Alongside its passive, middle and stative uses, nif'al hosts a handful of verbs in which two or more parties act on each other: one event, no separate object, the "each other" built into the verb itself. נִפְגַּשׁ meet, נִלְחַם fight, נֶאֱבַק struggle, נִפְרַד part, נוֹעַד convene, נִדְבַּר come to terms.
It is a short list, and that is the first thing to know about it. The productive reciprocal in modern Hebrew is hitpa'el — התכתבו, התנשקו, התחבקו, התווכחו — and the nif'al reciprocals are a recognition class, a set of inherited lexical items rather than a pattern you may extend.
Two frames, and you need both
A reciprocal verb can put its parties in the subject or split them across the sentence, and Hebrew makes you choose.
Frame 1 — plural subject, nothing after the verb. Everybody involved is inside the subject, so the verb stands alone.
נפגשנו אחרי עשר שנים ודיברנו עד שסגרו את המקום.
nifgáshnu akharéi éser shaním vedibárnu ad shesagrú et hamakóm
We met up after ten years and talked until they closed the place.
שני הרחובות נפגשים ממש מאחורי בית הספר.
shnei harekhovót nifgashím mamásh me'akhoréi beit haséfer
The two streets meet just behind the school.
Frame 2 — singular subject, the other party on a preposition. The verb does not change; the preposition does the work.
נפגשתי עם המנהלת שלי ביום ראשון והכול הסתדר.
nifgáshti im hamenahélet shelí beyóm rishón vehakól histadér
I met with my manager on Sunday and everything worked out.
נפגש takes עם — and ב־ is the place, not the person
This is the government fact worth the whole page. נפגש never takes את. The other person arrives with עם, and Hebrew Wikipedia settles it about as decisively as corpus evidence ever settles anything: roughly 4,250 instances of נפגש עם against 2 of נפגש את.
What ב־ marks after this verb is the place: נפגשנו בתל אביב is we met in Tel Aviv, not we met Tel Aviv.
אנחנו נפגשים בקפה ליד התחנה, מתאים לך?
anákhnu nifgashím bakafé leyád hatakhaná, mat'ím lekhá?
We're meeting at the café by the station — does that work for you? (to a man)
נלחם spreads across four prepositions
This is where the older grammars are loosest, and where a preposition genuinely changes what the sentence says.
| Preposition | Marks | Example |
|---|---|---|
| ב־ | the enemy, or an abstract phenomenon fought against | נִלְחַם בָּאַלִּימוּת · נִלְחֲמוּ בַּלֶּהָבוֹת |
| נגד | the same job, more explicit and more journalistic | נִלְחֲמוּ נֶגֶד הַתּוֹכְנִית |
| על | what is fought for | נִלְחֲמָה עַל מְקוֹמָהּ |
| עם | the biblical construction — ambiguous in modern use | נִלְחֲמוּ עִם הַבְּרִיטִים |
הכבאים נלחמו בלהבות כל הלילה.
hakaba'ím nilkhamú balehavót kol haláyla
The firefighters fought the flames all night.
הם נלחמו נגד התוכנית עד הרגע האחרון.
hem nilkhamú néged hatokhnít ad haréga ha'akharón
They fought against the plan until the very last moment.
היא נלחמה על המקום שלה בקבוצה ולא ויתרה.
hi nilkhamá al hamakóm shelá bakvutsá veló viterá
She fought for her place on the team and never gave up.
נאבק behaves the same way and shares the same senses — Milog glosses it simply as נִלְחַם — taking ב־ for what is fought against and על for what is fought for.
אנחנו נאבקים בבירוקרטיה מאז שהגשנו את הבקשה.
anákhnu ne'evakím babirokrátya me'áz shehigáshnu et habakashá
We've been fighting the bureaucracy ever since we filed the application.
נפרד parts company with the group by taking מ־: נִפְרַדְתִּי מִמֶּנָּה, not *נפרדתי איתה. The reciprocity is still there — parting takes two — but the preposition is the one of separation.
