Hebrew builds verbs by slotting a three-consonant root into one of seven templates called binyanim (“buildings”). Each binyan carries a grammatical voice and a typical shade of meaning — active, passive, intensive, reflexive, or causative. This tool drops your root into all seven so you can compare them at a glance.
How it works
The seven binyanim and their roles:
Pa'al (Qal) active, basic action — katav "he wrote"
Nif'al passive/reflexive of Pa'al — nikhtav "it was written"
Pi'el intensive / active — kitev "he addressed/wrote up"
Pu'al passive of Pi'el — kutav "it was dictated"
Hitpa'el reflexive / reciprocal — hitkatev "he corresponded"
Hif'il causative / active — hikhtiv "he dictated"
Huf'al passive of Hif'il — hukhtav "it was dictated"Three pairs link an active binyan to its passive (Pa’al/Nif’al, Pi’el/Pu’al,
Hif’il/Huf’al), while Hitpa’el is the reflexive. Each template fixes the vowels
and may add a prefix (ni-, hit-, hi-) or double the middle root letter
(Pi’el, Pu’al, Hitpa’el). The same root therefore takes on different shapes and
meanings depending on the binyan.
Example
Using the root k-t-v (“write”): Pa’al katav is plain “he wrote”; Hif’il
hikhtiv is causative “he dictated” (caused to be written); Nif’al nikhtav is
passive “it was written”; Hitpa’el hitkatev is reciprocal “he corresponded.”
Why the binyanim matter for learners
The binyan system is what makes Hebrew vocabulary learnable by root rather than word-by-word. Once you know that a root like sh-m-r (שמר) means guarding or keeping, you can predict that:
- Pa’al
shamar— “he guarded” - Nif’al
nishmar— “he was guarded / he took care” - Hitpa’el
hishtamer— “he was on guard / beware” - Hif’il
hishmid— from a related root, but the pattern shows the causative shape
A single learned root therefore unlocks multiple words across the pattern. This contrasts with learning each word independently and is the reason vocabulary teaching in Hebrew is almost always root-centred.
Recognising a binyan by its shape
Each binyan has a characteristic “fingerprint” even if you do not know the root:
- Pa’al: CaCaC vowel pattern in the past (katav, shavar, shamar)
- Nif’al: ni- prefix in the past (nikhtav, nishbar, nishmar)
- Pi’el: doubled middle consonant with CiCeC pattern (kitev, shiber, shimer)
- Pu’al: same doubling, different vowels (kutav, shubar)
- Hitpa’el: hit- prefix plus doubled middle consonant (hitkatev, hitashel)
- Hif’il: hi- prefix, often hiCCiC pattern (hikhtiv, hivdil)
- Huf’al: hu- prefix, rare in speech (hukhtav)
Recognising the pattern lets you identify the binyan of an unfamiliar word before looking up the root.
Notes
Not every root fills all seven slots, and the meaning in each binyan is partly lexicalized — so always confirm the actual sense of a specific root in a dictionary. The forms shown are the third-person masculine singular past, the standard citation form for a Hebrew verb. In spoken Modern Hebrew, Pu’al and Huf’al are uncommon and often replaced by Nif’al passives or active constructions.