The Twenty Pa'al Verbs You Meet First | Hebrew Grammar

Every language teaches its commonest verbs first, and in every language those verbs are the oldest words in it — which is why they are also the most battered. Hebrew is an extreme case. Below are the twenty pa'al verbs you will need in your first weeks, each with its four principal parts. Learn them as words, not as outputs of a rule, because for eighteen of the twenty the regular paradigm will not produce them.

The twenty

Past is the third-person masculine (the dictionary form), present is the masculine singular, future is the third-person masculine singular.

Verb	עָבָר past	הוֹוֶה present	עָתִיד future	שם הפועל infinitive	גזרה
say, tell	אָמַר amár	אוֹמֵר omér	יֹאמַר yomár	לוֹמַר lomár	פ״א
go, walk	הָלַךְ halákh	הוֹלֵךְ holékh	יֵלֵךְ yelékh	לָלֶכֶת lalékhet	irregular
come	בָּא ba	בָּא ba	יָבוֹא yavó	לָבוֹא lavó	ע״ו + ל״א
see	רָאָה ra'á	רוֹאֶה ro'é	יִרְאֶה yir'é	לִרְאוֹת lir'ót	ל״ה + ע״א
know (a fact)	יָדַע yadá	יוֹדֵעַ yodéa	יֵדַע yedá	לָדַעַת ladá'at	פ״י + ל״ע
eat	אָכַל akhál	אוֹכֵל okhél	יֹאכַל yokhál	לֶאֱכוֹל le'ekhól	פ״א
drink	שָׁתָה shatá	שׁוֹתֶה shoté	יִשְׁתֶּה yishté	לִשְׁתּוֹת lishtót	ל״ה
write	כָּתַב katáv	כּוֹתֵב kotév	יִכְתּוֹב yikhtóv	לִכְתּוֹב likhtóv	שלמים
read; call	קָרָא kará	קוֹרֵא koré	יִקְרָא yikrá	לִקְרוֹא likró	ל״א
learn, study	לָמַד lamád	לוֹמֵד loméd	יִלְמַד yilmád	לִלְמוֹד lilmód	שלמים
sit, sit down	יָשַׁב yasháv	יוֹשֵׁב yoshév	יֵשֵׁב yeshév	לָשֶׁבֶת lashévet	פ״י
get up, rise	קָם kam	קָם kam	יָקוּם yakúm	לָקוּם lakúm	ע״ו
live, reside	גָּר gar	גָּר gar	יָגוּר yagúr	לָגוּר lagúr	ע״ו
give	נָתַן natán	נוֹתֵן notén	יִיתֵּן yitén	לָתֵת latét	פ״נ + ל״נ
take	לָקַח lakákh	לוֹקֵחַ lokéakh	יִיקַּח yikákh	לָקַחַת lakákhat	assimilating ל + ל״ח
do, make	עָשָׂה asá	עוֹשֶׂה osé	יַעֲשֶׂה ya'asé	לַעֲשׂוֹת la'asót	ל״ה + פ״ע
want	רָצָה ratsá	רוֹצֶה rotsé	יִרְצֶה yirtsé	לִרְצוֹת lirtsót	ל״ה
hear	שָׁמַע shamá	שׁוֹמֵעַ shoméa	יִשְׁמַע yishmá	לִשְׁמוֹעַ lishmóa	ל״ע
go out, leave	יָצָא yatsá	יוֹצֵא yotsé	יֵצֵא yetsé	לָצֵאת latsét	פ״י + ל״א
work	עָבַד avád	עוֹבֵד ovéd	יַעֲבוֹד ya'avód	לַעֲבוֹד la'avód	פ״ע

Two of the twenty are regular

Run your eye down the last column. Exactly two rows say שלמים — כתב and למד — and those two do not even share a future: כתב takes the cholam of יִכְתּוֹב, למד the patach of יִלְמַד. The other eighteen carry a weak letter (א, ה, ו, י, נ), a guttural, or both.

