hitpa'el wears a badge no other binyan wears: a whole extra syllable at the front. הת in the past and the infinitive, מת in the present — הִתְלַבֵּשׁ, לְהִתְלַבֵּשׁ, מִתְלַבֵּשׁ. That makes it the easiest binyan to recognise on the page, and this page exists mainly to hand you the two exceptions before the habit sets, because both of them will otherwise cost you months.
The four principal parts
| Form | Pointed | Written | Reading |
|---|---|---|---|
| Past, 3ms | הִתְלַבֵּשׁ | התלבש | hitlabésh |
| Present, m. sg. | מִתְלַבֵּשׁ | מתלבש | mitlabésh |
| Future, 3ms | יִתְלַבֵּשׁ | יתלבש | yitlabésh |
| Infinitive | לְהִתְלַבֵּשׁ | להתלבש | lehitlabésh |
Three of the four keep the הת visible; only the present swaps the ה for a מ, exactly as pi'el and every other prefix-marked present does. The vowels never move: a in the middle, e before the last root letter, in all four.
התלבשתי מהר ויצאתי בלי לאכול.
hitlabáshti mahér veyatsáti bli le'ekhól
I got dressed in a hurry and left without eating.
הילדים כבר מתלבשים לבד, זה חוסך לנו חצי שעה בבוקר.
hayeladím kvar mitlabshím levád, ze khosékh lánu khatsí sha'á babóker
The kids get dressed on their own now — it saves us half an hour in the morning.
Exception one: הת at the front is not proof
הִתְחִיל "began", הִתְאִים "fitted, suited" and הִתְמִיד "kept at it" are hif'il verbs whose first root letter happens to be a ת — ת־ח־ל, ת־א־ם, ת־מ־ד. The הת you see is ה of hif'il plus the root's own ת, and nothing about them is reflexive.
The discriminator is the vowels, and it is completely reliable. hif'il runs i–i; hitpa'el runs a–e.
| hif'il | hitpa'el | |
|---|---|---|
| Past | הִתְחִיל hitkhíl | הִתְלַבֵּשׁ hitlabésh |
| Present | מַתְחִיל matkhíl | מִתְלַבֵּשׁ mitlabésh |
| Infinitive | לְהַתְחִיל lehatkhíl | לְהִתְלַבֵּשׁ lehitlabésh |
In the present the two do not even start alike — mat- against mit- — and hif'il writes a yod before its last root letter where hitpa'el writes nothing: מתחיל, מתאים, מתמיד against מתלבש, מתרגש, מתקרר. That yod is the fastest test on an unpointed page, and it is worked through on the hif'il present.
הסרט מתחיל בשמונה, אז אני מתחיל להתלבש עכשיו.
haséret matkhíl bishmoné, az aní matkhíl lehitlabésh akhsháv
The film starts at eight, so I'm starting to get dressed now. (m. speaker — two hif'il verbs and one hitpa'el in one sentence)
Exception two: the ת does not always stay put
| First radical | What happens | Verb |
|---|---|---|
| ס | the ת and the radical swap | הִסְתַּכֵּל histakél look |
| שׂ | הִשְׂתָּרֵעַ histaréa sprawl | |
| שׁ | הִשְׁתַּמֵּשׁ hishtamésh use | |
| צ | they swap and the ת becomes ט | הִצְטַלֵּם hitstalém have one's photo taken |
| ז | they swap and the ת becomes ד | הִזְדַּקֵּן hizdakén grow old |
| ד · ט · ת | no swap — the ת assimilates into the radical | הִדַּבֵּר · הידבר hidabér confer, hold talks |
This belongs on day one rather than in a later chapter, because without it a learner meeting מסתכל reads the ס as part of the prefix and hunts for a root that is not there. With it, the root is always recoverable: מסתכל is ס־כ־ל, משתמש is שׁ־מ־שׁ, מצטלם is צ־ל־ם, מזדקן is ז־ק־ן. The mechanics, including why ז pulls the ת into a ד, are on the metathesis page.
