Hitpa'el Infinitive (להתלבש) and Imperative | Hebrew Grammar

The hitpa'el infinitive is the form you will meet first, because it is the form a dictionary lists: לְהִתְלַבֵּשׁ, לְהִתְעוֹרֵר, לְהִשְׁתַּמֵּשׁ. Its shape is completely regular — לְ, then the past-tense word unchanged — and the true imperative is the past-tense word again, on its own. Two forms for the price of one stem.

Six infinitives, one shape

Infinitive	Reading	Meaning
לְהִתְלַבֵּשׁ	lehitlabésh	to get dressed
לְהִתְעוֹרֵר	lehit'orér	to wake up
לְהִתְרַגֵּשׁ	lehitragésh	to get excited, be moved
לְהִתְקַשֵּׁר	lehitkashér	to phone; to get in touch
לְהִשְׁתַּמֵּשׁ	lehishtamésh	to use (ב־)
לְהִסְתַּכֵּל	lehistakél	to look (ב־)

The last two have a ת that has moved — הִשְׁתַּמֵּשׁ, not *הִתְשַׁמֵּשׁ. That is a sound rule with its own conditions, worked out on when the ת moves; it changes nothing about how the infinitive is built.

אני צריך להתלבש מהר, האוטובוס בעוד עשר דקות.

aní tsaríkh lehitlabésh mahér, ha'otóbus be'ód éser dakót

I need to get dressed fast — the bus is in ten minutes. (m. speaker)

שנאתי להתעורר מוקדם, ועכשיו אני קם לבד בשש.

sanéti lehit'orér mukdám, ve'akhsháv aní kam levád beshésh

I used to hate getting up early, and now I wake up on my own at six. (m. speaker)

What actually stays put is the ת, not the ה

Textbooks like to say the ה of hitpa'el "never disappears". It does — in exactly the two places every ה-prefixed binyan loses it:

Cell	ל־ב־שׁ	Reading	Prefix
infinitive	לְהִתְלַבֵּשׁ	lehitlabésh	לְ + הִתְ
past, he	הִתְלַבֵּשׁ	hitlabésh	הִתְ
imperative, to a man	הִתְלַבֵּשׁ!	hitlabésh!	הִתְ
present, m. sg.	מִתְלַבֵּשׁ	mitlabésh	מִתְ — no ה
future, he	יִתְלַבֵּשׁ	yitlabésh	יִתְ — no ה

Read the right-hand column down and the real invariant is obvious: the ת is in every single cell, and the ה is only there when nothing else claims the slot. In the present a מ takes it, in the future the person prefix takes it — the same trade hif'il makes (לְהַתְחִיל, הִתְחִיל, but מַתְחִיל, יַתְחִיל). So the letter to hunt for when you are trying to recognise a hitpa'el is ת, not ה.

The trap: להתלבש and להתחיל are not the same binyan

Unpointed, these two are the same shape, and there is no way to tell them apart from the infinitive alone:

hitpa'el — ת is the prefix	hif'il — ת is the first root letter
להתלבש ל־ב־שׁ lehitlabésh	להתחיל ת־ח־ל lehatkhíl
להתאמן א־מ־ן lehit'amén	להתאים ת־א־ם lehat'ím
להתמקד מ־ק־ד lehitmakéd	להתמיד ת־מ־ד lehatmíd

The practical test is the present tense, where the two diverge in writing as well as in sound:

hitpa'el present	hif'il present
מִתְלַבֵּשׁ mitlabésh — i then e	מַתְחִיל matkhíl — a then i
מִתְאַמֵּן mit'amén	מַתְאִים mat'ím
מִתְמַקֵּד mitmakéd	מַתְמִיד matmíd

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Say the present tense out loud and the answer arrives before the analysis does: mit- + e is hitpa'el, mat- + i is hif'il. Never assume that a word starting הת is a hitpa'el — הִתְחִיל, הִתְאִים, הִתְמִיד and הִתְקִין are all hif'il verbs whose root simply happens to begin with ת, and Pealim heads every one of them HIF'IL.

מתי אתה מתחיל את הקורס החדש?

matái atá matkhíl et hakúrs hekhadásh?

When do you start the new course? (to a man — matkhíl, so hif'il)

אני מתלבש ויוצא, עוד חמש דקות אני אצלך.

aní mitlabésh veyotsé, od khamésh dakót aní etslekhá

I'm getting dressed and heading out — I'll be at yours in five minutes. (m. speaker, to a man — mitlabésh, so hitpa'el)

The true imperative: three cells

Knock the לְ off the infinitive and you have the command form. It is identical to the third-person masculine past.

	to a man	to a woman	to a group
התלבש	הִתְלַבֵּשׁ! hitlabésh	הִתְלַבְּשִׁי! hitlabshí	הִתְלַבְּשׁוּ! hitlabshú
הסתכל	הִסְתַּכֵּל! histakél	הִסְתַּכְּלִי! histaklí	הִסְתַּכְּלוּ! histaklú

Note that the moved ת stays moved right through the imperative: הִסְתַּכְּלִי, never *הִתְסַכְּלִי.

