The First Principle. On the vowel patterns of the Qal and Nif‘al binyanim in the complete verbs, and their identifying signs.

1. The Qal conjugation is so called because it has no additional letter as a distinguishing sign beyond the three root letters, and it also contains no dagesh.

The Perfect (Past) — throughout it, the first root letter (peh) is vowelled with qamats, except in the forms of the masculine and feminine plural, in which the qamats changes to a sheva because of the mem and nun at the end, and the accent is on the final syllable (milra‘), as in paqadtem, paqadten. This is the rule for every word whose first vowel is a qamats: when it is lengthened by an added syllable and the accent falls on the final syllable (milra‘), the qamats reverts to a sheva. The middle root letter (‘ayin) is vowelled with pataḥ in all forms, except in the masculine and feminine singular third person, where it has a sheva na‘, as in paqdu, paqedah. The reason is that if it were vowelled with pataḥ, it would have to be followed either by a sheva naḥ or by a dagesh, as is the rule after every short vowel. But here a sheva naḥ is impossible: for the plural requires a following vav with shuruq, and for the feminine singular an he with preceding qamats. Nor is a dagesh possible, for one cannot say paqdu or paqedah with a dagesh, since this conjugation is called qal, meaning “light,” that is, without dagesh.

2. Know that the third-person masculine singular (the “hidden” form) is found in three patterns: pa‘al, pa‘el, and pa‘ul. All three occur together in a single verse: “And Moses lo yakhól entered the Tent of Meeting, for the cloud shakhán was upon it, and the glory of the Lord malé the Tabernacle” (Exodus 40:35). In all the other forms of the perfect tense, the conjugations follow the regular paradigms. Thus, just as from shamar one says shamárti, shamárta, shamárnu, and so forth, so from khafáts one says khafátsa, khafátsi, and the like. The only exception is the masculine and feminine third-person forms: when they occur in pause, they return to their original vowel with a tsere, as in khafétsu and khafétsa. However, roots whose final letter is an alef retain a tsere in all forms of the perfect, as I shall mention later. The pattern pa‘ul has ḥolam in all forms of the perfect, except for the masculine and feminine third-person forms, where it has a sheva, as in yakhlu and yakhla. When these forms occur in pause, they return to a ḥolam, as in: “to bring forth the lice, but they lo yakhólu” (Exodus 8:14).

3. Know that the patterns pa‘al and pa‘ul generally occur only with intransitive verbs, such as zaqén (“was old”), malé (“was full”), ḥadélu (“they ceased”), and qamélu (“they withered”). From malé, however, transitive forms are also found. Likewise, all verbs whose roots are from the class naḥei lamed–alef and are intransitive appear in the pattern pa‘al, such as tamé (“was impure”) and yaré (“feared”). The root yatsa (“went out”) is an exception. The vowel sheva under a qamats is characteristic here, and only a few complete roots that are transitive appear in this pattern, such as ḥafáts, aháv, and akhál. The pattern pa‘ul, by contrast, is always derived from intransitive verbs, such as yakhól, yagór, and qatón, as in the verse: “Qatón have I become from all the kindnesses” (Genesis 32:10). Therefore, these verbs have neither a participle nor a passive form, as I explained in the First Treatise, Principle Five, Section Four. Instead, the adjectival form appears in place of both, using the perfect-tense pattern. Thus: “And Abraham was zaqén, advanced in days” (Genesis 24:1) — this is an adjective. “But it came to pass when Isaac had zaqén, and his eyes were dim” (Genesis 27:1) — here it is a perfect verb. “And Moses lo yakhól” — this too is a perfect verb. No adjectival form of yakhól is found in Scripture, yet our Rabbis of blessed memory used it adjectivally, saying eno yakhól (“he is unable”), enam yekholím (“they are unable”). All other verbal forms in this category follow a single consistent pattern, and there is no distinction among the three patterns.

