hitpa'el's conjugation is uniform: learn one verb and you have the shape of all of them. What is not uniform is the preposition, and that is where the work is — השתמש insists on ב־, הצטרף on ל־, and התקשר takes the one English never suggests. Below is the working list, with the government taken from a dictionary rather than from habit.
The working list
† marks a government the dictionary prints inside the entry — Pealim in parentheses beside the meaning, or Milog inside the definition itself. Everything unmarked is the ordinary pattern of written and spoken Hebrew, which the dictionaries' example sentences are full of but do not list as the verb's government. The distinction is worth keeping: one is a citation, the other is an observation.
| Infinitive | Present m. sg. | Past 3ms | Takes | ת moves |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| לְהִתְלַבֵּשׁ — get dressed | מִתְלַבֵּשׁ | הִתְלַבֵּשׁ | — | |
| לְהִתְעוֹרֵר — wake up | מִתְעוֹרֵר | הִתְעוֹרֵר | — | |
| לְהִתְקַשֵּׁר — phone; get in touch | מִתְקַשֵּׁר | הִתְקַשֵּׁר | אל † · ל־ to phone · עם † to make contact | |
| לְהִשְׁתַּמֵּשׁ — use | מִשְׁתַּמֵּשׁ | הִשְׁתַּמֵּשׁ | ב־ † | ✔ |
| לְהִתְחַתֵּן — get married | מִתְחַתֵּן | הִתְחַתֵּן | עם † | |
| לְהִשְׁתַּתֵּף — take part | מִשְׁתַּתֵּף | הִשְׁתַּתֵּף | ב־ | ✔ |
| לְהִתְוַוכֵּחַ — argue | מִתְוַוכֵּחַ | הִתְוַוכֵּחַ | עם the person · על the topic | |
| לְהִתְרַגֵּל — get used to | מִתְרַגֵּל | הִתְרַגֵּל | ל־ | |
| לְהִצְטָרֵף — join | מִצְטָרֵף | הִצְטָרֵף | ל־ · אל | ✔ |
| לְהִסְתַּדֵּר — get on; work out | מִסְתַּדֵּר | הִסְתַּדֵּר | עם † somebody | ✔ |
| לְהִתְעַנְיֵין — be interested | מִתְעַנְיֵין | הִתְעַנְיֵין | ב־ | |
| לְהִצְטַעֵר — be sorry, regret | מִצְטַעֵר | הִצְטַעֵר | על · ש־ | ✔ |
| לְהִתְאַהֵב — fall in love | מִתְאַהֵב | הִתְאַהֵב | ב־ † | |
| לְהִתְפַּתֵּחַ — develop, evolve | מִתְפַּתֵּחַ | הִתְפַּתֵּחַ | — | |
| לְהִתְרַגֵּשׁ — get excited | מִתְרַגֵּשׁ | הִתְרַגֵּשׁ | — | |
| לְהִתְכּוֹנֵן — get ready | מִתְכּוֹנֵן | הִתְכּוֹנֵן | לקראת † · ל־ | |
| לְהִסְתַּכֵּל — look | מִסְתַּכֵּל | הִסְתַּכֵּל | ב־ † · אל † — but see below | ✔ |
Six of the seventeen carry the metathesis — השתמש, השתתף, הצטרף, הסתדר, הצטער, הסתכל — so the table doubles as a drill for the metathesis rule. Notice that in every one of them the first root letter is a sibilant: שׁ, שׁ, צ, ס, צ, ס.
תתקשר אליי כשאתה יוצא, אני אחכה למטה.
titkashér elái ksheatá yotsé, aní akhaké lemáta
Call me when you're leaving — I'll wait downstairs. (to a man)
השתמשתי בכרטיס שלך בטעות, אני מחזירה לך את הכסף.
hishtamáshti bakartís shelkhá beta'út, aní makhzirá lekhá et hakésef
I used your card by mistake — I'm paying you back. (f. speaker, to a man)
השתתפנו בהפגנה ובאמצע התחיל לרדת גשם.
hishtatáfnu bahafganá uva'émtsa hitkhíl larédet géshem
We took part in the demonstration and halfway through it started raining.
