Public Hebrew often gives an instruction without grammatically addressing anyone. An infinitive has no person, gender or number, so a bus, hospital or municipal notice can tell every possible reader what to do without choosing תעשה, תעשי or תעשו. The central patterns are נא + infinitive, negative נא לא + infinitive, prohibitive אין + infinitive, and forceful bare infinitives such as לשבת! or לא לזוז!.
Why institutions choose the infinitive
A personal command must encode its addressee. תחכה addresses one man, תחכי one woman and תחכו a group. להמתין simply names the action “to wait.” A notice therefore gains grammatical neutrality by using an infinitive, even though every real reader understands that the instruction applies to them.
| Frame | Example | Force and register |
|---|---|---|
| נא + infinitive | נָא לְהַמְתִּין na lehamtín | formal courteous request |
| נא לא + infinitive | נָא לֹא לְעַשֵּׁן na lo le'ashén | formal courteous prohibition |
| אין + infinitive | אֵין לְהִיכָּנֵס ein lehikanés | flat institutional prohibition |
| bare infinitive | לָשֶׁבֶת! lashévet! | curt spoken instruction; classroom or military |
| לא + bare infinitive | לֹא לָזוּז! lo lazúz! | forceful “don't move” |
נא להמתין לפתיחת הדלתות.
na lehamtín liftikhát hadlatót.
Please wait for the doors to open. (public-transport announcement)
נא לשמור על השקט במסדרון.
na lishmór al hashéket bamisderón.
Please keep quiet in the corridor. (hospital notice)
נא: a request without a named reader
נא precedes the infinitive as a separate word: נא להמתין, נא לסגור, נא לשמור. It is formal and strongly associated with notices, recorded announcements, interfaces and official instructions. It does not make the infinitive agree with anyone. Negative לא goes between נא and the infinitive: נא לא לעשן, not a personal אל construction.
נא לא לעשן באזור התחנה.
na lo le'ashén ba'ezór hatakhaná.
Please do not smoke in the station area. (formal notice)
נא לכבות את הטלפון לפני תחילת הבדיקה.
na lekhabót et hatélefon lifnéi tkhilát habdiká.
Please switch off your phone before the examination begins. (clinic notice)
The object rules do not disappear with the subject. Definite הטלפון still takes את; an indefinite object would not. Impersonality changes the addressee, not the transitivity of the verb.
אין plus an infinitive means “one must not”
Before an infinitive, אין has deontic force: the action is not permitted. אין לעשן does not merely report that no smoking happens to exist; it instructs readers that smoking is forbidden. This construction appears constantly in safety instructions, regulations and municipal guidance.
אין לחצות בין כלי רכב חונים.
ein lakhatsót bein klei rékhev khoním.
Do not cross between parked vehicles. (municipal safety instruction)
אין להיכנס לשטח הסגור ללא אישור.
ein lehikanés lashétakh hasagúr leló ishúr.
Do not enter the closed area without authorization. (worksite notice)
אין להאכיל את בעלי החיים בפארק.
ein leha'akhíl et ba'aléi hakhayím bapárk.
Do not feed the animals in the park. (park notice)
The frame contains אין + ל־infinitive as two elements: אין plus להיכנס / לחצות / להאכיל. It is related to other impersonal uses of אין, but it should be learned as a prohibition rather than translated word by word.
אין כניסה is a noun, not an infinitive
אין כניסה and אין להיכנס may appear on the same door and communicate nearly the same rule, but their grammar differs.
| Sign | What follows אין | Literal structure |
|---|---|---|
| אין כניסה | noun כְּנִיסָה knisá, “entry” | there is no entry / no entry |
| אין להיכנס | infinitive לְהִיכָּנֵס lehikanés, “to enter” | one must not enter |
אין כניסה — הדלת מיועדת לעובדים בלבד.
ein knisá, hadélet meyu'édet la'ovdím bilvád.
No entry—the door is for staff only. (כניסה is a noun)
אין להיכנס לפני שהנורה הירוקה נדלקת.
ein lehikanés lifnéi shehanurá hayeruká nidléket.
