Nif'al Past: נכנסתי, נשארת, נגמר | Hebrew Grammar

The nif'al past is the easiest paradigm in the binyan, and it is worth knowing why before you look at it: the endings are not new. They are the same nine suffixes pa'al uses, which means learning a binyan in the past tense is learning one stem, not nine forms.

The nine cells

	Singular	Plural
1st	נִכְנַסְתִּי nikhnásti	נִכְנַסְנוּ nikhnásnu
2nd m.	נִכְנַסְתָּ nikhnásta	נִכְנַסְתֶּם nikhnastém
2nd f.	נִכְנַסְתְּ nikhnást	נִכְנַסְתֶּן nikhnastén
3rd m.	נִכְנַס nikhnás	נִכְנְסוּ nikhnesú
3rd f.	נִכְנְסָה nikhnesá	נִכְנְסוּ nikhnesú

Set that beside pa'al and the claim above becomes visible — everything after the stem is identical:

	pa'al כתב	nif'al נכנס	ending
אני	כָּתַבְתִּי	נִכְנַסְתִּי	־תִּי
את	כָּתַבְתְּ	נִכְנַסְתְּ	־תְּ
היא	כָּתְבָה	נִכְנְסָה	־ָה
אנחנו	כָּתַבְנוּ	נִכְנַסְנוּ	־נוּ
הם/הן	כָּתְבוּ	נִכְנְסוּ	־וּ

So the whole of the nif'al past is: נִכְנַסְ־ in front of a consonant ending, נִכְנְס־ in front of a vowel ending, and the bare נִכְנַס for "he". Two more verbs on the same three-part skeleton:

Verb	אני	הוא	היא	אנחנו	הם
נשאר stay	נִשְׁאַרְתִּי	נִשְׁאַר	נִשְׁאֲרָה	נִשְׁאַרְנוּ	נִשְׁאֲרוּ
נגמר end, run out	נִגְמַרְתִּי	נִגְמַר	נִגְמְרָה	נִגְמַרְנוּ	נִגְמְרוּ

נכנסתי הביתה וראיתי שהחלון פתוח לרווחה.

nikhnásti habáyta vera'íti shehakhalón patúakh lirvakhá

I came home and saw the window was wide open.

נשארנו עד הסוף כי לא רצינו להעליב אותם.

nish'árnu ad hasóf ki lo ratsínu leha'alív otám

We stayed to the end because we didn't want to offend them.

היא נשארה לישון אצל חברה ולא הודיעה לאף אחד.

hi nish'ará lishón étsel khaverá veló hodí'a le'áf ekhád

She stayed over at a friend's and didn't tell anyone.

One detail the unpointed spelling hides

Look again at the "she" and "they" cells. The second stem vowel has dropped out before the vowel-initial ending: נִכְנַס but נִכְנְסָה, נִגְמַר but נִגְמְרָה. In Israeli speech that shva is a real, if very short, vowel — nikhnesá, nigmerú, three syllables each.

Now compare נגמר with נשאר:

הוא	היא	Why
נִגְמַר	נִגְמְרָה — plain shva	מ is an ordinary consonant
נִשְׁאַר	נִשְׁאֲרָה — chataf-patach	א cannot take a bare shva, so it takes the reduced a instead

Unpointed, נגמרה and נשארה look like the same pattern; pointed, they are not, and the reason is a property of the letter א, not of the verb. The same happens wherever the second root letter is ה, ח or ע: נִזְהֲרָה, נִלְחֲמָה, נִבְחֲרָה. In everyday speech the difference is barely audible — but it is what stands behind the spellings you will meet in pointed texts.

The past that sounds like the present

Everything on the nif'al present about נִכְנַס against נִכְנָס applies here from the other side: the third-person masculine past of these verbs is a homophone of their masculine singular present, and unpointed the two are the same five letters. What tells you which one you are reading is never the verb — it is the clause around it.

הרעש נגמר רק אחרי חצות ואז סוף סוף נרדמתי.

hará'ash nigmár rak akharéi khatsót ve'áz sof sof nirdámti

The noise only stopped after midnight and then I finally fell asleep. (the past ־תי of נרדמתי fixes the whole sentence in the past)

The frame you will need first: נגמר לי, נשאר לי

Long before you use nif'al for anything grammatical you will need it for running out of things and having things left. Hebrew builds both with the verb plus ל־ + person:

Hebrew	Literally	English
נִגְמַר לִי הַכֶּסֶף	the money ran out to me	I ran out of money
נִשְׁאַר לִי רַק שֶׁקֶל	only a shekel remained to me	I've only got a shekel left
נִשְׁאֲרוּ לָנוּ שְׁתֵּי מָנוֹת	two portions remained to us	we have two portions left

The agreement point is the one English fights you on. In I ran out of money, I is the subject; in Hebrew the subject is the money, and the person is only the recipient marked by ל־. So the verb agrees with the thing, never with the person: נשארו לנו שתי מנות, because מנות is feminine plural — not נשארנו.