הסתכלו ימינה ושמאלה לפני שאתם חוצים.

histaklú yamína usmóla lifnéi she'atém khotsím

Look right and left before you cross. (to a group)

התלבשי מהר, אנחנו כבר מאחרים.

hitlabshí mahér, anákhnu kvar me'akharím

Get dressed quickly, we're already late. (to a woman)

But Israelis mostly command with the future

The forms above are correct and you will meet them on signs, in recipes and in army Hebrew. In an ordinary conversation, though, the everyday command is the future tense — תִּתְלַבֵּשׁ, תִּסְתַּכְּלִי, תִּתְקַשְּׁרוּ — which sounds less like an order and more like an instruction. The true imperative הִתְלַבְּשִׁי above and the future תִּתְלַבְּשׁוּ below are both natural Hebrew; the second is the one a parent actually shouts down the hall.

תתלבשו כבר, ההסעה מגיעה בעוד רגע.

titlabshú kvar, hahasa'á magi'á be'ód réga

Get dressed already — the ride's here in a minute. (informal; future used as an imperative)

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The negative is not a negated imperative. Hebrew has no *"don't + command form": prohibition is אל + future — אל תסתכל, אל תתרגשי, אל תתקשרו אליו. The imperative simply has no negative of its own, so this is not a stylistic choice but the only construction available. The full picture is on commanding with the future.

אל תתרגשי, זאת רק בדיקה שגרתית.

al titragshí, zot rak bdiká shigratít

Don't get worked up — it's just a routine test. (to a woman)

Two verbs that come with a preposition attached

להתקשר takes אל for the person you are calling, and in speech that is almost always the fused pronoun form — אליי, אליך, אליו. להשתמש takes ב־ for the thing you use, with no exceptions worth learning: the ב־ is part of the verb.

תתקשר אליי אחר כך, עכשיו אני בשיעור.

titkashér elái akhár kakh, akhsháv aní beshi'úr

Call me later — I'm in class right now. (to a man)

אפשר להשתמש במטבח או שאתם סוגרים אותו בערב?

efshár lehishtamésh bamitbákh o she'atém sogrím otó ba'érev?

Can I use the kitchen, or do you lock it in the evening?

Common Mistakes

1. Giving להשתמש a direct object. English use the kitchen has a bare object, so the ב־ gets dropped or replaced with את.

❌ אפשר להשתמש את המחשב שלך?

Incorrect — להשתמש never takes a direct object. The thing used arrives with ב־: אפשר להשתמש במחשב שלך?

✅ אפשר להשתמש במחשב שלך? שלי נתקע.

efshár lehishtamésh bamakhshév shelkhá? shelí nitká

Can I use your computer? Mine's frozen. (to a man)

2. Negating with אל plus the imperative. Don't look maps word-for-word onto אל + הסתכל, and the result is a form Hebrew has never had.

❌ אל הסתכל עליי ככה, לא עשיתי כלום

Incorrect — אל is followed by the future, never by an imperative: אל תסתכל.

✅ אל תסתכל עליי ככה, לא עשיתי כלום.

al tistakél alái kákha, lo asíti klum

Don't look at me like that, I didn't do anything. (to a man)

3. Making התקשר transitive. English I'll call you puts the person in object position; Hebrew puts them after אל.

❌ אני אתקשר אותך כשאני מגיע לתחנה

Incorrect — התקשר takes no direct object at all. The person is marked with אל: אתקשר אליך.

✅ אני אתקשר אליך כשאני מגיע לתחנה.

aní etkashér eilékha kshe'aní magía latakhaná

I'll call you when I get to the station. (to a man)

4. Using the hitpa'el to do something to someone else. התלבש means get dressed. Dressing another person is a different binyan.

❌ תתלבשו את הילדים לפני שיוצאים

Incorrect — hitpa'el turns the action back on the subject and cannot take a direct object. Dressing someone else is the hif'il הלביש: תלבישו את הילדים.

✅ תלבישו את הילדים לפני שיוצאים, בחוץ קר.

talbíshu et hayeladím lifnéi sheyots'ím, bakhúts kar

Dress the kids before we head out — it's cold outside. (to a group)

Key Takeaways

The infinitive is לְ + הִתְ + stem, with no other change: לְהִתְלַבֵּשׁ, לְהִתְעוֹרֵר, לְהִשְׁתַּמֵּשׁ.
The true imperative is the infinitive minus the לְ, identical to the 3rd-person masculine past: הִתְלַבֵּשׁ, הִתְלַבְּשִׁי, הִתְלַבְּשׁוּ.
The letter that never leaves is the ת. The ה is present in the infinitive, past and imperative and absent from the present (מִתְ־) and future (יִתְ־) — exactly as in hif'il.
הת at the front does not mean hitpa'el. הִתְחִיל, הִתְאִים, הִתְמִיד and הִתְקִין are hif'il verbs with ת as their first root letter.
The test is the present tense: mit-
- e (מִתְלַבֵּשׁ) is hitpa'el; mat-
  - i (מַתְחִיל) is hif'il.
In conversation the future does the work of the imperative — תתלבשו, תסתכלי — and the negative is אל + future, never אל plus a command form.
להשתמש ב־ and להתקשר אל carry their prepositions with them; neither verb takes a direct object.

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