נפרדתי ממנה בתחנה ורצתי לרכבת.
nifrádti miména batakhaná verátsti larakévet
I said goodbye to her at the station and ran for the train.
נועד: the reciprocal sense is the rarer one
נוֹעַד is a genuine reciprocal — Milog defines it in two words, קיים פגישה, "held a meeting" — but you should know where you will actually meet it. In everyday and journalistic Hebrew the far commoner sense of נועד is "be intended for", which is not reciprocal at all.
הפגישה נועדה להסביר את השינויים בתקנון.
hapgishá no'adá lehasbír et hashinuyím batakanón
The meeting was meant to explain the changes to the bylaws. (the ordinary modern sense — not reciprocal)
ראשי הרשויות נועדו אתמול בירושלים לדון בתקציב.
rashéi harashuyót no'adú etmól birushaláyim ladún bataktsív
The heads of the local authorities convened in Jerusalem yesterday to discuss the budget. (formal, journalistic)
נדבר — the honest version
Most accounts list נִדְבַּר among the reciprocals and move on. Three separate things are true here and they pull in different directions.
The verb exists and means "come to an agreement" — Milog gives הגיע להבנה, סיכם, תאם, not "spoke". It is not a reciprocal of "talk"; it is a reciprocal of "settle something between us".
But its past tense is receding. נדברנו belongs to older and more literary Hebrew — Hebrew Wikipedia carries no instances of the form at all. The live verb in that semantic space is להידבר "to hold talks", the source of the very current noun הידברות; and Pealim has two verbs under that one spelling — the nif'al לְהִידָּבֵר "come to an agreement", which is this verb's own infinitive, and a separate hitpa'el לְהִידַּבֵּר (past הִדַּבֵּר) "hold a discussion". They have converged in writing, and in practice nobody distinguishes them.
And unpointed נדבר is ambiguous three ways. The nif'al past נִדְבַּר, the pi'el future first-person plural נְדַבֵּר and the hitpa'el future first-person plural נִדַּבֵּר are the same six letters. An Israeli reading נדבר cold will hear the pi'el — we'll talk — every time.
נדברנו שניפגש בשבוע הבא ונסגור הכול.
nidbárnu shenipagésh bashavúa habá venisgór hakól
We agreed to meet next week and settle everything. (literary; an Israeli today would say סיכמנו)
נדבר על זה בפגישה, לא בטלפון.
nedabér al ze bapgishá, lo batélefon
We'll talk about it at the meeting, not on the phone. (pi'el future — the reading nobody has to be told)
הצדדים החלו להידבר אחרי חודשים של שתיקה.
hatsdadím hekhélu lehidabér akharéi khodashím shel shtiká
The two sides began talking after months of silence. (formal — the infinitive is the living form of this verb, and the noun הידברות comes with it)
The division of labour with hitpa'el
hitpa'el carries the productive reciprocal, and it is not a stylistic alternative — the two binyanim have simply divided the field lexically. You do not choose between נפגש and התפגש, because the second does not exist; you do not choose between התכתב and נכתב in this sense, because נכתב is the passive "was written".
| nif'al | hitpa'el |
|---|---|
| נִפְגַּשׁ · נִלְחַם · נֶאֱבַק · נִפְרַד · נוֹעַד | הִתְכַּתֵּב · הִתְנַשֵּׁק · הִתְחַבֵּק · הִתְוַוכֵּחַ · הִתְגָּרֵשׁ · הִתְיַידֵּד |
התווכחנו על זה שעה שלמה ובסוף הסכמנו.
hitvakákhnu al ze sha'á shlemá uvasóf hiskámnu
We argued about it for a whole hour and in the end we agreed.
הם התחבקו בכניסה כאילו לא התראו שנים.
hem hitkhabkú baknisá ke'ílu lo hitra'ú shaním
They hugged in the doorway as if they hadn't seen each other in years.
Common Mistakes
1. Giving a reciprocal verb a direct object. English fight the fire, fight the enemy is transitive; נלחם and נאבק never are.