4. The Participle (in Ashkenazic language: di gegen-vertige layt; in Latin: praesens). The first radical (peʾ) takes a ḥolam in all three persons, and the second radical (ʿayin) takes a tsere only in the singular, as in poqed. In the other forms it changes to a sheva (vocalized sheva: naʿ), according to its regular rule, as in poqedim, poqedah, poqedot. Know that the feminine form generally comes with a final tav and two segolim before it, as in poqedet. More rarely, it appears with a final heʾ, as in: halekhah hi (Jeremiah 3:6), hi shafṭah et Yisraʾel (Judges 4:4). I shall speak further about this in the Third Treatise, Principle Five, Section Two.

5. The Passive Participle The first radical (peʾ) takes a qamats in the singular, as in paqud. In the other forms it changes to a sheva, according to its rule, as I explained above with the past tense. In all of them the second radical (ʿayin) takes a shuruq, as in pequdim, pequdah, pequdot.

The Infinitive (in Ashkenazic language: azn-bet-tiyete art; in German: Infinitiv) The first root letter (peʾ) takes a qamats, as in paqod. This occurs when the infinitive is in construct with the past or future, as in shamor tishmeron and halokh halakhta. When it is used in place of a command, the same rules apply (see my discussion in the first treatise, Sixth Principle). With prepositions, the qamats changes to a sheva, and sometimes this occurs even without prepositions, as in: "et avod ha-nisharim" (Deuteronomy 7:20) "et sefod ve-et raqod" (Ecclesiastes 3:4) The middle root letter (‘ayin) is vowelled with a cholem, and with prepositions it is pronounced with a chirik. The letter immediately following the preposition is soft, as in: ba-paqod and la-paqod. After a mem, a dagesh is added, as in mi-paqod. This rule compensates for the absence of the final nun in certain forms, as will be explained further in the chapter on poetry, Song 5.

6. The Imperative. (In Ashkenazic: di gebitende art; Latin: imperativus) In the singular, the first radical (peʾ) takes a sheva, and the second radical (ʿayin) takes a ḥolam, following the pattern of the infinitive when used with b-k-l-m. In the plural—and also in certain singular forms—the peʾ takes a ḥiriq, because the ʿayin takes a sheva, as will be explained in the Third Treatise, the Tenth Principle, section twenty. Likewise, when the singular imperative appears with an added heʾ at the end, the peʾ takes a ḥiriq, as in shikhvah ʿimmi (Genesis 39:12), shilḥah ha-naʿar (Genesis 43:8). This applies when the ʿayin has a pataḥ, as in shalaḥ, shakhav. But when the ʿayin has ḥolam, the peʾ takes a ḥataf-qamats, as in zekhorah li (Nehemiah 6:14). There are exceptions to these patterns, but I have no concern with them here.

7. The Future. (In Ashkenazic: di mit-künftige layt) You already know that its identifying sign is ʾe-i-t-n at the beginning, and that the vowel-patterns of the future follow those of the imperative. Take this rule firmly in hand for all the verb-forms, in all the root categories (gizrot): add the letters ʾe-i-t-n to the imperative, and you will obtain the future form. In this conjugation, the letters of ʾe-i-t-n always take ḥiriq. [First edition: And there is always a sheva naḥ after the ʾe-i-t-n, except for alef, which takes a segol, as in ʾefqod, because it is a guttural.]

8. Know that the first-person forms (medabber baʿado), singular and plural, sometimes appear with an added heʾ at the end, as in ʾazkerah ʾElohim (Psalms 77:4), nishleḥah ʾanashim (Deuteronomy 1:22). The third-person forms (nistarim and nimtzaʾim) sometimes appear with an added nun at the end, as in lemaʿan yilmadun, shamor tishmerun. The rule governing this heʾ and nun applies to all the conjugations (binyanim) and to all the root-categories (gizrot), [First edition: and to all the gizrot except those of naḥei lamed-heʾ, in which an additional heʾ does not occur, unless the root heʾ is replaced by yod, as in va-ʾehemiyah (Psalms 77:4).]

