The Third Principle: On the elucidation of the vowels of the patterns Hif‘il and Paʿal for strong roots, and their identifying signs.

1. The Pattern Hif‘il The past tense throughout has a he with a hiriq at the beginning, as in hifkid, with stress on the final syllable. [But hifkidu and hifkidah are both stressed on the penultimate syllable.] (The hiriq under the middle root letter occurs only in the masculine singular, the masculine plural, and the feminine plural, as in hifkid, hifkidu, hifkidah, and they are penultimately stressed; but hifkidu and hifkidah are both penultimately stressed.)

And in the other persons, a pataḥ appears in place of the hiriq to lighten the vocalization, because of the multiplicity of vowels, as in hifkadta, hifkadti, and so on.

The Participle It is formed with the addition of a mem with a pataḥ at the beginning; and the passive with a kubuts; and after both of them there is a quiescent sheva, as in mafqid, mufqad. Its mnemonic sign is mefaʿal–mefuʿal. And in every participle the middle root letter has a long hiriq, and in every passive it has a long qamats.

2. The Infinitive It has a he with a pataḥ at the beginning, in order to distinguish it from the past tense, and the middle root letter is usually with a tsere, as in ve-hakhbed et libbo. But with the prefixed letters b-k-l-m, it takes a hiriq, as in lehakṭin eifah and ulehagdl sheqel.

3. The Imperative For the singular, the middle root letter has a tsere, as in hafqed et ha-Levi’im (Numbers 1:50). But when it appears with the addition of a he at the end, the middle root letter takes a hiriq, as in ha’azinah, haqshivah. And the plural and the feminine singular always take a hiriq, as in hifkidu, hifkidi. And for the feminine plural, hafqednah; and this is said by way of reasoning, for it is not found in Scripture.

3. The Future You already know that the letters e-i-t-n are placed upon the imperative, as in afqid, yafqid. And know that it would properly have been ha’afqid, ha-yafqid, with the he of Hif‘il; but they dropped it in order to lighten the vowels, and placed a pataḥ under the e-i-t-n letter. Likewise in the participle they dropped the he, saying mafqid, whereas it should properly have been mehfaqid; and similarly the passive mufqad, whereas it should have been mehfuqad, just as in le-arba‘tam mehaqtsu‘ot (Ezekiel 46:22). And for the most part, the middle root letter with e-i-t-n takes a hiriq, except in a few cases where it comes with tsere, following the pattern of the imperative, as in yikhret Hashem (Psalms 12:4). And with the conversive vav, it is always with a tsere, as in va-yavdel Elohim (Genesis 1:4).

The Pattern Hif‘al Its identifying sign is the addition of a he, like its prototype.

The Past Throughout, the he appears with a ḥataf-qamats, as in hakkēret minḥah; or with three dots, as in ve-hishlikh mekhon miqdasho (Daniel 8:11). In forms where the first root letter is quiescent and where the middle root letter is quiescent, the he comes with a shuruq, as in va-Yosef hurad (Genesis 39:1). For these three vowels are siblings, and they frequently replace one another, especially in the patterns Paʿal and Hif‘al.

(In the first edition: vav) The Participle, the Passive, and the Imperative do not occur in it. And the small amount of Infinitive found in it is likewise with a ḥataf-qamats, and the middle root letter (the ʿayin ha-poʿal) in a tsere, as in: ve-ha-melaḥ lo himlaḥt (Ezekiel 16:4), ve-ha-ḥotel lo ḥittalt (ibid.). And with an added he: redah and hashkēvah (ibid. 32:19). And with the prefix letters b-k-l-m it is not found at all.

The Future The letters e-i-t-n appear with a ḥataf-qamats, to indicate the identifying sign of the pattern, as in kalil tuqṭar (Leviticus 6:15). And if the first root letter is a guttural, the first root letter is vocalized with a qamats and the middle root letter with a ḥataf-qamats, as in ya‘amod ḥai (Leviticus 16:10), yeḥoram kol rekhusho (Ezra 10:8).