❌ הצוות נלחם את האש במשך שעות
Incorrect — נלחם takes no direct object. What is fought against arrives with ב־ or נגד: נלחם באש.
✅ הצוות נלחם באש במשך שעות עד שהצליח להשתלט עליה.
hatsévet nilkhám ba'ésh beméshekh sha'ót ad shehitslíakh lehishtalét aléha
The crew fought the fire for hours until they got it under control.
2. Writing the future without its yod. The nif'al future of נפגש is נִפָּגֵשׁ, and in ktiv male the chirik before the doubled פ takes a yod.
❌ נפגש מחר בשמונה ליד הקולנוע
Incorrect as ktiv male for nipagésh — the nif'al future is written ניפגש. Bare נפגש reads as nifgásh, the past 'he met'.
✅ ניפגש מחר בשמונה ליד הקולנוע ונחליט שם.
nipagésh makhár bishmoné leyád hakolnóa venakhlít sham
We'll meet tomorrow at eight by the cinema and decide there.
3. Reading עם as "alongside". With נלחם it can mean either side of the fight, and only context decides. Where the meaning matters, use a preposition that cannot be misread.
✅ הם נלחמו עם הבריטים במלחמה הזאת.
hem nilkhamú im habritím bamilkhamá hazót
They fought with the British in that war. (genuinely ambiguous — with them or against them)
✅ הם נלחמו לצד הבריטים בצפון אפריקה.
hem nilkhamú letsád habritím bitsfón áfrika
They fought alongside the British in North Africa. (unambiguous)
4. Coining a reciprocal in the wrong binyan. The root decides which binyan carries the "each other", and the nif'al of the same root usually means something else entirely.
✅ התכתבנו במשך שנים ולא נפגשנו אף פעם.
hitkatávnu beméshekh shaním veló nifgáshnu af pá'am
We wrote to each other for years and never once met. (reciprocal — hitpa'el)
✅ המכתב נכתב ביד, במחברת ישנה.
hamikhtáv nikhtáv bayád, bemakhbéret yeshaná
The letter was written by hand, in an old notebook. (the nif'al of the same root is a plain passive)
Key Takeaways
- The nif'al reciprocals are a closed inherited set: נִפְגַּשׁ, נִלְחַם, נֶאֱבַק, נִפְרַד, נוֹעַד, נִדְבַּר. Recognise them; do not extend the pattern.
- Two frames: plural subject with nothing after the verb (נפגשנו אתמול), or singular subject with the other party on a preposition (נפגשתי עם דנה).
- נפגש takes עם and never את — 4,250 to 2 in Hebrew Wikipedia. ב־ after it marks the place. The transitive verb for meeting someone is the pa'al פגש את.
- נלחם takes four prepositions with different jobs: ב־ and נגד for what is fought against, על for what is fought for, עם ambiguously. נאבק follows it; נפרד takes מ־.
- נועד is reciprocal in the sense "convene" (formal), but its commonest modern sense — "be intended for" — is not reciprocal at all.
- נדבר means "come to an agreement". Its past is receding, and the string is spelled identically to the pi'el נְדַבֵּר "we'll talk", which is what an Israeli hears. What stays alive is the infinitive להידבר and the noun הידברות.
- The productive reciprocal is hitpa'el: התכתב, התנשק, התחבק, התווכח. The two binyanim divide the field lexically, not by rule.
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Start learning Hebrew →Related Topics
- בניין נפעל: Passive and MiddleA2 — nif'al wears a נ in the past and the present and hides it everywhere else — and it is not simply the passive of pa'al, because נכנס, נשאר and נגמר have no active partner anywhere in the language.
- Reciprocal Hitpa'el: התכתבו, התנשקו, התווכחוB1 — A group of hitpa'el verbs builds 'each other' into the verb itself, so the sentence needs either a plural subject or a partner on a preposition — and which preposition is a per-verb fact that only some dictionaries will actually commit to.