And know that with the e-i-t-n letters yod and tav, an additional heh does not come at the end, except in a few places, such as: “Let it hasten quickly, let it draw near and come” (Isaiah 5:19), “It will fly away; in the morning it will be” (Job 11:17), and similar cases, which are few.

9. Know that there are verbs whose future forms sometimes appear with a ḥolam at the end and sometimes with a pataḥ, as in va-yishbot ha-man with a ḥolam (Joshua 5:12), and lamah tishbot ha-melakhah with a pataḥ (Nehemiah 6:3). There are also verbs that are always open with a pataḥ, and most of these are intransitive verbs (peʿalim ʿomdim), such as yishkav, yirkav, yishman, yeshurun va-yivʿat (Deuteronomy 32:15). But those that take a ḥolam are for the most part transitive verbs (peʿalim yotzʾim), except when the ʿayin of the root is an ʿayin or a ḥet, in which case they are always open with a pataḥ, whether they are transitive or intransitive, such as yishmaʿ, yishlaḥ. Likewise, when the ʿayin of the root is an ʿayin or a ḥet, as in tishḥaq lamo, tilʿag le-khol ha-goyim (Psalms 59:9), they are exceptions, even though they are intransitive verbs. Also among the exceptions are va-yinahem ʿalav (Isaiah 5:30), and mah ʾezʿam lo zaʿam Hashem (Numbers 23:8). All of these rules apply equally to the imperative, for the future and the imperative share the same vowel-patterns, as I wrote above in section 7.

10. The Nifʿal Conjugation It has an additional nun prefixed at the beginning, and it is light like its parent (qal), in that it has no dagesh as its identifying sign.

The Past. Throughout, the prefixed nun takes ḥiriq at the beginning and a following sheva naḥ, and the second radical (ʿayin) is open with pataḥ, as in nifqad, nifqadet. All of its vocalization follows the patterns of its parent, the qal conjugation.

11. The Participle. It too has an additional prefixed nun, like the past tense, but the second radical (ʿayin) takes a qamats in all forms, as in nifqad, nifqadim, nifqadah, as in ruaḥ nishberah (Psalms 51:19). It is always accented milraʿ. But the form ʾaḥat me-henah lo nishberah (Psalms 34:21), which is accented milʿel, is a past tense feminine form, and it occurs in this way only in a pause (hefseq). Outside of a pause it takes a sheva, as in nishberah qiryat tohu and similar forms (Isaiah 24:10)

The Passive. It does not exist here, as you already know.

(First edition: 12.) The Infinitive It appears with the loss of the nun of the conjugation, and the first radical (peʾ) is always dageshed to indicate the missing nun. For this reason it was necessary to place an additional heʾ before the peʾ, as in aḥarei hipared Lot (Genesis 13:14). This is in order to strengthen the dagesh, since a strong dagesh cannot occur at the beginning of a word, as will be explained in the chapter “Shirah,” in the fifth song.

And even with the prefix letters b-k-l-m, the additional heʾ appears, as in be-haqhel ha-ʿedah (Numbers 17:7). Only in a few places is the heʾ lacking, such as be-ʿatef ʿolel (Lamentations 2:11), le-ʿanot mipnei (Exodus 10:3), and u-ve-khashlo ʾal yagel libbekha (Proverbs 24:17).

12 (First edition: 13). The Imperative It always appears with an added heʾ, as in hippared naʾ me-ʿalay (Genesis 13:9). But the future does not require the heʾ, because the ʾe-i-t-n letters at the beginning produce a strong dagesh. The general rule is that in this conjugation the nun, the heʾ, and the letters of ʾe-i-t-n all take a ḥiriq, even the alef of ʾe-i-t-n (for the most part), as in ʾanokhi ʾishavaʿ (Genesis 21:24). This is not the case in qal, as I explained earlier. And the first radical (peʾ) always has a dagesh with a qamats, except when the peʾ is one of the guttural letters ʾalef–ḥet–ʿayin–resh, in which case the heʾ and the letters of ʾe-i-t-n take a tsere, as in heʾasef, yeʿavor, and the like, as will be explained in the chapter “Shirah,” in the ninth song.