אני מסתכל על זה כבר עשר דקות ולא מבין כלום.
aní mistakél al ze kvar éser dakót veló mevín klum
I've been staring at this for ten minutes and I don't understand a thing. (m. speaker)
סבא שלי הזדקן מהר מאוד אחרי שסבתא נפטרה.
sába shelí hizdakén mahér me'ód akharéi shesávta nifterá
My grandfather aged very fast after my grandmother died.
What the binyan actually does
Four families — and the fourth is a remainder rather than a family.
Doing it to yourself. The textbook meaning, and a shorter list than the textbooks suggest: הִתְלַבֵּשׁ got dressed, הִתְרַחֵץ washed, הִסְתַּפֵּר had a haircut, הִתְגַּלֵּחַ shaved. Note that Hebrew never adds את עצמי to these — the binyan already says it.
התגלחתי בחיפזון ויצאתי עם חתך בסנטר.
hitgalákhti bekhipazón veyatsáti im khatákh basantér
I shaved in a rush and walked out with a cut on my chin.
Doing it to each other. הִתְכַּתֵּב corresponded, הִתְנַשֵּׁק kissed, הִתְוַוכֵּחַ argued, הִתְחַתֵּן got married. These are plural by nature: one person cannot הִתְכַּתֵּב alone. Where nif'al also has a reciprocal — נִפְגַּשׁ, נִלְחַם — the two systems divide the work rather than compete, as nif'al's reciprocals sets out.
הם התכתבו שנתיים לפני שנפגשו בכלל.
hem hitkatvú shnatáyim lifnéi shenifgeshú bikhlál
They wrote to each other for two years before they even met.
אל תתווכח איתה על זה, היא צודקת.
al titvakéakh itá al ze, hi tsodéket
Don't argue with her about it — she's right. (to a man)
Becoming something, gradually. הִתְבַּגֵּר grew up, הִתְקָרֵר cooled down, הִתְפַּתֵּחַ developed, הִתְרַגֵּל got used to it. Nobody does these; they happen to you over time, and this is the family that keeps growing.
הקפה שלך מתקרר, תשתה אותו כבר.
hakafé shelkhá mitkarér, tishté otó kvar
Your coffee's going cold — drink it already. (to a man)
לקח לי חצי שנה להתרגל לרעש של הרכבת.
lakákh li khatsí shaná lehitragél lará'ash shel harakévet
It took me six months to get used to the noise of the train.
And a large set that fits none of the above. הִשְׁתַּמֵּשׁ "use" is not reflexive, reciprocal or gradual; neither is הִסְתַּכֵּל "look", הִזְדַּמֵּן "come up, arise" or הִסְתַּדֵּר "work out, manage". They are hitpa'el because the lexicon says so. These are also, awkwardly, among the first hitpa'el verbs anyone meets — so do not let the semantic families become a rule you try to run backwards.
השתמשתי במחשב שלך רגע, אני מקווה שזה בסדר.
hishtamáshti bamakhshév shelkhá réga, aní mekavé shezé beséder
I used your computer for a minute, I hope that's all right. (to a man)
אם יזדמן לך לעבור ליד הדואר, תיקח לי חבילה.
im yizdamén lekhá la'avór leyád hadó'ar, tikákh li khavilá
If you happen to be passing the post office, pick up a parcel for me. (to a man)
Why it keeps taking new members
hitpa'el is not a museum. Bat-El (2013, Brill EHLL 704–707) and Bolozky (1978, 2007) put pi'el and hitpa'el at the front of Modern Hebrew's verb coinage, with the labour split by semantics: pi'el takes the new agentive verbs, hitpa'el takes the non-agentive ones — the inchoatives, the reflexives, the reciprocals. That is why הִתְעַדְכֵּן "get updated" and הִשְׁתַּדְרֵג "get upgraded" exist alongside the older stock, and why the slang layer keeps feeding the binyan: Pealim labels both הִתְחַרְפֵן "go bananas" and הִתְבָּאֵס "be gutted" (slang), and both conjugate like any other hitpa'el.
כדאי שתתעדכן, שינו את השעה של הפגישה.
kedái shetit'adkén, shinú et hasha'á shel hapgishá
You should get up to speed — they moved the time of the meeting. (to a man)
התבאסתי שלא סיפרו לי כלום.
hitba'ásti sheló siprú li klum
I was gutted that nobody told me anything. (slang)
Common Mistakes
1. Giving a hitpa'el a direct object. These verbs are intransitive: the thing acted on is the subject, so there is nothing left for את to mark.
