A brief introduction to the פֻּעַל stem in Biblical Hebrew.

1. Biblical Hebrew
Getting to Know ‫ פֻּעַל‬Verbs
by Chris Heard

2. Table of Contents
Abbreviations .............................. 3
Getting Ready .............................. 4
Using ‫ פֻּעַל‬Verbs ....................... 10
The Basic Patterns .................... 15
Recognizing ‫ פֻּעַל‬Verbs ............ 18
Credits ........................................ 32

3. Abbreviations
1, 2, 3 indicate grammatical person
m, f, c indicate grammatical gender
s, p indicate grammatical number
R1, R2, R3 indicate root letters
3

4. Getting Ready
Before we start getting to
know the ‫ ,פֻּעַל בִּנ)י'ן‬let’s run
a few preflight checks.
4

5. Do you remember how a Hebrew
verb changes to form the various
combinations of person, gender,
and number, as well as perfect
and imperfect?
5

6. Can you handle
‫ פִּעֵל‬verbs well?
6

7. If you answered
“yes,” you’re ready
for the ‫!פֻּעַל בִּנ)י'ן‬
7

8. Remember that certain patterns
can create predictable variations.
This slideshow focuses on core
patterns. It does not illustrate every
possible variation.
8

9. Furthermore, this slideshow
is intended to supplement,
not replace, classroom
instruction and practice.
9

10. Using ‫ פֻּעַל‬Verbs
The ‫ פֻּעַל‬is a fairly infrequent
‫ ,בִּנ)י'ן‬used about 400 times in
the /‫.תַּנ1״‬
10

11. You can think of the ‫ פֻּעַל‬as the
passive version of the ‫ .פִּעֵל‬In
other words, the subject of a ‫פֻּעַל‬
verb receives the verb’s action.
11

12. For example, you might
say “‫”,מֹשֶׁה שִׁבֵּר אֶת–הַלֻּחֹת‬
or “Moses shattered the
tablets,” using the ‫.פִּעֵל‬
12

13. Alternately, you could say
“‫ ”,הַלֻּחֹת שֻׁבַּר‬or “the tablets
were shattered,” using the ‫.פֻּעַל‬
13

14. (In case you’re wondering, Exod
32:19 actually uses the ‫ ,פִּעֵל‬in
the past narrative conjugation:
“‫)”.ו1יִּשַׁבֵּר ]מֹשֶׁה[ אֹת>ם‬
14

15. The Basic Patterns
Memorize the following basic
patterns first, and then we’ll
go through the specifics.
15

16. ‫בַּר‬A He was buried (3ms perfect)
‫בַּר‬A)‫י‬ He will be buried (3ms imperfect)
‫בַּר‬Aְ‫מ‬ Being buried (ms participle)
16

17. That list of basic patterns omitted
the imperative because it never
occurs in the /‫ ,תַּנ1״‬and the
infinitive because the infinitive and
adverbial infinitive appear only
one time each in the whole /‫.תַּנ1״‬
17

18. Recognizing ‫ פֻּעַל‬Verbs
The most distinctive feature
of the ‫ פֻּעַל‬is R1’s u-class vowel,
usually a ‫בּוּץ‬E.
18

19. Like its active counterpart,
the ‫ ,פִּעֵל‬the ‫ פֻּעַל‬also usually
has a ‫ דָּגֵשׁ‬in R2.
19

20. R1’s ‫בּוּץ‬E and R2’s ‫ דָּגֵשׁ‬are visible
in most forms of the ‫.פֻּעַל‬
20

21. However, if R2 is a guttural or ‫,ר‬
it will reject the ‫ .דָּגֵשׁ‬When this
happens, R1’s characteristic ‫בּוּץ‬E
will usually* lengthen to a ‫.חוֹלֶם‬
* When R2 is a ‫ ,ח‬the ‫בְוּץ‬E remains unchanged.
21

22. Also, if R1 is ‫ ,א‬it will take a
‫מֵץ–חָטוּף‬M instead of a ‫בּוּץ‬E.
Don’t let this trick you into
thinking you’re seeing a ‫ל‬N.
Use R2’s ‫ דָּגֵשׁ‬to recognize the
word as a ‫.פֻּעַל‬
22

23. Recognizing the ‫ פֻּעַל‬Perfect
If you see a verb with a
‫בֻּץ‬E under R1 and a ‫ דָּגֵשׁ‬in
R2, that’s a clear sign of
the ‫ .פֻּעַל‬If it has a perfect
suffix, it’s a ‫ פֻּעַל‬perfect.
23

24. ‫ קבַר‬The ‫בּוּץ‬E
ּ ֻ
The suffix ְ‫ רחַצְתּ‬and ‫דָּגֵשׁ‬
ֻ
indicates
a perfect. ‫ שׁ ְחוּ‬indicate a
ּ‫ ל‬ ֻ
‫חצ ַּ בְתֶּם‬ ֻ ‫.פֻּעַל‬
24

25. Recognizing the ‫ פֻּעַל‬Imperfect
The ‫ פֻּעַל‬imperfect retains
the characteristic ‫בּוּץ‬E and
‫ ,דָּגֵשׁ‬using the standard
affixes to indicate person,
gender, and number.
25

26. ‫תְּבשַׁל‬
ּ ֻ
The ‫בּוּץ‬E
The affixes ‫י)בכַר‬
ֻּ
and ‫דָּגֵשׁ‬
indicate an
imperfect. ‫י)רטְשׁוּ‬
ּ ֻ
indicate
a ‫.פֻּעַל‬
‫תְּ חַמוּ‬
ֻ‫נ‬
26

27. Recognizing the ‫ פֻּעַל‬Participle
The ms ‫ פֻּעַל‬participle looks like the
3ms perfect, but with a prefixed –‫מ‬
and a lengthened R2 vowel:
‫בּשׁל‬
ַּ ֻ
3ms perfect
‫מְבשׁל‬
ָּ ֻ
ms participle 27

28. The mp and fp participles take
the familiar plural endings ‫ ים‬
ִ–
and ‫. –וֹת‬
28

29. The fs participle is a little bit
different from the others. Its
R2 has a ‫ סְגוֹל‬and it takes the
suffix ‫ ת‬as follows:
ֶ–
‫מְבּשׁל‬
ָּ ֻ
ms participle
‫מְבּשׁלת‬
ֶ ֶּ ֻ
fs participle
29

30. Unused and Rare Forms of the ‫פֻּעַל‬
There are no ‫ פֻּעַל‬imperatives in the
/‫ ,תַּנ1״‬and only one each of the
infinitive (Ps 132:1) and adverbial
infinitive (Gen 40:15). You need not
commit their forms to memory.
30

31. Summary
‫קבַר‬
ּ ֻ
3ms perfect Look for
R1’s ‫בּוּץ‬E
‫קבַר‬T‫י‬
ּ ֻ
3ms imperfect
and R2’s ‫דָּגֵשׁ‬
ָּ ֻ
‫מְקבר‬ ms participle
in all forms.
31

32. Credits
Dead Sea photo by Wikimedia Commons contributor
Xta11. Used under a CC-SA license.
All other content by Dr. Chris Heard, Associate
Professor of Religion, Pepperdine University.
Released under a CC-BY license.
Grammatical terminology used in this presentation
follows J. Cook and R. Holmstedt, Beginning Biblical
Hebrew (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2013).