When the middle root letter is א, ה, ח or ע — שׁ־א־ל ask, ב־ח־ר choose, נ־ה־ג drive, צ־ח־ק laugh — the verb stays recognisably pa'al and changes in two places. Wherever the pattern would put a bare shva on that middle letter, a short extra vowel appears instead — שׁוֹאֲלִים sho'alím — and the future swaps its cholam for a patach: יִשְׁאַל, not yish'ól. The infinitive, meanwhile, does not swap anything — לִשְׁאֹל keeps its o. That split is the whole difficulty of the class.
First, take ר off the list
Textbooks print "א ה ח ע ר" as one block of gutturals and then apply this page's rule to all five. That is wrong, and you will meet the contradiction within a week of learning it. ר rejects a doubling dot, but it does not force an a-vowel in the pa'al future. Roots with a middle ר keep their cholam exactly like ordinary roots:
| Root | Future 3 m.sg | Present m.pl | |
|---|---|---|---|
| ד־ר־שׁ demand | יִדְרֹשׁ yidrósh | דּוֹרְשִׁים dorshím | plain shva, cholam intact |
| ז־ר־ק throw | יִזְרֹק yizrók | זוֹרְקִים zorkím | plain shva, cholam intact |
| שׂ־ר־ף burn | יִשְׂרוֹף yisróf | שׂוֹרְפִים sorfím | plain shva, cholam intact |
ר also takes an ordinary mobile shva quite happily, which is why דּוֹרְשִׁים has no chataf in it. Everything below applies to four letters, not five.
Past and present: one small change, only where a shva would fall
| Root | Past 3 m.sg | Present m.sg | Present f.sg | Present m.pl |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| שׁ־א־ל ask | שָׁאַל sha'ál | שׁוֹאֵל sho'él | שׁוֹאֶלֶת sho'élet | שׁוֹאֲלִים sho'alím |
| ב־ח־ר choose | בָּחַר bakhár | בּוֹחֵר bokhér | בּוֹחֶרֶת bokhéret | בּוֹחֲרִים bokharím |
| נ־ה־ג drive | נָהַג nahág | נוֹהֵג nohég | נוֹהֶגֶת nohéget | נוֹהֲגִים nohagím |
| צ־ח־ק laugh | צָחַק tsakhák | צוֹחֵק tsokhék | צוֹחֶקֶת tsokhéket | צוֹחֲקִים tsokhakím |
The two singular forms are shaped exactly like כּוֹתֵב, כּוֹתֶבֶת. Both plurals differ, and the reason is mechanical: in כּוֹתְבִים the middle letter carries a mobile shva, and a guttural cannot. It substitutes a chataf-patach, a genuine short a. So the plural has one more syllable than its regular counterpart — kotvím has two, sho'alím has three — and that is audible, not decorative.
למה אתם לא שואלים אותה ישירות?
láma atém lo sho'alím otá yeshirót?
Why don't you just ask her directly?
הילדים צוחקים עליו כל הזמן.
hayeladím tsokhakím aláv kol hazmán
The kids make fun of him all the time.
בסוף בחרנו במסעדה איטלקית.
basóf bakhárnu bemis'adá italkít
In the end we went with an Italian place.
The future takes a patach
Here is the real deformation. The pa'al future normally has a cholam — יִכְתֹּב, יִשְׁמוֹר. A middle guttural replaces it with a patach.
| Root | Future 3 m.sg | Written | Infinitive | Written |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| שׁ־א־ל | יִשְׁאַל yish'ál | ישאל | לִשְׁאֹל lish'ól | לשאול |
| ב־ח־ר | יִבְחַר yivkhár | יבחר | לִבְחוֹר livkhór | לבחור |
| נ־ה־ג | יִנְהַג yinhág | ינהג | לִנְהוֹג linhóg | לנהוג |
| צ־ח־ק | יִצְחַק yitskhák | יצחק | לִצְחוֹק litskhók | לצחוק |
| ד־א־ג | יִדְאַג yid'ág | ידאג | לִדְאֹג lid'óg | לדאוג |
| כ־ע־ס | יִכְעַס yikh'ás | יכעס | לִכְעֹס likh'ós | לכעוס |
Read that table across, not down. The future and the infinitive of the same verb have different vowels, and learners assume one stem serves both. It does not, and the mistake goes in both directions: yish'ól for the future, and lish'ál for the infinitive.
