with לְ־ in front of it. In hif'il it is not, and the difference is a whole letter: the ה that vanished in the present and the future comes back. A learner reasoning from מַתְחִיל and יַתְחִיל would predict something like *לתחיל, and no such word exists.

The ה returns

Form	Pointed	Written	Reading
past	הִתְחִיל	התחיל	hitkhíl — ה present
present	מַתְחִיל	מתחיל	matkhíl — ה gone, מ in its place
future	יַתְחִיל	יתחיל	yatkhíl — ה gone, י in its place
infinitive	לְהַתְחִיל	להתחיל	lehatkhíl — ה back

The shape is לְ + הַ + stem. Nothing else changes, so once you can say the infinitive you can read off the imperative and vice versa:

Root	Infinitive	Reading
ס־ב־ר explain	לְהַסְבִּיר · להסביר	lehasbír
ר־ג־שׁ feel	לְהַרְגִּישׁ · להרגיש	lehargísh
ז־מ־ן invite, order	לְהַזְמִין · להזמין	lehazmín
פ־ס־ק stop	לְהַפְסִיק · להפסיק	lehafsík
נ־ג־ד tell	לְהַגִּיד · להגיד	lehagíd

The two weak classes keep the ה and change only its vowel — a kamatz in the hollow roots, a cholam-vav in the פ״י ones:

Class	Infinitives	Reading
hollow ע״ו / ע״י	לְהָבִין · לְהָכִין · לְהָבִיא · לְהָקִים	lehavín · lehakhín · lehaví · lehakím
פ״י	לְהוֹרִיד · לְהוֹצִיא · לְהוֹדִיעַ	lehoríd · lehotsí · lehodía

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You will read that the hif'il ה never takes a yod, and for the prefix vowel that is true — the chirik of הִתְחַלְתִּי is written bare. But a handful of roots whose first radical is a genuine yod put that radical straight after the ה: לְהֵיטִיבleheitív "to do good by, to improve" (formal) and לְהֵינִיקleheiník "to breastfeed". So להיטיב with a yod is correct and *להיתחיל is not — they are different letters doing different jobs.

אני חייב להתחיל לישון מוקדם יותר.

aní khayáv lehatkhíl lishón mukdám yotér

I have to start going to bed earlier. (m. speaker)

אפשר להסביר לי איך מגיעים לשם בלי רכב?

efshár lehasbír li eikh magi'ím leshám bli rékhev?

Could someone explain how you get there without a car?

הוא הבטיח להביא את הכסף עד סוף השבוע.

hu hivtíakh lehaví et hakésef ad sof hashavúa

He promised to bring the money by the end of the week.

The imperative, and its one trap

Addressee	ת־ח־ל	ס־ב־ר	ז־מ־ן
a man	הַתְחֵל · התחל hatkhél	הַסְבֵּר · הסבר hasbér	הַזְמֵן · הזמן hazmén
a woman	הַתְחִילִי · התחילי hatkhíli	הַסְבִּירִי · הסבירי hasbíri	הַזְמִינִי · הזמיני hazmíni
a group	הַתְחִילוּ · התחילו hatkhílu	הַסְבִּירוּ · הסבירו hasbíru	הַזְמִינוּ · הזמינו hazmínu
women only (literary)	הַתְחֵלְנָה hatkhélna	הַסְבֵּרְנָה hasbérna	הַזְמֵנָּה hazména

The masculine singular is the trap. It is הַתְחֵל, with a tsere — not a copy of the past-tense stem — so התחיל is never a command, and the yod is not there to write. Everywhere else the long i survives, which is why הַתְחִילִי and הַתְחִילוּ do look like the past.

The hollow verbs behave the same way, and their masculine singulars are worth knowing because they turn up on signs and in fixed phrases: הָבֵן havén, הָכֵן hakhén, הָבֵא havé, הוֹרֵד horéd.

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The stress does not move here either. hatkhíli, hatkhílu, hasbíri — the beat stays on the stem, exactly as in the future, and never lands on the ־י or the ־וּ. Compare pi'el's dabrí and saprú, where it does.

להתחיל beside להתלבש

Because the infinitive restores the ה, a hif'il infinitive opens with לה־ — and so does every hitpa'el infinitive, for a completely different reason. The result is a set of pairs that look identically built and are not:

hif'il	hitpa'el
לְהַתְחִיל lehatkhíl to start	לְהִתְלַבֵּשׁ lehitlabésh to get dressed
לְהַתְאִים lehat'ím to fit, to suit	לְהִתְאַמֵּן lehit'amén to train
לְהַתְמִיד lehatmíd to persist	לְהִתְמוֹדֵד lehitmodéd to cope, to compete

In the hitpa'el column the ת belongs to the prefix. In the hif'il column it is the first letter of the root — ת־ח־ל, ת־א־ם, ת־מ־ד — and the ה before it is the ordinary hif'il ה. Unpointed writing shows you none of this.

The practical resolution is not to stare at the infinitive but to check the present tense: matkhíl against mitlabésh, mat'ím against mit'amén. Hif'il runs a–i, hitpa'el runs i–e, and no two of these words sound remotely alike once you have heard them.

Who actually says הַתְחֵל

Now the honest register note, because a table of imperatives will otherwise mislead you about what to say. Outside written notices, printed instructions, recipes and army usage, Israelis do not use the hif'il imperative. The everyday command is the second-person future — תתחיל, תסבירי, תגידו — and negation has no alternative at all: אל plus the future.

