Pi'el Infinitive (לדבר) and Imperative (דבר! דברי!) | Hebrew Grammar

Two forms, one stem. If you know the pi'el future you already know both — the infinitive is that stem with לְ־ in front of it, and the imperative is that stem with nothing in front of it. No letters appear, none disappear.

Both come off the future

Future	Take the prefix off	Infinitive	Imperative (m. sg.)
יְדַבֵּר yedabér	־דַבֵּר	לְדַבֵּר ledabér · לדבר	דַּבֵּר dabér · דבר
יְבַקֵּשׁ yevakésh	־בַקֵּשׁ	לְבַקֵּשׁ levakésh · לבקש	בַּקֵּשׁ bakésh · בקש
יְסַפֵּר yesapér	־סַפֵּר	לְסַפֵּר lesapér · לספר	סַפֵּר sapér · ספר
יְשַׁלֵּם yeshalém	־שַׁלֵּם	לְשַׁלֵּם leshalém · לשלם	שַׁלֵּם shalém · שלם
יְלַמֵּד yelaméd	־לַמֵּד	לְלַמֵּד lelaméd · ללמד	לַמֵּד laméd · למד
יְטַיֵּיל yetayél	־טַיֵּיל	לְטַיֵּיל letayél · לטייל	טַיֵּיל tayél · טייל

Two details worth noticing before they cause trouble.

Neither form has the yod of the past. דיברתי, ביקשתי, סיפרתי all carry one; לדבר, לבקש, לספר do not, and neither does דבר or בקש. The yod spells the i of the past stem, and no other part of the paradigm has an i.

In בגדכפ״ת verbs the two forms differ audibly at the front. לְ־ ends in a shva na, which leaves the following letter soft; a word-initial letter is hard. So the infinitive is le-vakésh and the imperative b**akésh, from the same three consonants.

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Contrast this with hif'il, where the infinitive is not derivable from the future. הִתְחִיל has a ה, מַתְחִיל and יַתְחִיל have lost it, and לְהַתְחִיל puts it back — so a learner reasoning from יַתְחִיל would predict a form that does not exist. Pi'el has no such hidden letter: what you see in יְדַבֵּר is the whole stem.

אני צריך לדבר איתה היום, זה לא יכול לחכות.

aní tsaríkh ledabér itá hayóm, ze lo yakhól lekhakót

I need to speak to her today — it can't wait. (m. speaker)

אפשר לבקש ממך טובה קטנה?

efshár levakésh mimkhá tová ktaná?

Can I ask you a small favour? (to a man)

היא התחילה ללמד בבית ספר יסודי בשנה שעברה.

hi hitkhíla lelaméd bevéit séfer yesodí bashaná she'avrá

She started teaching at a primary school last year.

אין לי כוח לטייל היום, בואי נישאר בבית.

ein li kóakh letayél hayóm, bó'i nishaér babáyit

I haven't got the energy to go walking today — let's just stay in. (to a woman)

The guttural infinitives

This is the one place in the pi'el infinitive where the vowel differs, and the split is the same one that runs the whole binyan:

Middle radical	Infinitive	Reading
ordinary	לְדַבֵּר · לְשַׁלֵּם · לְסַפֵּר	ledabér · leshalém · lesapér — patach
א, ר	לְגָרֵשׁ · לְבָרֵךְ · לְתָאֵר	legarésh · levarékh · leta'ér — kamatz
ה, ח, ע	לְנַהֵל · לְמַהֵר · לְשַׂחֵק	lenahél · lemahér · lesakhék — patach, as normal

Since Israeli Hebrew pronounces patach and kamatz identically, the difference is inaudible — it shows up when you point, and the reason for it is on why בירך but דיבר.

The imperative, and who actually uses it

Addressee	ד־ב־ר	ס־פ־ר
a man	דַּבֵּר · דבר dabér	סַפֵּר · ספר sapér
a woman	דַּבְּרִי · דברי dabrí	סַפְּרִי · ספרי saprí
a group	דַּבְּרוּ · דברו dabrú	סַפְּרוּ · ספרו saprú
women only (classical)	דַּבֵּרְנָה dabérna	סַפֵּרְנָה sapérna

The stem reduces before ־י and ־וּ and the ending takes the stress, exactly as in the future: dabrí, not dábri.

Now the register fact the table cannot show. Outside the army, official signage, written instructions and recipes, the ordinary Israeli command is the second-person future — תדבר איתו, תספרי לי, תשלמי בקופה. That is עתיד בתפקיד ציווי, a recognised construction, and it is not an error.

