This is the biggest and most useful hitpa'el family, and it is the one that maps least tidily onto English. The subject undergoes a change and nobody performs it. Where English needs two words — get cold, get used to, grow up, fall in love — Hebrew has one verb, and the absence of an agent is built into the form.
The family, and the twin that does have an agent
Each of these has, or lacks, a causative partner: the verb you use when somebody does it to something. Where the partner exists it is usually pi'el, occasionally hif'il — and the fact that the pattern is not uniform is exactly the point.
| Change of state (hitpa'el) | Causative partner | Binyan |
|---|---|---|
| הִתְקָרֵר hitkarér cool down; catch a cold | קֵירֵר cool something | pi'el |
| הִתְחַמֵּם hitkhamém warm up | חִימֵּם heat something | pi'el |
| הִתְפַּתֵּחַ hitpatéakh develop, evolve | פִּיתֵּחַ develop something | pi'el |
| הִשְׁתַּפֵּר hishtapér improve, get better | שִׁיפֵּר improve something | pi'el |
| הִתְרַגֵּשׁ hitragésh get excited, be moved | רִיגֵּשׁ move somebody | pi'el |
| הִתְעַיֵּיף hit'ayéf get tired | עִיֵּיף tire somebody out | pi'el |
| הִתְיָיאֵשׁ hitya'ésh give up, despair | יֵיאֵשׁ make somebody despair | pi'el |
| הִתְאוֹשֵׁשׁ hit'oshésh recover | אוֹשֵׁשׁ nurse back, encourage | pi'el |
| הִידַּרְדֵּר hidardér deteriorate | דִּרְדֵּר run something down | pi'el |
| הִתְרַגֵּל hitragél get used to | הִרְגִּיל accustom somebody | hif'il |
| הִתְבַּגֵּר hitbagér grow up | — none | |
| הִתְאַהֵב hit'ahév fall in love | — none |
The last two rows are checked, not assumed. Pealim's listing for the root א־ה־ב holds three verbs — the pa'al לֶאֱהוֹב, the hitpa'el לְהִתְאַהֵב and the nif'al לְהֵיאָהֵב be loved — and its listing for ב־ג־ר holds two, the pa'al לִבְגּוֹר and the hitpa'el לְהִתְבַּגֵּר. Neither root has a pi'el or a hif'il at all, which is where a causative would have to live. So there is no verb for making somebody grow up or fall in love, and Hebrew reaches for a periphrasis instead: הוא גרם לה להתאהב — he made her fall in love.
המרק התקרר עד שכולם הגיעו לשולחן.
hamarák hitkarér ad shekulám higí'u lashulkhán
The soup went cold by the time everyone got to the table.
קיררתי את הבקבוקים במקפיא ושכחתי אותם שם עד הבוקר.
kerárti et habakbukím bamakpí veshakhákhti otám sham ad habóker
I put the bottles in the freezer to chill and forgot them there till morning.
הוא התבגר מאוד בשנה שהיה בחו״ל.
hu hitbagér me'ód bashaná shehayá bekhul
He grew up a lot during the year he spent abroad.
The prepositions worth printing
Most of these verbs take nothing at all — a change of state needs no complement. Two of them do, and they are the two that trip English speakers.
- הִתְאַהֵב ב־ — Pealim prints the ב־ inside the entry. Not עם, and never a bare object.
- הִתְרַגֵּל ל־ — every dictionary example of the verb uses ל־, before a noun (התרגלתי לרעש) or before an infinitive (התרגלתי לקום מוקדם).
התאהבתי בדירה עוד לפני שראיתי את המטבח.
hit'ahávti badirá od lifnéi shera'íti et hamitbákh
I fell in love with the flat before I'd even seen the kitchen.
התרגלתי לחום רק בקיץ השלישי, ועדיין אני לא יוצא לרחוב בשתיים.
hitragálti lakhóm rak bakáyits hashlishí, va'adáyin aní lo yotsé larekhóv bishtáyim
I only got used to the heat in my third summer, and I still don't go out on the street at two. (m. speaker)
הרגלתי אותם לישון לבד וזה לקח שלושה שבועות של בכי.
hirgálti otám lishón levád veze lakákh shloshá shavu'ót shel békhi
I got them used to sleeping on their own and it took three weeks of crying.
