The huf'al present is everywhere; the finite past and future are a different animal. They are fully regular, fully alive in writing, and almost absent from spontaneous speech — so the practical skill on this page is double: read them, and know what an Israeli would have said instead.
The past, all nine cells
| Pointed (ktiv male) | Written | Reading | |
|---|---|---|---|
| אני | הוּזְמַנְתִּי | הוזמנתי | huzmánti |
| אתה | הוּזְמַנְתָּ | הוזמנת | huzmánta |
| את | הוּזְמַנְתְּ | הוזמנת | huzmánt |
| הוא | הוּזְמַן | הוזמן | huzmán |
| היא | הוּזְמְנָה | הוזמנה | huzmená |
| אנחנו | הוּזְמַנּוּ | הוזמנו | huzmánu |
| אתם | הוּזְמַנְתֶּם | הוזמנתם | huzmantém · in speech huzmántem |
| אתן | הוּזְמַנְתֶּן | הוזמנתן | huzmantén · in speech huzmánten |
| הם / הן | הוּזְמְנוּ | הוזמנו | huzmenú |
The endings are the universal past-tense suffixes — ־תי, ־ת, ־ה, ־נו, ־תם, ־תן, ־ו — so nothing at the back of the word is new. Everything huf'al-specific is the hu- at the front.
הוזמנו is two different words
Look at rows six and nine. הוּזְמַנּוּ huzmánu "we were invited" has a dagesh in the נ; הוּזְמְנוּ huzmenú "they were invited" does not. Unpointed, both are הוזמנו — one written string, one spelling, two persons, and no orthographic clue whatsoever.
This is not a defect in the writing system so much as a consequence of it: the dagesh represents a doubled consonant, and ktiv male has no way to write consonant doubling. The reader gets it from context, and in speech the two are distinct — huzMÁnu against huzmeNÚ, different stress and a different vowel in the middle. It is the same collision every binyan produces in this pair; huf'al just makes it easy to see.
הוזמנו לחתונה אבל אף אחד מאיתנו לא הכיר את החתן.
huzmánu lakhatuná avál af ekhád me'itánu lo hikír et hekhatán
We were invited to the wedding, but none of us knew the groom. (huzmánu — 'we', with the dagesh)
הם הוזמנו לחקירה כבר פעמיים וטענו שלא ידעו כלום.
hem huzmenú lakhakirá kvar pa'amáyim veta'anú sheló yad'ú klum
They've been called in for questioning twice already and claimed they knew nothing. (huzmenú — 'they', no dagesh)
The future
| Pointed (ktiv male) | Written | Reading | |
|---|---|---|---|
| אני | אוּזְמַן | אוזמן | uzmán |
| אתה | תּוּזְמַן | תוזמן | tuzmán |
| את | תּוּזְמְנִי | תוזמני | tuzmení |
| הוא | יוּזְמַן | יוזמן | yuzmán |
| היא | תּוּזְמַן | תוזמן | tuzmán |
| אנחנו | נוּזְמַן | נוזמן | nuzmán |
| אתם / הם | תּוּזְמְנוּ · יוּזְמְנוּ | תוזמנו · יוזמנו | tuzmenú · yuzmenú |
| אתן / הן | תּוּזְמַנָּה | תוזמנה | tuzmána — see below |
תוזמנה is the normative feminine plural, and Pealim's note on the cell is that in modern language the masculine form is generally used — that is, both אתן and הן take תוזמנו and יוזמנו in practice. Do not label it archaic: it is a live normative form you will meet in careful writing and in liturgical or legal style. Just do not produce it.
Other roots, abbreviated
| Root | Past 3ms | Past 3fs | Future 3ms | Written |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ד־פ־ס print | הוּדְפַּס hudpás | הוּדְפְּסָה hudpesá | יוּדְפַּס yudpás | הודפס · הודפסה · יודפס |
| נ־ג־שׁ serve, submit | הוּגַּשׁ hugásh | הוּגְּשָׁה hugshá | יוּגַּשׁ yugásh | הוגש · הוגשה · יוגש |
| ס־כ־ם agree | הוּסְכַּם huskám | הוּסְכְּמָה huskemá | יוּסְכַּם yuskám | הוסכם · הוסכמה · יוסכם |
Two special classes. Where the first radical is ח or ע, two pointings are standard and both are correct — הָחְלַט hokhlát beside הֻחְלַט hukhlát, הָעֳבַר ho'ovár beside הֻעֲבַר hu'avár — which is why a reader meets both in print.
