You will use most of this page's vocabulary long before anyone tells you it is huf'al. מוכן, מובן, מוגבל, מוגזם, מודאג, מוצדק, מוכר, מותר are ordinary Hebrew adjectives to a native speaker — and Milog gives every one of them a lexical entry of its own, separate from the entry for the verb it came from. That double listing is the drift this page is about: a passive participle that has settled down and stopped feeling like a verb.
The eight, with their verbs and roots
| Participle | Reading | As an adjective | From the hif'il | Root |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| מוּכָן | mukhán | ready; willing | הֵכִין prepared | כ־ו־ן |
| מוּבָן | muván | understood, obvious | הֵבִין understood | ב־י־ן |
| מוּגְבָּל | mugbál | limited, restricted | הִגְבִּיל limited | ג־ב־ל |
| מוּגְזָם | mugzám | excessive, over the top | הִגְזִים exaggerated | ג־ז־ם |
| מוּדְאָג | mud'ág | worried, concerned | הִדְאִיג worried someone | ד־א־ג |
| מוּצְדָּק | mutsdák | justified, warranted | הִצְדִּיק justified | צ־ד־ק |
| מוּכָּר | mukár | familiar; recognised | הִכִּיר knew, recognised | נ־כ־ר |
| מוּתָּר | mutár | permitted, allowed | הִתִּיר permitted, untied | נ־ת־ר |
The last two rows carry a bold root for a reason: the נ has assimilated and is not written. מוכר is not built on כ־ר and מותר is not built on ת־ר; both belong to פ״נ roots whose first radical has vanished into the dagesh you can see in מֻכָּר and מֻתָּר. Guess the root from the visible letters and you will look up the wrong word.
אני מוכנה לצאת, רק תני לי שתי דקות.
aní mukhaná latsét, rak tní li shtei dakót
I'm ready to go — just give me two minutes. (f. speaker, to a woman)
זה קצת מוגזם, לא? היא הכירה אותו שבועיים.
ze ktsat mugzám, lo? hi hikíra otó shvu'áyim
That's a bit much, isn't it? She'd known him two weeks. (informal)
הכעס שלו מוצדק לגמרי, גם אני הייתי מתפוצץ.
haká'as sheló mutsdák legamréi, gam aní hayíti mitpotséts
His anger is completely justified — I'd have blown up too. (m. speaker, informal)
Two homographs worth memorising
מותר is two unrelated words on the page. One is מוּתָּר mutár "permitted", the huf'al participle of התיר on נ־ת־ר. The other is מוֹתָר motár "surplus, advantage", a noun on י־ת־ר — Hebrew Wiktionary files it under exactly that root, glosses it יתרון, מעלה, and quotes Ecclesiastes for it. Its plural מותרות motarót is the ordinary modern word for "luxuries", and the frozen phrase למותר lemotár means "needless" (למותר לציין, "needless to say"). Nothing connects it to permission.
מוכר is likewise two words: מוּכָּר mukár "familiar", huf'al on נ־כ־ר, against מוֹכֵר mokhér "salesman, seller", the plain pa'al participle of מ־כ־ר. Unpointed they are the same four letters, and the only thing that separates them in speech is a vowel and a doubled consonant.
רוב השמות ברשימה מוכרים לי עוד מהעבודה הקודמת.
rov hashemót barshimá mukarím li od meha'avodá hakodémet
Most of the names on the list are familiar to me from my old job. (מוכרים here can only be mukarím 'familiar' — the לי rules out the other reading, mokhrím 'sellers')
Is it still a verb? Three tests, honestly reported
Test one: intensifiers. An adjective takes מאוד, קצת, יותר, הכי; a passive verb does not. זה מאוד מוגזם and זה יותר מוגבל ממה שחשבתי are ordinary Hebrew, and that on its own shows the word has left the verb system.
