The Basics of Hebrew Verbs

After you have mastered the basic letters of the Alephbet, the next thing to begin working on is the formation of verbs in Hebrew. This is essential as verbs are action words without which no language makes sense, and obviously, when you are reading Hebrew, you will encounter verbs in every sentence.

For instance, in a sentence like 'Job drank the tea', the verb is 'drank' as this describes the action that takes place in this phrase. 'Job' is the subject of the verb in this example as it is him who is taking action, whereas the tea is the object of the verb as it is the 'thing' that the action imparted on.

Once you understand how verbs are used in English, you have the information you need to understand what is happening in Hebrew as well, because the basic verb construction is the same.

As an example, in every sentence, the Hebrew verb will identify:

  • The person that it is being used in (i.e. first person, second person or third person) in relation to the subject of a verb;
  • Whether the subject of the verb is masculine or feminine;
  • Whether the subject is singular or plural;
  • If the tense of the verb is perfect or imperfect;
  • Sometimes, the verb will also indicate the number and gender (i.e. masculine or feminine) of the object of the verb as well.

In the following sections, we will examine the various different forms of verbs in more detail.


Introduction to Reading Hebrew
The first basics
The Hebrew AlephBet
The Letters of the AlephBet
Aleph
Bet (Beyt)
Gimmel
Dalet
Hey
Vav
Zayin
Chet
Tet
Yod
Kaf
Lamed
Mem
Nun
Samekh
Ayin
Pey (Fey)
Tsade (Tsadik)
Qof
Resh
Shin
Tav
The Significance of the Alephbet
The Basics of Hebrew Verbs
The Hebrew Verb Subject
The Hebrew Verb Object
Hebrew Verb Tenses
Hebrew Verb Voices and Moods
Hebrew Verb Participles
The Infinite Verb Version
Hebrew Nouns
Hebrew Noun Constructs
Using Prefixes With Nouns
Hebrew Pronouns
Hebrew Plural Nouns
Hebrew Adjectives
Identifying Hebrew Questions
Adverbs, Prepositions and Conjunctions
Hebrew Reading Conclusion