That doublet is quoted here exactly as Pealim and the reference grammars set it out, in the classical vav-less pointing, and it is the one place on this page where the pointing is not the ktiv-male pointing of the tables above. The reason is that the doublet is a fact about the prefix vowel — an o against a u — not about the spelling: in ordinary writing both variants come out as plain הוחלט and הועבר, vav and all. That is why the specimen sentence further down can voice הוחלט as hukhlát without contradicting the citation.
And where the root is hollow or weak, the stem simply contracts around a single u: הוּכַן hukán from הכין (כ־ו־ן), הוּבַן huván from הבין (ב־י־ן), הוּצָא hutsá from הוציא, הוּבָא huvá from הביא. Those four have no alternative pointing at all.
החדרים הוכנו לפני שהאורחים הגיעו, רק המזגן לא עבד.
hakhadarím hukhnú lifnéi sheha'orkhím higí'u, rak hamazgán lo avád
The rooms had been made up before the guests arrived; only the air conditioning wasn't working. (written register)
Who says these forms — and who does not
Say this plainly: the first and second person of the huf'al past belong almost entirely to written Hebrew. הוזמנתי, הוגשתי, הודפסת are grammatical, unremarkable in a letter or an article, and jarring in a conversation. The third person survives better, because news writing lives on it. In speech, Israelis reach for the agentless third-person plural instead, and it is worth building the pairs deliberately.
הדוח הוגש לוועדה ביום חמישי ומאז אין תשובה.
hadóakh hugásh lava'adá beyóm khamishí ume'áz ein teshuvá
The report was submitted to the committee on Thursday and there has been no reply since. (formal / written)
הגישו את הדוח ביום חמישי ומאז אף אחד לא חזר אלינו.
higíshu et hadóakh beyóm khamishí ume'áz af ekhád lo khazár eléinu
They filed the report on Thursday and nobody's got back to us since. (same event, everyday speech)
המסמכים יועברו למחלקה המשפטית בתחילת השבוע.
hamismakhím yu'avrú lamakhlaká hamishpatít bitkhilát hashavúa
The documents will be transferred to the legal department at the start of the week. (administrative)
יעבירו את המסמכים למשפטית בתחילת השבוע.
ya'avíru et hamismakhím lamishpatít bitkhilát hashavúa
They'll pass the documents over to legal at the start of the week. (same content, office speech)
Stack two of these in one sentence and you have the sound of an official decision letter:
הוחלט לדחות את הבקשה, והתיק הועבר לוועדת הערר.
hukhlát lidkhót et habakashá, vehatík hu'avár leva'adát ha'arár
It was decided to reject the application, and the file was passed to the appeals committee. (specimen, written in the register of a municipal decision letter)
The production rule: there is no infinitive
Because the binyan has no infinitive, every English "needs to be X-ed" has to be rebuilt around the active verb. There is no way to say it with a huf'al, so stop looking for one.
צריך להכין את זה מראש, אחרת אנחנו נתקעים ביום עצמו.
tsaríkh lehakhín et ze merósh, akhéret anákhnu nitka'ím bayóm atsmó
It needs to be prepared in advance, otherwise we get stuck on the day itself. (the active infinitive carries the impersonal 'needs to be')
One letter, opposite voices
הוזמן and הזמין are not the same letters rearranged — they share ה, ז, מ and ן, and differ in exactly one letter and its position: a vav in second place for the passive, a yod in fourth place for the active. That is the entire visual difference between "he was invited" and "he invited", and it is why dropping the vav in ktiv male silently flips the voice of your sentence. The same trap runs through the whole paradigm: הובנתי against הבנתי, הוגשתי against הגשתי.
Common Mistakes
1. Reaching for an infinitive after צריך. English says "everything needs to be prepared", so a ל־ form gets invented.
❌ הכול צריך להוכן עד חמש
Incorrect — huf'al has no infinitive, and להוכן is not a word. Use the active: צריך להכין את הכול עד חמש.