The present tense reads as a process, not a habit
The Hebrew present covers both he grows up and he is growing up, and with this family the second reading is usually the live one. מתבגר, מתפתח, משתפר in a present-tense clause normally describe something in the middle of happening over time — not a repeated event. That is a property of these verbs' meaning rather than of the tense, and it is what makes them so useful for talking about children, illnesses, languages and situations.
הוא מתבגר מהר מדי, ואני לא מספיקה להתרגל לזה.
hu mitbagér mahér midái, va'aní lo maspiká lehitragél lazé
He's growing up too fast and I can't keep up with it. (f. speaker — a process under way, not something he does repeatedly)
התינוקת מתפתחת יפה, אמרו לנו בטיפת חלב.
hatinóket mitpatákhat yafé, amrú lánu betipát khaláv
The baby is developing nicely, they told us at the clinic.
העברית שלי השתפרה פלאים מאז שהפסקתי לתרגם בראש.
ha'ivrít shelí hishtaprá pla'ím me'áz shehifsákti letargém barósh
My Hebrew improved out of all recognition once I stopped translating in my head.
The general mapping between the two readings is on one present for 'I write' and 'I am writing'.
A change of state is not the same as a state
English lets you say I was tired and I got tired with almost the same words, and learners coming from English default to היה plus an adjective for both. Hebrew keeps them further apart, and choosing the wrong one is not a grammatical error — it says something different.
הייתי עייף כל היום, לא הצלחתי להתרכז.
hayíti ayéf kol hayóm, lo hitslákhti lehitrakéz
I was tired all day and couldn't concentrate. (a state that held)
התעייפתי מהר מאוד היום, אולי בגלל החום.
hit'ayáfti mahér me'ód hayóm, ulái biglál hakhóm
I got tired very quickly today, maybe because of the heat. (the moment the state began)
אל תתייאש, זה תמיד נראה גרוע בשבוע הראשון.
al titya'ésh, ze tamíd nir'é garúa bashavúa harishón
Don't give up — it always looks terrible in the first week. (to a man)
המצב הידרדר תוך שבועיים ואף אחד לא ראה את זה מגיע.
hamatsáv hidardér tokh shvu'áyim ve'áf ekhád lo ra'á et ze magía
The situation deteriorated within two weeks and nobody saw it coming. (formal/journalistic)
Where the binyan's productivity actually lives
This family is where hitpa'el is still growing. hitpa'el is the productive intransitive partner of pi'el — pi'el takes the new agentive verbs and hitpa'el takes the non-agentive ones (Bat-El 2013, Brill EHLL 704–707; Bolozky 1978, 2007). Modern coinings arrive in exactly these pairs: pi'el עִדְכֵּן "update" beside hitpa'el הִתְעַדְכֵּן "get updated", pi'el שִׁדְרֵג "upgrade" beside hitpa'el הִשְׁתַּדְרֵג "get upgraded" — all four in Pealim.
Two things must not be over-simplified here.
hif'il is not closed. It stays productive precisely for inchoatives, and Milog's own definitions give the change-of-state reading first: הִבְרִיא recovered from illness, הִרְזָה lost weight, הִשְׁחִיר turned black. It also absorbs loans that keep an initial cluster — הִשְׁפְּרִיץ, הִסְנִיף. So the inchoative space is shared between hitpa'el and hif'il, not owned by hitpa'el.
nif'al, by contrast, takes essentially nothing new — which is striking, since nif'al's own middle-voice meaning sits in the same semantic space. Neither does pa'al, which is effectively closed to new verbs. That is why a coining you meet in a newspaper or a group chat will be pi'el or hitpa'el and almost never one of those two.
השתדרגתי לחדר עם נוף בלי לשלם שקל.
hishtadrágti lekhéder im nof bli leshalém shékel
I got upgraded to a room with a view without paying a shekel.
How the coining machinery works from the pi'el side is on pi'el and new verbs.
Common Mistakes
1. Giving the hitpa'el an object. English develop, improve, cool are the same word transitive and intransitive; Hebrew has two different verbs and only one of them takes את.
❌ החברה התפתחה מוצר חדש לשוק האירופי
Incorrect — התפתח is what happens to something, never what something does to a thing. Developing a product is the pi'el פיתח: החברה פיתחה מוצר חדש.