Do not enter before the green light comes on. (להיכנס is an infinitive)
The noun sign names a prohibited category of access; the infinitive explicitly prohibits an action. Neither analysis should be forced onto the other.
A sign and a person say it differently
The impersonal construction is read far more often than it is spoken to a friend. A person normally chooses a future-shaped command or אל + future and agrees with the addressee.
| Public/institutional | Personal spoken equivalent |
|---|---|
| נא להמתין | תחכה רגע / תחכי רגע / תחכו רגע |
| נא לא לעשן פה | אל תעשן פה / אל תעשני פה / אל תעשנו פה |
| אין להיכנס בלי אישור | אל תיכנס בלי אישור / אל תיכנסי / אל תיכנסו |
תחכה רגע בחוץ, הרופא עדיין עם מטופל.
tekhaké réga bakhúts, harofé adáyin im metupál.
Wait outside a moment; the doctor is still with a patient. (personal, to a man)
אל תעשני פה, יש מרפסת בחוץ.
al te'ashní po, yesh mirpéset bakhúts.
Don't smoke here; there's a balcony outside. (personal, to a woman)
Addressing a friend with נא להמתין is grammatical but sounds like a recorded message or service counter. That is a naturalness and register issue, not a syntax error.
The bare infinitive as a barked command
A bare infinitive can function as a clipped instruction: לשבת!, לקום!, להסתדר בשורה! Negative לא לזוז! has the same non-finite shape. These are strongly directive and associated with classrooms, drills, emergency control and military speech. They are not polite signage simply because they lack person marking.
כולם לשבת, אנחנו מתחילים.
kulám lashévet, anákhnu matkhilím.
Everybody sit down; we're starting. (classroom, forceful)
לא לזוז עד שאני חוזר.
lo lazúz ad she'aní khozér.
Don't move until I come back. (barked command, m. speaker)
Grammatically, the infinitive still selects no gender or number. Pragmatically, the speaker can aim it at everyone present. This distinction—no grammatical addressee but an obvious real-world audience—is what makes the construction useful and forceful at once.
Common Mistakes
1. Reading deontic אין as a mere statement of absence. With an infinitive on a notice, it expresses prohibition.
❌ אין לעשן
there is no smoking
Incorrect in the sign reading — אין plus an infinitive means that the action is not permitted.
✅ אין לעשן בחדר הזה.
ein le'ashén bakhéder hazé.
Smoking is not permitted in this room. (institutional prohibition)
2. Following אין with a finite personal verb. The impersonal frame requires an infinitive.
❌ אין תיכנסו לאולם
Incorrect for the intended notice — after prohibitive אין use the infinitive: אין להיכנס לאולם.
✅ אין להיכנס לאולם בזמן החזרה.
ein lehikanés la'ulám bizmán hakhazará.
Do not enter the hall during rehearsal. (notice)
3. Putting לא after the infinitive. In the נא pattern, the order is נא + לא + infinitive.
❌ נא לעשן לא
Incorrect — the negative particle precedes the infinitive: נא לא לעשן.
✅ נא לא לעשן ליד החלונות הפתוחים.
na lo le'ashén leyád hakhalonót hapetukhím.
Please do not smoke near the open windows. (formal notice)
4. Treating institutional wording to a friend as ungrammatical. Both forms are correct; only the register changes.
נא להמתין כאן עד שאחזור.
na lehamtín kan ad she'ekhzór.
Please wait here until I return. (formal/institutional)
תחכי פה רגע עד שאחזור.
tekhakí po réga ad she'ekhzór.
Wait here a second till I get back. (ordinary, to a woman)
Key Takeaways
- נא + infinitive gives a formal impersonal request; negative order is נא לא + infinitive.
- אין + infinitive prohibits an action without naming an addressee.
- אין כניסה contains a noun, while אין להיכנס contains an infinitive.
- Personal speech normally replaces institutional infinitives with an agreeing future command or אל + future.
- Bare לשבת! / לא לזוז! is gender-neutral grammatically but forceful in classroom, emergency and military settings.
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