The finite pu'al is a written-Hebrew form that most Israelis go days without saying. The participle is a different story: it is everywhere, and for a large group of verbs it has cut loose from the verb entirely and become an ordinary adjective. מרוצה is not felt as "having been satisfied by someone"; it is simply "pleased". This drift is where the binyan actually lives, and it is why you learned half of these words as vocabulary long before anyone mentioned pu'al.
Twelve that have drifted
Every row below is a מְקֻטָּל-pattern word that Milog gives its own dictionary entry, separately from the verb form it came from. The table has twelve rows.
| Source verb (pi'el) | Pointed | Written | As an adjective |
|---|---|---|---|
| סידר arranged | מְסֻדָּר mesudár | מסודר | tidy; sorted out; well-off |
| בלבל confused someone | מְבֻלְבָּל mevulbál | מבולבל | confused, at a loss |
| פרסם published | מְפֻרְסָם mefursám | מפורסם | famous |
| סיבך tangled up | מְסוּבָּךְ mesubákh | מסובך | complicated |
| ייחד set aside for | מְיוּחָד meyukhád | מיוחד | special, unusual |
| כיבד honoured; served refreshments | מְכֻבָּד mekhubád | מכובד | respectable, respected |
| ריצה satisfied, placated | מְרוּצֶּה merutsé | מרוצה | pleased, content |
| ריכז gathered, centralised | מְרֻכָּז merukáz | מרוכז | focused; concentrated; intensive |
| ניסה tried, tested | מְנֻסֶּה menusé | מנוסה | experienced |
| עניין interested someone | מְעֻנְיָן me'unyán | מעוניין | interested, keen |
| ארגן organised | מְאֻרְגָּן me'urgán | מאורגן | organised, methodical |
| שעמם bored someone | מְשֻׁעְמָם meshu'amám | משועמם | bored |
Two of them are ל״ה verbs, and their forms are worth a second look: מְרוּצֶּה and מְנֻסֶּה are masculine, מְרוּצָּה and מְנֻסָּה feminine — and unpointed, both genders are the identical string מרוצה, מנוסה. The gender lives in the agreement, not the spelling.
הוא הכי מסודר שאני מכיר, הכול אצלו בקלסרים.
hu hakhí mesudár she'aní makír, hakól etsló bekalserím
He's the most organised person I know — everything's in binders with him.
אני לא מרוצה מהתשובה שקיבלתי.
aní lo merutsé mehatshuvá shekibálti
I'm not happy with the answer I got. (m. speaker — note מ־, not עם)
אני מעוניין לשמוע עוד לפני שאני מחליט.
aní me'unyán lishmóa od lifnéi she'aní makhlít
I'd like to hear more before I decide. (m. speaker; slightly formal — in casual speech אני רוצה)
הילדים משועממים, אולי ניקח אותם לים.
hayeladím meshu'amamím, ulái nikákh otám layám
The kids are bored — maybe we'll take them to the beach.
Three tests that tell verb from adjective
Degree words. An adjective takes מאוד, יותר, הכי, קצת. A live passive verb cannot: very translated is as bad in Hebrew as in English.
Attributive position. An adjective can sit inside a noun phrase and agree there — חדר מסודר, דירה מסודרת, חדרים מסודרים, דירות מסודרות. A verb reading resists that.
An על ידי agent. This is the sharpest test, and it is a gradient rather than a switch — which is exactly why it is worth running yourself instead of trusting a rule of thumb. Counting exact strings in Hebrew Wikipedia (August 2026):
| Participle | Total hits | Followed by על ידי | Reading |
|---|---|---|---|
| מאורגן | 2,140 | 132 | still a live passive |
| מסודר | 1,849 | 12 | mostly adjective, passive available |
| מרוצה | 1,971 | 0 | adjective only |
| מבולבל | 522 | 0 | adjective only |
מרוצה and מבולבל are common words that never once take an agent, because nobody hears an agent in them any more. מאורגן takes one constantly. Do not write "pu'al participles refuse על ידי" — say it of the individual word, and note that even for the live ones the agent phrase belongs to a documentary register, not to speech.