Test two: attributive position. An adjective can sit behind a noun and agree with it — הזמנה מוגבלת, מקומות מוגבלים, שאלה מוצדקת. A finite verb cannot.
Test three: an על ידי agent. This one is usually presented as a clean either/or, and it is not. Adding an agent forces the verbal reading — but whether a given participle accepts one depends on the individual word, not on the class. On Hebrew Wikipedia מוגבל על ידי returns 193 hits and מוכר על ידי 223, because both keep a live passive sense ("restricted by", "recognised by"). At the other end, מוגזם על ידי returns 3 and מודאג על ידי returns 0 — those two have gone fully adjectival and no longer take an agent at all. So use the test on the word in front of you, not on the category.
התוכן מוגבל על ידי הגדרות ההורים במכשיר.
hatókhen mugbál al yedéi hagdarót hahorím bamakhshír
The content is restricted by the parental settings on the device. (an על ידי agent forces the verbal reading)
מקומות מוגבלים, כדאי להירשם עוד היום.
mekomót mugbalím, kedái leherashém od hayóm
Places are limited — worth registering today. (event notice; here it is a plain adjective)
מוכן has split in two
The clearest case of the drift is מוכן, because it now has two different feminine singulars. Pealim lists it twice: as the huf'al participle of הכין, whose feminine is מוּכֶנֶת mukhénet, and as an adjective in its own right, whose feminine is מוּכָנָה mukhaná. On Hebrew Wikipedia מוכנה returns 2,642 hits against 22 for מוכנת — the adjective has all but swallowed the verb form.
Use מוכנה for the everyday sense: ready, and also willing, which Milog lists as a meaning in its own right — מוכן להתפשר "willing to compromise", מוכנה לחכות "willing to wait". Keep מוכנת for genuine passives, where something is actively being prepared by someone.
הארוחה מוכנת במטבח מרכזי ומחולקת לכיתות בשמונה.
ha'arukhá mukhénet bemitbákh merkazí umekhuléket lakitót bishmóne
The meal is prepared in a central kitchen and distributed to the classrooms at eight. (a genuine passive — institutional register)
מובן מאליו
מוּבָן מֵאֵלָיו muván me'eláv is a full lexical entry in Hebrew Wiktionary, glossed there as "needing no explanation, proof or evidence — and therefore known to everyone". Literally it is "understood from itself". It inflects: מובנת מאליה, מובנים מאליהם — and it also works as a sentence adverb, מובן מאליו ש..., "it goes without saying that…".
מובן מאליו שאם יורד גשם, הטיול מתבטל.
muván me'eláv she'ím yoréd géshem, hatiyúl mitbatél
It goes without saying that if it rains, the trip's off.
מותר and אסור are not a matched pair
Every textbook prints them side by side as the permission pair, and morphologically they have nothing to do with each other.
| מוּתָּר mutár | אָסוּר asúr | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | huf'al participle | pa'al passive participle (קָטוּל) |
| Its verb | הִתִּיר, hif'il | אָסַר, pa'al |
| Root | נ־ת־ר | א־ס־ר |
| Feminine sg. | מוּתֶּרֶת mutéret | אֲסוּרָה asurá |
They are a pair because usage made them one, not because the grammar built them together — and the mismatch shows in the feminine, where one takes ־ֶת and the other ־ָה. Their impersonal use with a ל־ (מותר לי, אסור לך) has its own page.
מותר לעשן במרפסת, אבל לא בחדר המדרגות.
mutár le'ashén bamirpéset, avál lo bakhadár hamadregót
Smoking is allowed on the balcony, but not in the stairwell. (building notice)
Common Mistakes
1. Conjugating מותר as if it agreed with the person. English says I am allowed, so learners make themselves the subject.
❌ אני מותר להיכנס עם הכלב
Incorrect — מותר is impersonal here. The permitted person goes in a ל־ phrase: מותר לי להיכנס עם הכלב.