That is not bad luck. The verbs a language uses ten thousand times a day are the ones sound change has had the most opportunities to erode, and Hebrew's weak letters — the ones that vanish, assimilate or turn into vowels — sit in exactly these roots. The consequence for a beginner is worth stating bluntly: you will learn most of your first verbs as vocabulary and only later discover the class they belong to. The gzarot are not the ladder you climb to reach these verbs; they are the explanation you get afterwards.

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Use the last column as an index rather than a warning. Once you have met four or five verbs of the same גזרה — ראה, שתה, עשה, רצה are all ל״ה — the class stops being a list of exceptions and becomes a pattern with four members you already know. That is the fastest route into Hebrew's verb system, and it runs through the vocabulary, not around it.

אני לא יודע איפה הם גרים עכשיו.

aní lo yodéa eifó hem garím akhsháv

I don't know where they live now. (m. speaker)

לקחתי את המפתחות שלך בטעות, סליחה.

lakákhti et hamaftekhót shelkhá betaút, slikhá

I took your keys by mistake, sorry. (to a man)

מה אתם עושים בשבת? רוצים לבוא אלינו?

ma atém osím beshabát? rotsím lavó eléinu?

What are you doing on Shabbat? Do you want to come to us?

תן לי רגע, אני נותן לך את המספר שלה.

ten li réga, aní notén lekhá et hamispár shelá

Give me a second, I'm giving you her number. (to a man)

The six infinitives no rule will give you

The infinitive is where these verbs depart furthest from their dictionary form. Six of them build it on a stem that appears nowhere else in the paradigm:

Dictionary form	Infinitive	What happened to the stem
הָלַךְ	לָלֶכֶת lalékhet	the ה disappears completely
יָדַע	לָדַעַת ladá'at	the י disappears; a ת appears
יָשַׁב	לָשֶׁבֶת lashévet	same, with a different vowel
יָצָא	לָצֵאת latsét	same, contracted to one syllable
נָתַן	לָתֵת latét	both the נ and the final ן are gone
לָקַח	לָקַחַת lakákhat	a ת appears from nowhere

Six forms. Nothing generates them, and no amount of pattern-work will; they were memorised by every native speaker as a child and they have to be memorised by you. Notice what unites all six, though — the ת at the end, and the לָ with a kamatz where an ordinary infinitive has לִ. That much is a shape you can learn to expect, even if you cannot predict which verbs take it. The regular formation is on the pa'al infinitive.

אני צריכה לצאת עכשיו, אחרת לא אספיק.

aní tsrikhá latsét akhsháv, akhéret lo aspík

I have to leave now or I won't make it. (f. speaker)

אפשר לשבת פה או שזה תפוס?

efshár lashévet po o shezé tafús?

Can I sit here or is this taken?

Ten of them in one morning

Nothing fixes a verb like meeting it in a sentence rather than a cell. Here is an ordinary weekday, and it uses ten of the twenty — קם, שתה, יצא, הלך, גר, אכל, אמר, רצה, ישב, כתב:

קמתי בשש, שתיתי קפה ויצאתי מהבית לפני שבע.

kámti beshésh, shatíti kafé veyatsáti mehabáyit lifnéi shéva

I got up at six, had a coffee and left the house before seven.

הלכתי ברגל לעבודה כי אני גר קרוב.

halákhti barégel la'avodá ki aní gar karóv

I walked to work because I live nearby. (m. speaker)

בהפסקה אכלנו יחד, ורונית אמרה שהיא רוצה לצאת מוקדם.

bahafsaká akhálnu yákhad, veronít amrá shehí rotsá latsét mukdám

At the break we ate together, and Ronit said she wants to leave early.