דברו בשקט, יש כאן אנשים שעובדים.

dabrú beshéket, yesh kan anashím she'ovdím

Keep your voices down — there are people working here. (to a group; the register of a notice or a teacher)

נא לשלם בקופה.

na leshalém bakupá

Please pay at the till. (נא plus the infinitive — the standard impersonal instruction on signs)

ספר, ספר, מה היא אמרה בסוף?

sapér, sapér, ma hi amrá basóf?

Go on, tell me — what did she say in the end? (to a man; the doubled imperative is entirely ordinary in speech)

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Pi'el is the binyan where you cannot tell the two strategies apart. One analysis of spoken Israeli Hebrew treats the imperative-shaped words in conversation as truncated futures — the prefix syllable simply dropped. Do that to tedabér and you get dabér; to tesaprí and you get saprí. Those are the normative imperatives, sound for sound. In hif'il the two analyses give different words (tagíd truncates to gid, while the imperative is hagéd) — in pi'el they collapse, so nothing in the form itself tells you which you are hearing.

Negation: אל plus the future

The imperative cannot be negated. There is no particle you can put in front of דבר. A negative command is אַל plus the second-person future, in every binyan:

אל תדבר איתי ככה, אני לא ילד.

al tedabér ití kákha, aní lo yéled

Don't talk to me like that — I'm not a child. (m. speaker, to a man)

One thing pu'al does not have

pu'al is pi'el's automatic passive, and it has no infinitive and no imperative at all — you cannot order someone to undergo something, and there is no independent verb for an infinitive to point at. So לְסַדֵּר "to arrange" has no counterpart *לסודר, and the passive shows up only as a finite verb or, far more often, as a participial adjective (מסודר "tidy").

הכול כבר סודר, אתם לא צריכים לסדר כלום.

hakól kvar sudár, atém lo tsrikhím lesadér klum

It's all been sorted already — you don't need to arrange anything. (to a group)

Common Mistakes

1. Writing the imperative with the yod of the past. "Pi'el has a yod" is a rule learners extract from דיברתי and then apply everywhere.

❌ דיבר איתו על זה!

Incorrect as an imperative — דיבר is the past, 'he spoke'. The imperative has no i and therefore no yod: דבר. Same for ספר (not סיפר), בקש (not ביקש), שלם (not שילם).

✅ דבר איתו על זה, הוא יבין.

dabér itó al ze, hu yavín

Talk to him about it — he'll understand. (to a man)

2. Negating the imperative directly. English puts don't in front of the bare verb, so learners put אל in front of דבר.

❌ אל דבר איתי ככה

Incorrect — אל is followed by the second-person future, never by an imperative: אל תדבר. There is no negative imperative in Hebrew at all.

✅ אל תבקש ממנו כסף, זה יסתבך.

al tevakésh miménu késef, ze yistabékh

Don't ask him for money — it'll get complicated. (to a man)

3. Dropping the ל־ after a modal. English I must speak, can I ask have no to, and the omission transfers.

❌ אפשר בקש ממך משהו?

Incorrect — after אפשר, צריך, חייב, רוצה and יכול the verb is always the infinitive: אפשר לבקש. בקש on its own is an imperative, 'ask!', which leaves the sentence with two commands and no verb phrase.

✅ אני חייב לבקש ממנה סליחה.

aní khayáv levakésh miména slikhá

I have to apologise to her. (m. speaker)

4. Keeping the stress on the stem in the feminine and plural.

❌ ספרי

sápri

Incorrect — saprí. The ending takes the beat and the tsere collapses, in the imperative exactly as in the future: dabrí, saprí, bakshú.

✅ דברי איתו בעצמך, זה יעבוד יותר טוב.

dabrí itó be'atsmékh, ze ya'avód yotér tov

Talk to him yourself — it'll go better. (to a woman)

Key Takeaways

Both forms are the future stem minus its prefix: לְ־ + stem = infinitive, bare stem = imperative. Nothing is added or restored.
Neither has the yod of the past — לדבר, דבר, not לדיבר, דיבר.
In בגדכפ״ת verbs the two differ audibly: levakésh (soft after the shva of לְ־) against b**akésh (hard word-initially).
Guttural infinitives: kamatz for א and ר (לְגָרֵשׁ, לְבָרֵךְ, לְתָאֵר), patach for ה, ח and ע (לְנַהֵל, לְמַהֵר, לְשַׂחֵק). Inaudible in Israeli Hebrew.
Three live imperative cells — דַּבֵּר · דַּבְּרִי · דַּבְּרוּ — with the stress on the ending in the last two.
Israelis normally command with the future (תדבר, תספרי). That is register, not error. In pi'el a truncated future and the true imperative are the same string, so the form alone does not tell you which is being used.
No negative imperative: אַל + second-person future, always.
pu'al has neither form. There is no *לסודר beside לסדר.

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