Like every Hebrew present, this one is a participle: four forms, agreeing in gender and number, saying nothing about person. What is specific to hitpa'el is the opening — a whole מִתְ syllable — and a stem that runs a then e: mitlabésh.
Four cells, three verbs
| ל־ב־שׁ get dressed | ס־כ־ל look | ר־ג־שׁ get excited | |
|---|---|---|---|
| m. sg. | מִתְלַבֵּשׁ mitlabésh | מִסְתַּכֵּל mistakél | מִתְרַגֵּשׁ mitragésh |
| f. sg. | מִתְלַבֶּשֶׁת mitlabéshet | מִסְתַּכֶּלֶת mistakélet | מִתְרַגֶּשֶׁת mitragéshet |
| m. pl. | מִתְלַבְּשִׁים mitlabshím | מִסְתַּכְּלִים mistaklím | מִתְרַגְּשִׁים mitragshím |
| f. pl. | מִתְלַבְּשׁוֹת mitlabshót | מִסְתַּכְּלוֹת mistaklót | מִתְרַגְּשׁוֹת mitragshót |
מסתכל is in that table deliberately. Its ת has swapped places with the ס of the root ס־כ־ל, and it is not an exotic verb you can meet later — along with משתמש it is one of the first two hitpa'el verbs anyone learns. Meet the reordering here, and read why it happens when you want the mechanism.
הוא מתלבש לאט כל בוקר ואנחנו תמיד מחכים לו.
hu mitlabésh le'át kol bóker va'anákhnu tamíd mekhakím lo
He gets dressed slowly every morning and we're always waiting for him.
על מה אתה מסתכל? יש לי משהו על הפנים?
al ma atá mistakél? yesh li máshehu al hapaním?
What are you looking at? Have I got something on my face? (to a man)
אני מתרגשת יותר ממנה, וזאת החתונה שלה.
aní mitragéshet yotér miména, vezót hakhatuná shelá
I'm more excited than she is, and it's her wedding. (f. speaker)
The stress moves, and English speakers move it the wrong way
Three of the four forms are milra, stressed on the final syllable: mitlabésh, mitlabshím, mitlabshót. The feminine singular is mil'el, stressed one syllable back: mitlabéshet, mistakélet, mitragéshet — the same retraction the ־ֶת ending causes in pi'el and pa'al.
The error to hear yourself making is different from both. English gives a long word its beat near the front, so learners say MIT-labesh — and because the prefix is a closed syllable with a full vowel in it, that mispronunciation is instantly audible to an Israeli in a way a wrong vowel would not be. Say mit-la-BÉSH, with the weight at the end.
את מתלבשת ככה לעבודה? אני מקנאה.
at mitlabéshet kákha la'avodá? aní mekan'á
You dress like that for work? I'm jealous. (f. to f.)
Which binyan is this מ?
Five of the seven binyanim open their present with a מ, so the letter is worthless on its own. The vowels are not.
| Word | Reading | Binyan | The cue |
|---|---|---|---|
| מִתְלַבֵּשׁ | mitlabésh | hitpa'el | a closed mit- syllable, then a…é |
| מַתְחִיל | matkhíl | hif'il | mat-, and a yod before the last root letter |
| מְדַבֵּר | medabér | pi'el | me- and a stressed é |
| מְסוּדָּר | mesudár | pu'al | a u inside the stem |
| מוּזְמָן | muzmán | huf'al | the u is in the prefix itself |
The pair that costs learners real time is the first two, because on an unpointed page מתלבש and מתחיל share their first two letters and nothing else. mit- against mat-; a full syllable against a prefix that leans straight onto the root; and hif'il's yod, which hitpa'el never has. The other direction of the test is on the hif'il present. Note also the two binyanim missing from the table: pa'al and nif'al take no מ at all — כותב, שומר, לומד and נכנס, נשאר.
אני מתחיל בשש ומסיים בשלוש, אז אני מתלבש בחושך.
aní matkhíl beshésh umsayém beshalósh, az aní mitlabésh bakhóshekh
I start at six and finish at three, so I get dressed in the dark. (m. speaker)
One form, two English tenses
There is no progressive in Hebrew and no present-tense "to be", so מתלבש is gets dressed and is getting dressed at once. Which one is meant comes from the adverb, or from nothing at all.
הוא מתלבש עכשיו, תן לו שתי דקות.
hu mitlabésh akhsháv, ten lo shtei dakót
He's getting dressed right now — give him two minutes. (to a man)
The whole range, inside one tense
The four things hitpa'el does are all available in the present at once, which is worth seeing in a single run rather than four pages apart.
הם מתנשקים בכל פעם שהם נפרדים, גם לחמש דקות.
hem mitnashkím bekhól pá'am shehém nifradím, gam lekhamésh dakót
They kiss every time they part, even for five minutes. (reciprocal)
הילד מתבגר ופתאום לא רוצה לספר כלום.
hayéled mitbagér ufit'óm lo rotsé lesapér klum
The boy is growing up and suddenly doesn't want to tell you anything. (gradual process)
מסתדר לך יום שלישי בערב, או שנדחה לשבוע הבא?
mistadér lekhá yom shlishí ba'érev, o shenidkhé lashavúa habá?