אל תשאל, היה לי יום נורא.
al tish'ál, hayá li yom norá
Don't even ask — I've had a terrible day. (informal, to a man)
אני אבחר משהו ואשלח לך תמונה.
aní evkhár máshehu ve'eshlákh lekhá tmuná
I'll pick something and send you a photo. (to a man)
אל תדאג, אני מטפל בזה.
al tid'ág, aní metapél bezé
Don't worry, I'm handling it. (m. speaker, to a man)
אני לא אנהג אחרי שתי כוסות יין.
aní lo enhág akharéi shtei kosót yáyin
I'm not driving after two glasses of wine.
Why the infinitive escapes
It looks arbitrary that the guttural bends one o and not the other, and the reason is that they were never the same vowel. Hebrew's future is an inherited verbal form whose theme vowel varied by verb from the start — some roots took u/o, some took a, and a guttural in the root reliably pushed a verb into the a group. The infinitive לִקְטֹל is a different formation altogether, historically a verbal noun with its own fixed o, and it simply was not in the guttural's reach.
That also explains the odd fact that the future's patach is not proof of a guttural. יִלְמַד, יִלְבַּשׁ and יִשְׁכַּב have perfectly ordinary roots and take a patach because that is their lexical class (the pa'al future vowel sorts this out). The implication runs one way only: a guttural forces a patach; a patach does not reveal a guttural.
The unpointed spelling tells you which
This is the practical payoff, and it is worth more than the paradigm. Israeli Hebrew writes o with a vav and writes a with nothing at all — so in ordinary ktiv male the two forms of the same verb look different on the page:
| Written | Read as | Because |
|---|---|---|
| ישאל | yish'ál | no vav → the vowel is a |
| לשאול | lish'ól | vav → the vowel is o |
| יבחר · לבחור | yivkhár · livkhór | same contrast |
| ינהג · לנהוג | yinhág · linhóg | same contrast |
So you never have to remember this verb by verb: the spelling in front of you already encodes the answer. A pa'al future with no vav is an a-vowel; an infinitive with a vav is an o.
קשה לי לבחור בין השתיים.
kashé li livkhór bein hashtáyim
I'm finding it hard to choose between the two.
מי נוהג בדרך חזרה?
mi nohég badérekh khazará?
Who's driving on the way back?
כולם צחקו חוץ ממני.
kulám tsakhakú khuts miméni
Everyone laughed except me.
A guttural in the third position behaves differently again, adding a furtive patach to the present and the infinitive — that is pa'al with ח or ע as third radical. The picture across all seven binyanim is on gutturals across the gzarot.
Common Mistakes
1. Regularising the future to a cholam. This is the transfer error: you learn יִכְתּוֹב and יִשְׁמוֹר, and the guttural verbs get dragged along.
❌ הוא ישאול אותה מחר
Incorrect as the future of שאל — the vav spells an o that this verb does not have there. A middle guttural forces a patach: הוא ישאל אותה מחר, yish'ál.
✅ הוא ישאל אותה מחר בארוחת הערב.
hu yish'ál otá makhár ba'arukhát ha'érev
He'll ask her tomorrow at dinner.
2. Carrying the patach into the infinitive. The over-correction that follows once the first rule is learned.
❌ אני צריך לשאל אותך משהו
Incorrect as ktiv male — the infinitive keeps its cholam, and in unpointed Hebrew that o has to be written with a vav: לשאול, lish'ól.
✅ אני צריך לשאול אותך משהו.
aní tsaríkh lish'ól otkhá máshehu
I need to ask you something. (m. speaker, to a man)
3. Applying the rule to a middle ר. The five-letter guttural list does the damage here.
❌ הוא ידרש התנצלות
Incorrect as the pa'al future of דרש — ר does not force a patach, so the verb keeps its cholam and needs the vav: הוא ידרוש התנצלות, yidrósh. (Pointed ידרש can only be the nif'al יִדָּרֵשׁ, ‘will be required’ — a different verb.)