✅ החברה פיתחה מוצר חדש והמנייה קפצה באותו יום.
hakhevrá pitkhá mutsár khadásh vehamnayá kaftsá be'otó yom
The company developed a new product and the share price jumped the same day.
2. The same error one verb along. השתפר is intransitive: things get better, nobody gets them better.
❌ הוא השתפר את העברית שלו בשלושה חודשים
Incorrect — השתפר takes no object. Improving something is the pi'el שיפר: הוא שיפר את העברית שלו בשלושה חודשים.
✅ הוצאתי את המרק מהסיר כדי שיתקרר מהר יותר.
hotséti et hamarák mehasír kdei sheyitkarér mahér yotér
I took the soup out of the pot so it would cool down faster. (the soup is the subject of יתקרר — nobody is cooling it)
3. התאהב without its ב־. English fall in love with pushes learners to עם, and love her pushes them to a bare object.
❌ התאהבתי אותה בשנייה הראשונה שראיתי אותה
Incorrect — התאהב never takes a direct object, and its government is not עם. Pealim prints ב־ inside the entry: התאהבתי בה.
✅ התאהבתי בה בשנייה שהיא פתחה את הפה.
hit'ahávti ba bashniyá shehí patkhá et hapé
I fell in love with her the second she opened her mouth.
4. Reaching for the causative when you mean yourself. הרגיל and התרגל are one letter apart and point in opposite directions.
❌ הרגלתי לקום מוקדם אחרי שבוע
Incorrect — הרגיל is the causative and needs somebody to accustom: הרגלתי אותו לקום מוקדם. Getting used to something yourself is התרגל, with ל־.
✅ התרגלתי לקום מוקדם רק אחרי שקניתי וילונות אטומים.
hitragálti lakúm mukdám rak akharéi shekaníti vilonót atumím
I only got used to getting up early after I bought blackout curtains.
Key Takeaways
- This family means a change of state with no agent — the English get or become plus an adjective, in one Hebrew word.
- Nearly every member has a causative twin, and it is usually pi'el: קירר, חימם, פיתח, שיפר, ריגש, עייף, ייאש, אושש, דרדר. התרגל is the exception with a hif'il partner, הרגיל. התבגר and התאהב have no partner at all — checked against Pealim's root listings for ב־ג־ר and א־ה־ב, neither of which contains a pi'el or a hif'il.
- Only two of these verbs govern a preposition: התאהב ב־ (printed by Pealim) and התרגל ל־. The rest take nothing.
- In the present tense these verbs normally read as a process under way — מתבגר, מתפתח, משתפר — rather than as a habit.
- היה + adjective and the hitpa'el are not interchangeable: הייתי עייף is a state, התעייפתי is the moment it began. Both are correct.
- הידרדר / התדרדר are both live spellings — Pealim lemmatises the assimilated הידרדר, and Hebrew Wikipedia has the two verb forms neck and neck while the noun הידרדרות leads התדרדרות two to one.
- This is where the binyan keeps growing: new verbs arrive as pi'el–hitpa'el pairs (עדכן / התעדכן, שדרג / השתדרג). But hif'il is not closed — it still makes inchoatives (הבריא, הרזה, השחיר) and cluster-preserving loans — while nif'al takes essentially nothing new, and pa'al is effectively closed.
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- One Present for 'I write' and 'I am writing'A2 — Hebrew has exactly one present tense, and it renders the English simple, the English progressive and the emphatic 'do' with no auxiliary and no formal difference whatsoever. Nothing has to be built — and when the difference matters, an adverb carries it.
- Pi'el: The Factory for New Israeli VerbsB1 — pi'el is the default mould for a new Hebrew verb — but the popular line that new verbs go only to pi'el and hitpa'el is wrong, and the sources say something more precise and more interesting about where hif'il still wins.
- Hitpa'el ל״ה: השתנה, התנסה, התרפאB1 — A weak third radical rewrites the last syllable of every cell — an infinitive in ־ות, a 3fs in ־תה, and one spelling that covers both singular present forms. Plus התרפא, which looks like a member and is not.
- Participles Used as Adjectives: מעניין, עייף, סגורA2 — A large share of everyday Hebrew adjectives are not adjectives at all — they are verb participles that settled down. Once you can see which binyan a word came out of, you stop memorising pairs like מעניין and מעוניין and start deriving them.
- 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.