עכשיו אני יושב במטבח, שותה תה וכותב לך.

akhsháv aní yoshév bamitbákh, shoté te vekhotév lekhá

Right now I'm sitting in the kitchen, drinking tea and writing to you. (m. speaker, to a man)

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Look at what happens to קם and גר in that paragraph. Their past and present masculine singular are the same word — הוא קם is both "he got up" and "he gets up", הוא גר is both "he lived" and "he lives". Only the sentence tells you which, and for these two verbs Israelis lean on time words (אתמול, עכשיו, כל בוקר) far more than they do elsewhere. This is a property of the ע״ו class, not an accident of these two verbs.

ראיתי אותה אתמול ברחוב והיא אמרה שהכול בסדר.

raíti otá etmól barekhóv vehí amrá shehakól beséder

I saw her yesterday in the street and she said everything's fine.

Common Mistakes

1. Building a regular future for an irregular verb. הָלַךְ looks like a sound root and is not: its future has no ה in it at all.

❌ אני אהלוך מחר לים

Incorrect — there is no such form. The ה drops and the vowels change completely: אני אלך מחר לים. The whole verb is set out on the הלך page.

✅ אני אלך מחר לים אם לא ירד גשם.

aní elékh makhár layám im lo yeréd géshem

I'll go to the beach tomorrow if it doesn't rain.

2. Keeping the נ of נתן in the future. The initial נ of a פ״נ root assimilates into the next letter, which is why the future has no נ and the infinitive has neither נ nor the final ן.

❌ אני אנתן לך תשובה מחר

Incorrect — the נ assimilates: אני אתן לך תשובה מחר. The same happens across the whole future — תיתן, ייתן, ניתן.

✅ אני אתן לך תשובה מחר בבוקר.

aní etén lekhá tshuvá makhár babóker

I'll give you an answer tomorrow morning. (to a man)

3. Using הלך for a journey by vehicle. Both sentences below are correct Hebrew; they do not mean the same thing. הלך is on foot — Hebrew keeps the walking sense that English go has lost, and anything with an engine takes נסע.

אנחנו נוסעים לאילת בשישי.

anákhnu nos'ím le'eilát beshishí

We're driving down to Eilat on Friday. (the ordinary way to say it)

אנחנו הולכים לאילת בשישי.

anákhnu holkhím le'eilát beshishí

We're walking to Eilat on Friday. (grammatical — and it says you intend to walk there)

4. Using ידע for knowing a person. English know covers both; Hebrew splits it. ידע takes facts — a where, a whether, a that-clause — and הכיר takes people and places.

אני מכיר את אחותך מהאוניברסיטה.

aní makír et akhotkhá meha'universíta

I know your sister from university. (m. speaker, to a man)

אני יודע שאתם מכירים, היא סיפרה לי.

aní yodéa she'atém makirím, hi siprá li

I know you two know each other, she told me. (ידע before a clause, הכיר with the people)

Do not repair the first sentence by putting ידע in front of a person. אני יודע את אחותך is not a clumsy sentence — it is a different one: with a human object, ידע is the Biblical euphemism for sex (Genesis 4:1, וְהָאָדָם יָדַע אֶת חַוָּה), and that reading is still the one a Hebrew speaker hears.

Key Takeaways

These twenty verbs cover an enormous share of everyday speech. Learn each as four forms — past, present, future, infinitive — not as one.
Only two of the twenty are built on a sound root (כתב and למד), and even those two take different future vowels — יִכְתּוֹב against יִלְמַד. The commonest verbs are the most irregular ones, in Hebrew as everywhere.
The גזרה column is an index, not a syllabus: four ל״ה verbs (ראה, שתה, עשה, רצה) are in this table alone.
Six infinitives cannot be derived from anything: לָלֶכֶת, לָדַעַת, לָשֶׁבֶת, לָצֵאת, לָתֵת, לָקַחַת. All six end in ת and open with לָ, which is the one thing you can expect in advance.
קם and גר have identical past and present in the masculine singular — הוא גר is both "he lived" and "he lives". Time words carry the load.
הלך is on foot (a vehicle takes נסע), and ידע takes facts while הכיר takes people.

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