הצטרפנו אליהם בסוף, אחרי שכבר אמרנו שאנחנו לא באים.
hitstaráfnu aleihém basóf, akharéi shekvár amárnu she'anákhnu lo ba'ím
We joined them in the end, after we'd already said we weren't coming.
התרגלתי לזה מהר יותר משציפיתי.
hitragálti lazé mahér yotér mishetsipíti
I got used to it faster than I expected.
אני מסתדר עם השותף החדש הרבה יותר טוב מהקודם.
aní mistadér im hashutáf hekhadásh harbé yotér tov mehakodém
I get on with the new flatmate far better than with the last one. (m. speaker)
התעניינתי במחיר ובסוף לא קניתי כלום.
hit'anyánti bamkhír uvasóf lo kaníti klum
I asked about the price and in the end I didn't buy anything.
הצטערתי על זה שלא אמרתי כלום, אבל כבר היה מאוחר.
hitsta'árti al ze sheló amárti klum, avál kvar hayá me'ukhár
I regretted not saying anything, but by then it was too late.
התעוררתי בארבע ולא הצלחתי להירדם שוב.
hit'orárti be'árba veló hitslákhti leheradém shuv
I woke up at four and couldn't get back to sleep.
התלבשי חם, בחוץ שמונה מעלות.
hitlabshí kham, bakhúts shmóne ma'alót
Dress warmly — it's eight degrees outside. (to a woman)
הסתכל: the dictionaries say one thing, the writing says another
This is the entry learners ask about most, and it needs stating properly rather than as a rule.
The dictionaries give ב־ and אל. Pealim prints (ב־) beside the meaning; Milog builds its definition on אל — turned his gaze towards something — and its examples use both.
Usage runs the other way. Counting exact strings in Hebrew Wikipedia (August 2026) — a deliberately formal written corpus, and therefore the least favourable place to look for a colloquialism — הסתכל על appears on 685 pages against 270 for הסתכל ב־, and מסתכל על on 306 against 144. That is a lead of roughly two and a half to one for the preposition the dictionaries do not print, in the register that should be most resistant to it. What speech does, this corpus cannot tell you; what it does tell you is that על is not a mistake, not slang, and not something to correct in an Israeli's mouth.
The most useful way to hold both is semantic rather than normative: ב־ leans towards looking into or through something — photographs, a menu, a mirror — while על is the general "look at". Write either; expect על.
תסתכל על זה רגע, אולי אתה תבין מה לא עובד.
tistakél al ze réga, ulái atá tavín ma lo ovéd
Have a look at this a second — maybe you'll work out what's not working. (to a man, informal — על is the everyday choice)
הסתכלנו בתמונות של סבא ולא זיהינו אף אחד חוץ ממנו.
histakálnu batmunót shel sába veló zihínu af ekhád khuts miménu
We looked through Grandpa's photos and didn't recognise anyone but him. (ב־ — the government the dictionaries print, and the natural one for looking *into* something)
התכונן: לקראת in the dictionary, ל־ in the sentence
Milog defines התכונן with לקראת — got himself ready towards something — and that is what the entry vouches for. In actual text plain ל־ is far commoner: Hebrew Wikipedia has 89 pages with התכונן לקראת and 1,783 with התכונן ל־ — and since לקראת itself begins with a ל, those 89 are inside the 1,783 rather than beside them. Both are standard; לקראת is a shade more formal and is the one you will meet in official notices.