✅ הוא ידרוש התנצלות, אני מכיר אותו.
hu yidrósh hitnatslút, aní makír otó
He'll demand an apology — I know him.
4. Flattening the chataf out of the plural. English speakers hear the chataf as a shva and drop it, producing a two-syllable plural.
❌ צוחקים, בוחרים
tsokhkím · bokhrím
Incorrect — a guttural cannot carry a mobile shva, so it takes a real short vowel instead: tsokhakím, bokharím. Three syllables, not two — and the model is not כּוֹתְבִים kotvím.
✅ אנחנו בוחרים כל שנה מחדש.
anákhnu bokharím kol shaná mekhadásh
We choose again from scratch every year.
Key Takeaways
- The class is א, ה, ח, ע in the middle of the root — and ר is not in it: יִדְרֹשׁ, יִזְרֹק and יִשְׂרוֹף keep their cholam.
- Only the cells where the middle letter would carry a mobile shva change — the present plurals and the past 3rd f.sg and plural — and they take a chataf-patach instead: שׁוֹאֲלִים, צוֹחֲקִים, שָׁאֲלָה, שָׁאֲלוּ. That is one extra audible syllable. Everything else, שְׁאַלְתֶּם included, is regular.
- The future's theme vowel becomes a patach — יִשְׁאַל, יִבְחַר, יִנְהַג, יִצְחַק, יִדְאַג, יִכְעַס.
- The infinitive keeps its cholam — לִשְׁאֹל, לִבְחוֹר, לִנְהוֹג. Future and infinitive are built on different historical formations, so one stem does not serve both.
- In the middle position all four gutturals force the patach; in the final position only ח and ע do, and א gives a kamatz instead (יִמְצָא).
- The unpointed spelling settles it for you: no vav means a (ישאל), a vav means o (לשאול).
- A patach future does not prove there is a guttural — יִלְמַד and יִשְׁכַּב are ordinary roots in the a class.
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Start learning Hebrew →Related Topics
- Future Vowel: יִכְתּוֹב vs יִלְמַד vs יִשְׁמַעB1 — Why the pa'al future is יִכְתּוֹב here and יִלְמַד there: a cholam by default, a patach forced by a guttural, and a residue class that simply has to be learned verb by verb — plus the ktiv male spelling trick that tells you which one you are looking at.
- Pa'al with ח or ע as Third Radical (שלח, שמע, פתח)B1 — Verbs ending in ח or ע grow a vowel nobody put there: שׁוֹמֵעַ is shoméa and לִפְתּוֹחַ is liftóakh. The furtive patach is written under the guttural and pronounced before it, and it is the single most audible thing about this class.
- Gutturals in פ, ע and ל PositionC1 — א, ה, ח and ע refuse a plain shva and refuse a dagesh, so every binyan has to move a vowel out of their way. Where the guttural sits decides which vowel moves: the prefix in first position, the doubling in the middle, and the ending in third — and one of the three is fully audible in Israeli speech.
- Chataf Vowels under the GutturalsB1 — א ה ח ע refuse a mobile shva and take a compound sign instead — and that one fact is why לאכול has three syllables, why the ל of לעבוד is la- and the ל of לסגור is li-, and why a whole class of verbs conjugates differently.
- Gutturals (א ה ח ע ר) and What They Do to a PatternB1 — The gutturals are not a list of exceptions to memorise — they are one conspiracy with three heads. Each of these letters refuses something an ordinary consonant does, and every irregular form you will meet is the pattern rearranging itself around that refusal.
- Pa'al with a Guttural First Radical (עמד, חשב, חזר)B1 — Roots beginning with ע, ח or ה conjugate normally in the past and the present, and then swap the future and infinitive prefix from yi-/li- to ya-/la-: יַעֲמוֹד and לַעֲמוֹד, יַחְשׁוֹב and לַחְשׁוֹב. That one syllable is the whole class.