There is a structural reason it is hif'il that loses the imperative most completely, and you can see it by taking the forms apart. In pi'el, the imperative is the second-person future minus its prefix syllable, exactly: tedabér → dabér, tesapér → sapér. So a speaker who commands with the future is one syllable away from the true imperative, and the two forms hold each other up. In hif'il the subtraction lands nowhere: tagíd minus ta- is gid, while the imperative is hagéd; tatkhíl minus ta- is tkhil, while the imperative is hatkhél. Nothing in the everyday command form points at הַתְחֵל or הַסְבֵּר, and they stay where you read them rather than where you say them.

נא להשאיר את הדלת סגורה.

na lehash'ír et hadélet sgurá

Please keep the door closed. (נא plus the infinitive — the standard impersonal instruction on a sign)

הכן מראש את כל המסמכים.

hakhén merósh et kol hamismakhím

Prepare all the documents in advance. (true imperative — the register of a written instruction, not of speech)

תגידי לו שאנחנו מחכים כבר חצי שעה.

tagídi lo she'anákhnu mekhakím kvar khatsí sha'á

Tell him we've been waiting half an hour. (to a woman — the everyday command form)

Booking and ordering, where you will actually need this

להזמין covers reserving a table, booking a flight and ordering food, and the infinitive-plus-אפשר frame is how you ask for any of them politely.

אפשר להזמין שולחן לשתיים בשמונה?

efshár lehazmín shulkhán lishtáyim bishmóne?

Can I book a table for two at eight?

תזמין דרך האתר, ככה זה יוצא יותר זול.

tazmín dérekh ha'atár, kákha ze yotsé yotér zol

Book through the website — it works out cheaper that way. (to a man)

One thing hif'il's passive does not have: huf'al has no infinitive and no imperative. הוּזְמַן "was invited" has a present, a past and a future and stops there, so there is no *להוזמן beside להזמין — you cannot order someone to undergo something, and there is no independent action for an infinitive to name. The same gap sits in pu'al; see the seven binyanim.

Common Mistakes

1. Using the past form as a command. התחיל looks like the base form of the verb, and in a dictionary it is — but it is the third-person past, not an imperative.

❌ התחיל בלי לחכות לי

Incorrect as a command — התחיל is 'he started'. The imperative is הַתְחֵל with a tsere (התחל), and in speech you would say תתחיל.

✅ תתחיל בלי לחכות לי, אני מגיע עוד עשר דקות.

tatkhíl bli lekhakót li, aní magía od éser dakót

Start without waiting for me — I'll be there in ten minutes. (to a man)

2. Writing the infinitive with a yod. Nif'al infinitives take one — להיכנס, להירשם, להישאר — and the habit spreads.

❌ להיתחיל

Incorrect as a spelling — the hif'il prefix vowel is never written with a yod: להתחיל, להסביר, להרגיש. The yod of להיכנס belongs to nif'al, and the yod of להיטיב is a root letter.

✅ עדיף להתחיל מהסוף ולעבוד אחורה.

adíf lehatkhíl mehasóf vela'avód akhóra

It's better to start from the end and work backwards.

3. Using the infinitive as the finite verb. It is the form you looked up, so it is the form that comes out — but an infinitive can never be the main verb of a sentence.

❌ אני להתחיל מחר בעבודה חדשה

Incorrect — an infinitive needs a finite verb in front of it (אני רוצה להתחיל, אני צריך להתחיל). On its own, 'I'm starting' is the present tense: אני מתחיל.

✅ אני מתחיל מחר בעבודה חדשה, קצת מלחיץ.

aní matkhíl makhár ba'avodá khadashá, ktsat malkhíts

I start a new job tomorrow — slightly nerve-racking. (m. speaker)

4. Negating the imperative directly. English puts don't in front of the bare verb; Hebrew cannot.

❌ אל התחל בלעדינו

Incorrect — אל is followed by the second-person future, never by an imperative: אל תתחיל / אל תתחילו. Hebrew has no negative imperative in any binyan.

✅ אל תתחילו בלעדינו, אנחנו כבר בדרך.

al tatkhílu bil'adéinu, anákhnu kvar badérekh

Don't start without us — we're on our way. (to a group)

Key Takeaways

The infinitive is לְ + הַ + stem: לְהַתְחִיל, לְהַסְבִּיר, לְהַזְמִין. The ה that disappears in the present and the future comes back here, so the infinitive cannot be read off מַתְחִיל or יַתְחִיל.
Weak classes change only the vowel of that ה: kamatz in לְהָבִין, לְהָכִין, לְהָבִיא; cholam-vav in לְהוֹרִיד, לְהוֹצִיא.
The prefix vowel takes no yod — but לְהֵיטִיב and לְהֵינִיק do have one, because there the yod is the root's own first radical.
Three live imperative cells — הַתְחֵל · הַתְחִילִי · הַתְחִילוּ — and the masculine singular has a tsere, not the past-tense stem: הַתְחֵל, הַסְבֵּר, הַזְמֵן, הָכֵן, הָבֵא.
The stress stays on the stem: hatkhíli, hasbíru, never on the ending.
לה־ at the front is ambiguous: להתחיל is hif'il, להתלבש is hitpa'el, and the present tense settles it (matkhíl against mitlabésh).
Israelis command with the second-person future (תתחיל, תסבירי) and negate with אל + future. The true hif'il imperative is a reading skill: it belongs to notices and printed instructions (formal).
huf'al has neither form. There is no *להוזמן beside להזמין.

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