האתר מתורגם על ידי מתנדבים לשבע שפות.
ha'atár meturgám al yedéi mitnadvím leshéva safót
The site is translated into seven languages by volunteers. (formal / documentary)
Which ones actually swing both ways
מסודר does, and the agent phrase is what pins it down.
החדר מסודר על ידי צוות הניקיון פעמיים ביום.
hakhéder mesudár al yedéi tsévet hanikayón pa'amáyim beyóm
The room is made up by the cleaning staff twice a day. (passive — the agent forces it)
זאת הצעה מכובדת, אני לא הייתי מוותר עליה.
zot hatsa'á mekhubédet, aní lo hayíti mevatér aléha
That's a respectable offer — I wouldn't turn it down. (adjective, attributive)
מאורגן does too, and it is the most evenly balanced word in the set: Milog gives it a separate adjective entry ("organised, methodical") while 132 of its 2,140 corpus hits still carry an agent.
מנוסה looks like it should and does not — which is the more instructive case, because it shows where a lost passive goes. The adjective "experienced" took the whole word: מנוסה מאוד returns ten hits in Hebrew Wikipedia and every one of them means "very experienced", while מנוסה כרגע, מנוסים על ידי and התרופה מנוסה return nothing at all. The verb did not die with the participle, though. It moved into the finite cells, where נוסתה (163 hits) and נוסו (155) carry the passive perfectly well — agent phrase included.
היא עורכת דין מנוסה מאוד ולא לוקחת תיקים כאלה.
hi orékhet din menusá me'ód veló lokákhat tikím ka'éle
She's a very experienced lawyer and she doesn't take cases like this. (adjective — and in practice the only living reading of מנוסה)
התרופה נוסתה על אלף מתנדבים לפני שאושרה.
hatrufá nustá al élef mitnadvím lifnéi she'ushrá
The drug was tested on a thousand volunteers before it was approved. (the passive of ניסה survives here, in the finite past — not in the participle)
Three lookalikes that are not in this set
מפורט takes a cholam, not a kubuts. ר cannot carry a dagesh, so פירט gives מְפוֹרָט meforát. It is a genuine pu'al participle — it just is not shaped like the rest, and unpointed you cannot tell, because both vowels are written with a vav.
מחונן is two different words that look identical. Pealim carries separate entries: מְחוֹנָן mekhonán, an adjective meaning "gifted, talented" — cholam, no dagesh — and מְחוּנָּן mekhunán, the pu'al participle of the root ח־נ־ן meaning "is endowed with". In ktiv male both come out as מחונן. The word in תוכנית למחוננים "gifted programme" is the first one.
מוכשר is not pu'al at all. Its u sits in the prefix rather than the stem — mukhshár, not mekhushár — which puts it in huf'al territory, from הכשיר. Pealim heads it as a מוּקְטָל-pattern adjective on the root כ־שׁ־ר. Textbook lists of "common pu'al adjectives" include it regularly, and it does not belong.
היא ילדה מחוננת, היא בתוכנית מגיל שמונה.
hi yaldá mekhonénet, hi batokhnít migíl shmóne
She's a gifted kid — she's been in the programme since she was eight.
Common Mistakes
1. Building a pu'al infinitive for "to get confused". There is none, and the living verb is a hitpa'el.
❌ אני מפחד לבולבל מכל האפשרויות
Incorrect — pu'al has no infinitive. 'To get confused' is the hitpa'el להתבלבל: אני מפחד להתבלבל.
✅ התבלבלתי בין שני האחים כל הערב.
hitbalbálti bein shnéi ha'akhím kol ha'érev
I kept mixing up the two brothers all evening.
2. Following מרוצה with עם. English is pleased with, so learners map the preposition straight across.
❌ המנהל מרוצה עם התוצאות
Incorrect — מרוצה governs מ־: המנהל מרוצה מהתוצאות. The same מ־ runs through מאוכזב מ־ and מופתע מ־.
