This document provides an overview of pu'al verbs in Biblical Hebrew. It begins with introductions and checks readiness on Hebrew verb forms. It then explains that pu'al verbs are passive counterparts to pi'el verbs, with the subject receiving rather than doing the action. The basic patterns of the pu'al perfect, imperfect, and masculine participle are presented. Finally, it discusses recognizing pu'al verbs based on characteristics like the root 1 vowel and root 2 stress, and notes rare or unused forms.

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).