The Hebrew infinitive — שֵׁם הַפּוֹעַל, literally "the verb's name" — is a single word beginning with ל. It never agrees with anything, never takes a personal ending, and cannot be split. English speakers spend a surprising amount of energy looking for a separate word meaning to; there isn't one, and the ל is not a preposition sitting in front of the verb but the first letter of it.
The shape
Take the stem the future prefixes attach to, put ל in front of it, and give it a cholam:
| Root | Future (הוא) | Infinitive | Written |
|---|---|---|---|
| כ־ת־ב write | יִכְתּוֹב | לִכְתּוֹב likhtóv | לכתוב |
| ש־מ־ר guard, keep | יִשְׁמוֹר | לִשְׁמוֹר lishmór | לשמור |
| ס־ג־ר close | יִסְגּוֹר | לִסְגּוֹר lisgór | לסגור |
| ג־מ־ר finish | יִגְמוֹר | לִגְמוֹר ligmór | לגמור |
| ל־מ־ד learn | יִלְמַד | לִלְמוֹד lilmód | ללמוד |
| ש־מ־ע hear | יִשְׁמַע | לִשְׁמוֹעַ lishmóa | לשמוע |
Read the last two rows carefully, because they are where the obvious formulation of the rule breaks. The infinitive's theme vowel is a cholam even when the future takes a patach: יִלְמַד but לִלְמוֹד, יִשְׁמַע but לִשְׁמוֹעַ. The two future vowel classes split the future in half and very nearly leave the infinitive alone.
Very nearly, because a few verbs do carry the patach through. לִשְׁכַּב lishkáv "to lie down" is the one you will meet first, and לִרְכַּב lirkáv "to ride" is the other, though Pealim gives that one both ways — לִרְכַּב alongside לִרְכֹּב. They are a short list, not a second class: learn them as exceptions and keep the cholam as your default.
Notice also the prefix vowel: לִ־ carries the same chirik as תִּ־ and יִ־. The infinitive is not standing outside the conjugation; it is built out of the same pieces.
אני צריך לגמור את זה עד חמש.
aní tsaríkh ligmór et ze ad khamésh
I need to get this finished by five. (m. speaker)
אסור לעשן כאן, יש מרפסת בחוץ.
asúr le'ashén kan, yesh mirpéset bakhúts
You can't smoke in here — there's a balcony outside.
אני לא יכולה לשמוע אותך, יש רעש נורא כאן.
aní lo yekholá lishmóa otkhá, yesh rá'ash norá kan
I can't hear you, there's a terrible racket here. (f. speaker, to a man)
It never changes
This is the one form in the verb system with no inflection at all. It does not know whether the subject is masculine or feminine, singular or plural, first person or third. Whatever else moves in the sentence, the infinitive sits still.
היא רוצה ללמוד רפואה והם רוצים ללמוד משפטים.
hi rotsá lilmód refu'á vehém rotsím lilmód mishpatím
She wants to study medicine and they want to study law. (רוצה and רוצים agree; ללמוד does not)
The frames you actually need it in
At A1 the infinitive shows up almost entirely in a small set of slots. Learn the slots and half the sentences you want to build are available immediately.
| Frame | Example |
|---|---|
| אֲנִי רוֹצֶה — I want | אני רוצה לגמור מוקדם |
| אֲנִי צָרִיךְ — I need | אני צריך לסגור את החלון |
| אֲנִי אוֹהֵב — I like | אני אוהב לשמוע אותה שרה |
| אֲנִי יָכוֹל — I can | אני לא יכול לשמוע כלום |
| אֶפְשָׁר — one can, is it possible | אפשר לשלם באשראי? |
| אָסוּר — it is forbidden | אסור לעשן כאן |
| כְּדֵי — in order to | יצאתי מוקדם כדי לסגור את הכול |
Note that רוצה, צריך, אוהב and יכול are participles and do agree with the subject — רוצֶה / רוצָה / רוצִים — while אפשר and אסור are frozen impersonals that never change at all. The infinitive after them is the same word in every case.
אפשר לשלם באשראי?
efshár leshalém be'ashrái?
Can I pay by card?
יצאתי מוקדם כדי לסגור את הכול לפני החג.
yatsáti mukdám kdei lisgór et hakól lifnéi hakhág
I left early so I could get everything shut up before the holiday.
Which verbs take a bare infinitive and which need a preposition first is the subject of the infinitive after verbs; the modal frames are on צריך and its relatives.
Where the ל fuses with the stem
The ל is not bolted onto a stem that survives underneath it. It is part of the word's shape, and when a root letter is weak the whole thing is rebuilt — often around a stem the past tense does not contain. These are the everyday verbs, so you will meet them before you meet the rules:
| Infinitive | Citation form | Where it is explained |
|---|---|---|
| לָלֶכֶת lalékhet — to go | הָלַךְ | הלך |
| לָדַעַת ladá'at — to know | יָדַע | פ״י verbs |
| לָשֶׁבֶת lashévet — to sit | יָשַׁב | פ״י verbs |
| לָתֵת latét — to give | נָתַן | פ״נ verbs |
| לָקַחַת lakákhat — to take | לָקַח | פ״נ verbs |
| לָבוֹא lavó — to come | בָּא | ע״ו verbs |
| לִרְאוֹת lir'ót — to see | רָאָה | ל״ה verbs |
| לָצֵאת latsét — to go out | יָצָא | פ״י verbs |
Treat this as a warning set rather than a lesson: learn the eight as vocabulary now, and meet the derivations later.