✅ צריך להכין את הכול עד חמש, אחר כך אין לנו גישה למטבח.
tsaríkh lehakhín et hakól ad khamésh, akhár kakh ein lánu gishá lamitbákh
Everything has to be ready by five — after that we don't have access to the kitchen.
2. Giving the passive a direct object. הוזמן and הזמין are one letter apart, so learners use the passive and then attach an object to it.
❌ הוא הוזמן אותנו לחתונה שלו
Incorrect — הוזמן means 'he was invited' and cannot take an object. The active is הזמין: הוא הזמין אותנו לחתונה שלו.
✅ הוא הזמין אותנו לחתונה שלו רק שבוע לפני.
hu hizmín otánu lakhatuná sheló rak shavúa lifnéi
He invited us to his wedding only a week beforehand.
3. הובנתי for "I understood". The pair הבנתי / הובנתי is the single most expensive vav in the language for a learner.
❌ הובנתי אותו טוב מאוד, פשוט לא הסכמתי
Incorrect — הובנתי is the huf'al 'I was understood'. 'I understood him' is the hif'il הבנתי, with no vav.
✅ הבנתי אותו טוב מאוד, פשוט לא הסכמתי איתו.
hevánti otó tov me'ód, pashút lo hiskámti itó
I understood him perfectly well — I just didn't agree with him.
4. Stressing the third-person feminine like the masculine. The ־ָה ending takes the beat and the stem vowel reduces to a shva.
❌ הוזמנה
huzmána
Incorrect — huzmená, stressed on the ending, with a shva in the middle. Same shape as hudpesá, hugshá, huskemá.
✅ היא הוזמנה לוועדה ובסוף הישיבה נדחתה.
hi huzmená lava'adá uvasóf hayeshivá nidkhatá
She was summoned before the committee, and in the end the session was postponed. (formal / written)
Key Takeaways
- Nine past cells but only seven written strings — הוזמנת covers both second-person singulars, and הוזמנו covers both אנחנו and הם. The endings are the universal past-tense suffixes; everything huf'al-specific is the hu- at the front.
- הוזמנו is ambiguous in writing: הוּזְמַנּוּ huzmánu "we were invited" (dagesh) and הוּזְמְנוּ huzmenú "they were invited" (no dagesh) are one spelling. Context decides; speech does not.
- The future is built on the same stem: אוזמן · תוזמן · תוזמני · יוזמן · נוזמן · תוזמנו · יוזמנו. תוזמנה is the normative feminine plural, and modern usage generalises the masculine.
- ח and ע first radicals give two standard pointings (הָחְלַט ~ הֻחְלַט, הָעֳבַר ~ הֻעֲבַר — cited in the classical vav-less pointing, because the difference is in the prefix vowel; written out, both are simply הוחלט and הועבר). Hollow and weak roots contract to a single u: הוּכַן, הוּבַן, הוּצָא, הוּבָא.
- First and second person are written register. For speech, rebuild with the agentless plural: הגישו את הדוח, יעבירו את המסמכים.
- No infinitive, ever. "Needs to be prepared" is צריך להכין את זה. The one legal frame is להיות + participle: להיות מוזמן.
- הוזמן and הזמין differ by one letter in one position — a vav second, or a yod fourth. Drop the vav and you have written the active by accident.
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Start learning Hebrew →Related Topics
- 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.
- Huf'al in News, Notices and Official WritingC1 — Where the finite huf'al actually lives — bulletins, municipal notices, legal prose and army paperwork — why agent suppression is the point rather than a side effect, and what an Israeli says instead when the same fact comes up in a kitchen.
- בניין הופעל: The Passive of Hif'ilB2 — huf'al is what happens to a hif'il verb when the thing acted on becomes the subject — three tenses, no infinitive, no imperative, and a vav sitting right after the prefix that gives it away on sight.
- Pu'al Past and Future: סודר, יסודרC1 — The finite pu'al is a written-Hebrew form: nine past cells and nine future ones that a newsreader uses daily and a friend on the phone almost never does — and there is still no infinitive to reach for when you need one.