✅ המנהל מרוצה מהתוצאות אבל לא אומר את זה בקול.
hamnahél merutsé mehatotsa'ót avál lo omér et ze bekól
The manager is pleased with the results but doesn't say so out loud.
3. Putting a degree word on a live passive. Once מסודר מאוד works, learners generalise it to every participle.
❌ הספר מאוד מתורגם לאנגלית
Incorrect — מתורגם here is a passive verb, not an adjective, and a verb takes no מאוד. Say הספר תורגם לאנגלית, or with an adverb: הספר מתורגם היטב.
✅ הספר תורגם לאנגלית והתרגום ממש טוב.
haséfer turgám le'anglít vehatirgúm mamásh tov
The book was translated into English and the translation is genuinely good.
4. Reading מחונן with the pu'al vowels. The spelling is identical, so the everyday word gets mispronounced.
❌ מחונן
mekhunán — for ‘gifted’
Incorrect for this sense — the adjective is מְחוֹנָן mekhonán, with a cholam and no dagesh. מְחוּנָּן mekhunán is the pu'al participle 'endowed with', a separate Pealim entry.
✅ יש לו אוזן מוזיקלית מחוננת, הוא שומע הכול.
yesh lo ózen muzikálit mekhonénet, hu shoméa hakól
He has a gifted musical ear — he hears everything.
Key Takeaways
- The pu'al participle, not the finite verb, is where this binyan lives in Modern Hebrew, and for many words it has hardened into a plain adjective.
- Twelve high-frequency members: מסודר, מבולבל, מפורסם, מסובך, מיוחד, מכובד, מרוצה, מרוכז, מנוסה, מעוניין, מאורגן, משועמם.
- ל״ה members have מְ־ֶּה masculine against מְ־ָּה feminine — and one identical spelling for both: מרוצה, מנוסה.
- Three tests: degree words (מאוד, יותר), attributive agreement, and an על ידי agent.
- The על ידי test is a gradient measured word by word. מרוצה and מבולבל take an agent zero times in Hebrew Wikipedia; מאורגן takes one 132 times.
- When a participle drifts all the way, its passive changes address rather than dying: מנוסה is only ever "experienced", and the passive of ניסה lives on in the finite נוסתה, נוסו.
- מפורט has a cholam because ר refuses the dagesh; מחונן is two words spelled alike (mekhonán adjective, mekhunán pu'al); מוכשר is huf'al and does not belong here.
- מבוגר: the pi'el בִּגֵּר and its pu'al בֻּגַּר exist in Milog, but Pealim lists no verb for the root and the everyday sense is simply "adult". The verb is not the live source.
- "To get confused" is התבלבל, a hitpa'el — pu'al has no infinitive to offer.
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Start learning Hebrew →Related Topics
- Participles Used as Adjectives: מעניין, עייף, סגורA2 — A large share of everyday Hebrew adjectives are not adjectives at all — they are verb participles that settled down. Once you can see which binyan a word came out of, you stop memorising pairs like מעניין and מעוניין and start deriving them.
- Pu'al Present: מסודר, מבולבל, מדוברB1 — Four cells, one prefix, and a vav you can see from across the room — plus the reason a room that is מסודר is both tidy and tidied, and Hebrew feels no need to tell you which.
- Gradual Process Hitpa'el: התבגר, התקרר, התפתחB1 — The family where English says 'get' or 'become' and Hebrew says one word — a change of state with nobody performing it. Almost every one of these verbs has a causative twin in pi'el, exactly one has its twin in hif'il, and two have none at all; the asymmetry is the thing to learn, not a rule to apply.
- The Pu'al Forms You Really Do MeetB1 — An honest inventory sorted by where you run into it: nine participles you already use as adjectives, six finite verbs that live in written Hebrew, and מדובר ב־, which is everywhere in the news and in no dictionary.
- Pu'al Past and Future: סודר, יסודרC1 — The finite pu'al is a written-Hebrew form: nine past cells and nine future ones that a newsreader uses daily and a friend on the phone almost never does — and there is still no infinitive to reach for when you need one.