כל המשרד מתכונן לקראת הביקורת של השבוע הבא.
kol hamisrád mitkonén likrát habikóret shel hashavúa habá
The whole office is getting ready for next week's audit. (semi-formal)
Common Mistakes
1. Giving השתמש a direct object. English use the room, use the car is transitive; Hebrew's verb never is.
❌ הם השתמשו את החדר שלנו לישיבה
Incorrect — השתמש takes no direct object in any register. What is used arrives with ב־, which Pealim prints inside the entry: השתמשו בחדר שלנו.
✅ הם השתמשו בחדר שלנו לישיבה ולא ביקשו רשות.
hem hishtamshú bakhéder shelánu lishivá veló bikshú rshut
They used our room for a meeting and didn't ask permission.
2. Building הסתכל without the swap. The reordering is in the stem, not in one tense, so it survives every ending you attach.
❌ אנחנו התסכלנו בתפריט חמש דקות
Incorrect — with a sibilant first radical the ת and the ס change places in every cell: הסתכלנו. There is no verb התסכל in Hebrew.
✅ הסתכלנו בתפריט חמש דקות ובסוף הזמנו בדיוק מה שתמיד.
histakálnu bataprít khamésh dakót uvasóf hizmánu bediyúk ma shetamíd
We stared at the menu for five minutes and then ordered exactly what we always order.
3. Giving הצטרף a direct object. Join a group has no preposition in English and always has one in Hebrew.
❌ הצטרפתי את הקבוצה של הריצה בשנה שעברה
Incorrect — הצטרף takes no object. The group arrives with ל־ or אל, as every dictionary example of the verb shows: הצטרפתי לקבוצה.
✅ הצטרפתי לקבוצת ריצה בשנה שעברה ומאז לא הפסדתי אימון.
hitstarápti likvutsát ritsá bashaná she'avrá ume'áz lo hifsádti imún
I joined a running group last year and I haven't missed a session since.
4. Giving התקשר a direct object. I called her is the single most repeated version of this error.
❌ התקשרתי אותה שלוש פעמים והיא לא ענתה
Incorrect — התקשר takes no object. Pealim prints אל for the phoning sense, and ל־ is just as ordinary: התקשרתי אליה שלוש פעמים.
✅ התקשרתי אליה שלוש פעמים ובסוף שלחתי הודעה.
hitkashárti eléha shalósh pe'amím uvasóf shalákhti hoda'á
I called her three times and in the end I sent a message.
Key Takeaways
- All seventeen conjugate identically. The only per-verb work is the preposition, and ב־ and ל־ do most of it.
- Keep dictionary-stated government separate from ordinary usage. Printed in the entry: השתמש ב־, התקשר אל / עם, התחתן עם, הסתדר עם, התאהב ב־, הסתכל ב־ / אל, התכונן לקראת. Shown only in examples: השתתף ב־, הצטרף ל־, התרגל ל־, התעניין ב־, הצטער על, התווכח עם / על.
- Six of the seventeen move their ת: השתמש, השתתף, הצטרף, הסתדר, הצטער, הסתכל — every one with a sibilant first radical.
- הסתכל על leads by about two and a half to one even in Hebrew Wikipedia (685 pages to 270), the register least likely to admit it. The dictionaries print ב־ and אל; ב־ leans towards looking into something. Neither is an error, and על is not something to correct.
- התכונן is defined with לקראת and used overwhelmingly with plain ל־. לקראת is the more formal of the two.
- The three verbs English will keep making transitive are השתמש, הצטרף and התקשר. None of them ever takes את.
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- When the ת Moves: הסתכל, השתמש, הצטלם, הזדקןB1 — If the first root letter is a sibilant, the ת of the hitpa'el prefix changes places with it — and next to צ it hardens to ט, next to ז it voices to ד. Three outcomes across five letters, one phonetic reason, and a separate mechanism that is routinely confused with it.
- בניין התפעל: Reflexive, Reciprocal, ProcessA2 — The one binyan you can spot from across the room — הת in the past and infinitive, מת in the present — with the two exceptions that ruin the trick: מתחיל, which is not hitpa'el at all, and מסתכל, which is hitpa'el with its ת moved.