צריך לצאת עכשיו אם אנחנו רוצים להספיק לרכבת.
tsaríkh latsét akhsháv im anákhnu rotsím lehaspík larakévet
We need to leave now if we want to make the train.
The form you will actually hear
Ask an Israeli how to say something and the answer comes back as an infinitive, because that is how the question is phrased in Hebrew. The traditional dictionary heads its entry differently — with the third-person masculine past — so the form you hear and the form you look up are not the same word.
איך אומרים את זה בעברית? אומרים לסגור.
eikh omrím et ze be'ivrít? omrím lisgór
How do you say that in Hebrew? — You say לסגור.
Common Mistakes
1. Using an infinitive after a time preposition. English turns the verb into a gerund after after, before and without; Hebrew turns it into a clause with ש.
❌ לפני לצאת סגרתי את החלונות
Incorrect — לפני cannot govern an infinitive. Hebrew needs a finite clause: לפני שיצאתי. The same goes for אחרי and בלי ש.
✅ לפני שיצאתי סגרתי את כל החלונות.
lifnéi sheyatsáti sagárti et kol hakhalonót
Before I left I closed all the windows.
2. Translating an English infinitive with a Hebrew one when the subject changes. I want you to come has two subjects, and Hebrew will not let an infinitive carry the second one.
❌ אני רוצה שאתה לבוא איתנו
Incorrect — after ש the verb must be finite, and for a wish it is the future: אני רוצה שתבוא. An infinitive is only possible when both verbs share one subject (אני רוצה לבוא).
✅ אני רוצה שתבוא איתנו, זה יהיה כיף.
aní rotsé shetavó itánu, ze yihyé keif
I want you to come with us, it'll be fun. (to a man)
3. Building a patach infinitive because the future has one. This one does not produce a wrong word — it produces a different word, which is why nothing here is crossed out. אֶלְמַד tempts you towards ללמד, and ללמד already exists: it is the pi'el "to teach". The pa'al infinitive almost always keeps its cholam whatever the future does; לִשְׁכַּב and לִרְכַּב are the exceptions, not the model.
אני רוצה ללמוד עברית, לא רק להבין קצת.
aní rotsé lilmód ivrít, lo rak lehavín ktsat
I want to actually learn Hebrew, not just understand a bit of it. (לִלְמוֹד — pa'al, cholam)
היא נסעה לשם כדי ללמד עברית בבית ספר.
hi nas'á leshám kdei lelaméd ivrít bevéit séfer
She went out there to teach Hebrew at a school. (לְלַמֵּד — pi'el, a different verb entirely)
4. Putting an infinitive after a preposition that wants a noun. Thanks for helping has no direct translation.
❌ תודה על לעזור לי
Incorrect — על takes a noun (תודה על העזרה) or a clause with ש (תודה שעזרת לי), never an infinitive.
✅ תודה שעזרת לי אתמול, ממש הצלת אותי.
todá she'azárta li etmól, mamásh hitsálta otí
Thanks for helping me yesterday, you really saved me. (to a man)
Key Takeaways
- The pa'al infinitive is ל־ plus the future stem, with a cholam: לִכְתּוֹב, לִשְׁמוֹר, לִסְגּוֹר, לִגְמוֹר.
- The cholam is near-uniform. Verbs with a patach future still take a cholam infinitive — יִלְמַד → לִלְמוֹד, יִשְׁמַע → לִשְׁמוֹעַ — with לִשְׁכַּב and לִרְכַּב (Pealim gives the latter both ways) as the exceptions to learn by name.
- It is a single indeclinable word. No agreement, no personal ending, no separate word for to — the ל is the first letter of the verb.
- It is not the base form. לכתוב is a fourth principal part, not the thing כתבתי and אכתוב are built from.
- The A1 frames are רוצה, צריך, אוהב, יכול, אפשר, אסור, כדי — and the modal agrees while the infinitive never does.
- Weak roots rebuild it completely: לָלֶכֶת, לָדַעַת, לָשֶׁבֶת, לָתֵת, לָקַחַת, לָבוֹא, לִרְאוֹת, לָצֵאת. Learn these eight as vocabulary.
- After אחרי, לפני, על and friends, Hebrew wants a noun or a ש-clause, not an infinitive — and I want you to… is רוצה ש plus the future.
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Start learning Hebrew →Related Topics
- Verbs That Take an Infinitive (רוצה, אוהב, מנסה, מתחיל)A1 — The first two-verb sentence a beginner can build: one conjugated verb, then an infinitive that never changes for anything. The whole pattern turns on a single question — is the second action done by the same person as the first? If it is, use the infinitive; if it is not, Hebrew switches to ש plus a finite verb.
- Pa'al Future: Regular Roots (אכתוב, תכתוב, יכתוב…)A2 — The future puts the person in front of the verb instead of behind it — four prefix letters, two suffixes, and a theme vowel that is cholam by default but patach for a whole class of verbs. It is also the tense where one form does the work of two people.
- The Dictionary Form Is the Past-Tense הואA2 — Hebrew names a verb by its third-person masculine singular past — כתב, literally 'he wrote' — because that form carries no prefix and no suffix. Here is why, which references follow the convention and which do not, and the step-by-step procedure for stripping a form you met back to the form you can look up.
- צריך: Need and MustA1 — One word covers English's need, have to and should — and it is not a verb. צריך is an adjective, so it agrees with its subject (צריך, צריכה, צריכים, צריכות) and has no tense of its own. It takes either an infinitive or a plain noun, and it can also stand with no subject at all.