Does Tuesday evening work for you, or shall we push it to next week? (to a man — lexicalised: nothing reflexive about it)
כולם בעבודה משתמשים בזה חוץ ממני.
kulám ba'avodá mishtamshím bezé khuts miméni
Everyone at work uses it except me.
No yod in the prefix
That is also why the metathesised verbs are so hard to look up. משתמש has no visible prefix boundary at all: מ־שׁ־ת־מ־שׁ, five letters, and the root שׁ־מ־שׁ is scattered across them. Learn the shape mit-/mis-/mish-/mits-/miz- as one thing, and the second and third letters stop competing for your attention.
Common Mistakes
1. Leaving the ת in front of a sibilant root. The regular shape is mit- + root, so learners build מתשמש — which is not a word.
❌ אני מתשמש במחשב של אחי
Incorrect — a שׁ-initial root swaps places with the prefix ת: משתמש. The same swap gives מסתכל, מצטלם and מזדקן.
✅ אני משתמש במחשב של אחי כשהוא בעבודה.
aní mishtamésh bamakhshév shel akhí kshehú ba'avodá
I use my brother's computer while he's at work. (m. speaker)
2. A feminine subject with the masculine form. English verbs never agree, so the agreement is an extra step rather than a translation.
❌ אחותי מתלבש נורא לאט
Incorrect — אחותי is feminine, so the verb is מתלבשת. Every present-tense verb agrees with its subject in gender and number.
✅ אחותי מתלבשת נורא לאט ובגללה אנחנו תמיד מאחרים.
akhotí mitlabéshet norá le'át uviglalá anákhnu tamíd me'akharím
My sister gets dressed terribly slowly and because of her we're always late.
3. Giving מסתכל a direct object. English look at has its preposition; watch and see do not, and learners import the bare-object pattern.
❌ אני מסתכל את התמונות שלך
Incorrect — הסתכל never takes a bare object, and never את. What you look at arrives with על, ב־ or אל: מסתכל על התמונות שלך.
✅ אני מסתכל על התמונות שלך כבר רבע שעה.
aní mistakél al hatmunót shelkhá kvar réva sha'á
I've been looking at your photos for a quarter of an hour. (m. speaker, to a man)
4. Levelling the stress onto the ending. Three of the four forms are milra, so the feminine singular gets dragged along with them.
❌ מתלבשת
mitlabshét
Incorrect — the ־ֶת ending pulls the beat back one syllable: mitlabéshet. Likewise mistakélet, mitragéshet, mishtaméshet.
✅ הבת שלי מתלבשת לבד מגיל שלוש.
habát shelí mitlabéshet levád migíl shalósh
My daughter has been dressing herself since she was three.
Key Takeaways
- Four forms, gender and number only: מִתְלַבֵּשׁ · מִתְלַבֶּשֶׁת · מִתְלַבְּשִׁים · מִתְלַבְּשׁוֹת.
- The shape is a closed מִתְ syllable, then a…é: mitlabésh, mitragésh, mistakél.
- Stress is final in three of the four — mitlabésh, mitlabshím, mitlabshót — and mil'el in the feminine singular: mitlabéshet. The English habit of front-stressing (MIT-labesh) is the audible one.
- מ־ is not a hitpa'el marker. mit- is hitpa'el, mat- is hif'il (מתחיל), me-…-é is pi'el, a stem u is pu'al, a prefix u is huf'al — and pa'al and nif'al have no מ at all.
- The metathesised verbs belong here from the start: מסתכל and משתמש are among the first you meet, and their root is scattered — ס־כ־ל inside מסתכל, שׁ־מ־שׁ inside משתמש.
- No yod in the prefix: מתלבש, מסתכל, משתמש. A closed-syllable chirik takes no mater in ktiv male.
- One form covers "gets dressed" and "is getting dressed" — Hebrew has no progressive and no present copula.
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Start learning Hebrew →Related Topics
- 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.
- 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.
- Hif'il Present: מתחיל, מסביר, מרגישA2 — Four forms on the shape מַקְטִיל — a מ at the front, a silent shva after the first root letter, and a long i written with a yod before the last one. That yod is the recognition test, and it survives even in the two sub-classes where the prefix vowel changes.
- 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.
- Pi'el Present: מדבר, מבקש, מטיילA1 — Four forms, a מְ־ in front and a stressed e at the end — medabér, mevakésh, metayél. The two things to get right are where the stress falls and the one place the vowel changes.
- Gradual Process Hitpa'el: התבגר, התקרר, התפתחB1 — The family where English says 'get' or 'become' and Hebrew says one word — a change of state with nobody performing it. Almost every one of these verbs has a causative twin in pi'el, exactly one has its twin in hif'il, and two have none at all; the asymmetry is the thing to learn, not a rule to apply.