❌ אני מתלבש את החולצה של אתמול
Incorrect — מתלבש takes no object at all. To put a garment on, Hebrew uses the pa'al לובש: אני לובש את החולצה של אתמול.
✅ אני לובש את החולצה של אתמול, אף אחד לא ישים לב.
aní lovésh et hakhultsá shel etmól, af ekhád lo yasím lev
I'm wearing yesterday's shirt — nobody's going to notice. (m. speaker)
2. Dropping the preposition after השתמש. English use something takes a bare object; Hebrew's השתמש always governs ב־.
❌ השתמשתי את הטלפון שלה בלי לשאול
Incorrect — השתמש never takes a bare object or את. What is used arrives with ב־: השתמשתי בטלפון שלה.
✅ השתמשתי בטלפון שלה בלי לשאול והיא לא התרגזה בכלל.
hishtamáshti batélefon shelá bli lish'ól vehí lo hitragzá bikhlál
I used her phone without asking and she wasn't annoyed at all.
3. Using the past 3ms for the present. התלבש and מתלבש are one letter apart on the page and belong to different tenses, and the הת form is the one learners memorise first.
❌ אני התלבש מהר כל בוקר
Incorrect — התלבש is the past 'he got dressed' and cannot take אני. The present is מתלבש: אני מתלבש מהר כל בוקר.
✅ אני מתלבשת מהר כל בוקר ובכל זאת תמיד מאחרת.
aní mitlabéshet mahér kol bóker uvkhól zot tamíd me'akhéret
I get dressed fast every morning and I'm still always late. (f. speaker)
Key Takeaways
- The badge is a whole extra syllable: הת in the past and infinitive, מת in the present. הִתְלַבֵּשׁ · מִתְלַבֵּשׁ · יִתְלַבֵּשׁ · לְהִתְלַבֵּשׁ.
- הת at the front is not proof. הִתְחִיל, הִתְאִים and הִתְמִיד are hif'il with ת as their first root letter. The test is the vowels: hif'il i–i (matkhíl), hitpa'el a–e (mitlabésh) — plus hif'il's yod before the last radical.
- A sibilant first radical moves the ת: הִסְתַּכֵּל, הִשְׂתָּרֵעַ, הִשְׁתַּמֵּשׁ. With צ the ת becomes ט (הִצְטַלֵּם) and with ז it becomes ד (הִזְדַּקֵּן). With ד, ט or ת there is no swap at all — the ת assimilates (הִדַּבֵּר · הידבר).
- Four families: reflexive (התלבש), reciprocal (התכתב), gradual process (התקרר), and a large lexicalised remainder (השתמש, הסתכל, הזדמן) that fits no family at all.
- hitpa'el verbs are intransitive: no את, and never את עצמי — the binyan already carries the reflexive.
- The binyan is productive for non-agentive verbs — pi'el takes the new agentive ones (Bat-El 2013; Bolozky 1978, 2007). Hence התעדכן, השתדרג, and the slang-labelled התחרפן and התבאס.
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
- The Seven Binyanim at a GlanceA1 — One table with all seven verb patterns — past, present and infinitive — plus the recognition shortcuts that actually work, the famous one that does not, and an honest account of which binyanim you will really produce.
- 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 הפעיל: Causative and Much MoreA2 — Hif'il is the third of the everyday active binyanim, and the one whose ה prefix keeps vanishing: it is there in הִתְחִיל, gone in מַתְחִיל and יַתְחִיל, back again in לְהַתְחִיל. Its other signature is a long i in the stem — and its reputation as 'the causative' will mislead you within a week.
- Hitpa'el Present: מתלבש, מסתכל, מתרגשA2 — Four forms, one syllable of prefix, and a stress pattern English speakers get wrong on the first try — plus the מ־ table that finally separates מתלבש from מתחיל, which is the pair learners actually fail on.
- Hitpa'el Past: התלבשתי, התעוררת, השתמשA2 — Nine cells, and almost none of them is new: the endings are the universal past suffixes and the stem is a pi'el stem with הת bolted on front, so anyone who has done the pi'el past already owns most of this paradigm.