נגמר לי הכסף באמצע החודש, אז ויתרתי על החופשה.

nigmár li hakésef be'émtsa hakhódesh, az vitárti al hakhufshá

I ran out of money mid-month, so I gave up on the holiday.

נשארו לנו שתי מנות, מי רוצה?

nish'arú lánu shtei manót, mi rotsé?

We've got two portions left — who wants them?

💡

In careful Hebrew the verb agrees fully: נשארו לנו שתי מנות. In relaxed speech Israelis very often leave the verb in the masculine singular when it comes first — נשאר לנו שתי מנות — the same impersonal pattern as יש. That is (informal) native usage, not an error to correct in someone else's mouth; write the agreeing form, and do not be surprised by the other one.

No auxiliary, ever

English has three past tenses where Hebrew has one. I went in, I have gone in and I had gone in are all נכנסתי, and nothing may be added to build the difference — no היה, no equivalent of have.

כבר נכנסתי, אני מחכה לך בפנים.

kvar nikhnásti, aní mekhaké lekhá bifním

I've already gone in — I'm waiting for you inside. (m. speaker, to a man)

הם נכנסו בלי לדפוק ובלי להגיד שלום.

hem nikhnesú bli lidpók uvlí lehagíd shalóm

They walked in without knocking and without saying hello.

💡

The 2nd-person plural cells are the one place normative and everyday Hebrew part company on sound rather than form. The books stress נִכְנַסְתֶּםnikhnastém on the ending; most Israelis say nikhnástem, keeping the beat where the singular has it. Both are the same spelling, and the pattern runs across every binyan — see stress in verbs.

Common Mistakes

1. Making yourself the subject of נשאר. The thing that stays is the subject; you are the ל־.

❌ נשארתי רק חמישים שקל עד סוף החודש

Incorrect — this says 'I remained only fifty shekels'. The money is the subject and you are marked by ל־: נשאר לי.

✅ נשאר לי רק חמישים שקל עד סוף החודש.

nish'ár li rak khamishím shékel ad sof hakhódesh

I've only got fifty shekels left until the end of the month.

2. Marking the leftover thing with את. It is the subject of the sentence, so it takes no object marker.

❌ נגמר לי את החלב

Incorrect — את marks a definite direct object, and נגמר has none. החלב is the subject: נגמר לי החלב.

✅ נגמר לי החלב, אפשר לקחת מכם קצת?

nigmár li hekhaláv, efshár lakákhat mikém ktsat?

I've run out of milk — can I take a bit of yours?

3. Dropping the preposition after נכנס. English enter takes its object bare; Hebrew's נכנס always needs a ל־ (or another preposition) in front of the place.

❌ נכנסנו החנות בלי לשים לב שהיא סגורה

Incorrect — נכנס never takes a bare place. The destination arrives with ל־: נכנסנו לחנות.

✅ נכנסנו לחנות בלי לשים לב שהיא כבר סגורה.

nikhnásnu lakhanút bli lasím lev shehí kvar sgurá

We walked into the shop without noticing it had already closed.

Key Takeaways

The past endings are pa'al's endings — ־תי, ־ת, ־ה, ־נו, ־תם, ־תן, ־ו. Only the stem is new.
That stem has two shapes: נִכְנַסְ־ before a consonant ending, נִכְנְס־ before a vowel ending (נִכְנְסָה, נִכְנְסוּ).
Where the second root letter is א, ה, ח or ע, the reduced vowel is a chataf rather than a plain shva: נִשְׁאֲרָה, נִזְהֲרָה — beside the ordinary נִגְמְרָה.
נִכְנַס (past) and נִכְנָס (present) are homophones, so the tense of a nif'al clause is carried by its adverbs and its other verbs.
נגמר לי / נשאר לי is the everyday frame: the verb agrees with the thing, and the person is only the ל־ recipient. נשארו לנו שתי מנות.
Hebrew has one past tense. I went in, I have gone in and I had gone in are all נכנסתי — never with an added auxiliary.

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