✅ מותר לי להיכנס עם הכלב או שאני מחכה בחוץ?
mutár li lehikanés im hakélev o she'aní mekhaké bakhúts?
Am I allowed in with the dog, or should I wait outside? (m. speaker)
2. Attaching על ידי to a participle that no longer takes one. מודאג looks passive, so an agent looks legal.
❌ ההורים מודאגים על ידי החדשות מהצפון
Incorrect — מודאג governs מ־, not על ידי: ההורים מודאגים מהחדשות. The agent phrase is only available to participles that still work as verbs, and this one no longer does.
✅ ההורים מודאגים מהחדשות ומתקשרים כל שעתיים.
hahorím mud'agím mehakhadashót umitkashrím kol she'atáyim
My parents are worried by the news and ring every couple of hours.
3. Losing the agreement in attributive position. Once the participle sits behind a noun it behaves like any other adjective.
❌ יש לנו כמות מוגבל של כרטיסים
Incorrect — כמות is feminine, so the participle must be מוגבלת: כמות מוגבלת של כרטיסים.
✅ יש לנו כמות מוגבלת של כרטיסים, אז תחליטו מהר.
yesh lánu kamút mugbélet shel kartisím, az takhlítu mahér
We've got a limited number of tickets, so decide quickly.
4. Reading מוכר as the seller. Same four letters, two different words, and the sentence usually makes it obvious — but the reading has to be right.
❌ מוכר
mokhér — for ‘familiar’
Incorrect — 'familiar' is mukár, the huf'al מֻכָּר on נ־כ־ר. mokhér is מוֹכֵר 'salesman', the pa'al participle of מ־כ־ר. Unpointed they are identical; in the ear they share nothing.
✅ המוכר בקיוסק מכיר אותי כבר עשר שנים.
hamokhér bakiósk makír otí kvar éser shaním
The bloke at the kiosk has known me for ten years.
Key Takeaways
- Eight huf'al participles have hardened into ordinary adjectives and are listed as such in their own right: מוכן, מובן, מוגבל, מוגזם, מודאג, מוצדק, מוכר, מותר.
- Two hidden נ roots: מוכר is נ־כ־ר (from הכיר) and מותר is נ־ת־ר (from התיר). The dagesh is the missing נ.
- מותר the participle and מוֹתָר the noun are different words — the noun is motár "surplus", root י־ת־ר, source of מותרות "luxuries" and למותר "needless".
- מוכר is a homograph: מֻכָּר mukár "familiar" against מוֹכֵר mokhér "salesman".
- The diagnostics are intensifiers (מאוד, יותר) and attributive agreement. The על ידי test is per-word, not per-class: on Hebrew Wikipedia מוגבל על ידי returns 193 hits and מודאג על ידי returns 0.
- מוכן has two feminines: adjectival מוכנה mukhaná (2,642 Wikipedia hits) and verbal מוכנת mukhénet (22). It also means willing, not only ready.
- מובן מאליו is a full dictionary entry, "self-evident", and inflects: מובנת מאליה, מובנים מאליהם.
- מותר and אסור are not morphologically parallel — huf'al participle against pa'al קָטוּל, different roots, different feminines. They are a pair only by usage.
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Start learning Hebrew →Related Topics
- 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.
- Pu'al Participles Living as AdjectivesB2 — מסודר, מבולבל, מרוצה and מעוניין are pu'al participles that stopped behaving like verbs — here is the drift, the tests that tell a live passive from a hardened adjective, and the three lookalikes that do not belong in the set.
- The Huf'al Forms You Really Do MeetB1 — Seven participles you learned as adjectives at A2, eight finite verbs that run the news, and one reading cue — מו־ or הו־ with an a in the stem — that unlocks a headline, together with the case where it fails.
- Huf'al Present: מוזמן, מודפס, מוגשB1 — Four cells, a vav one letter in from the front, and the reason a menu says מוגש while a receptionist says מוזמנת — plus the two other מ־forms this one is genuinely confused with.