Recognising weak verbs

When only two root letters show

In the three-letter root you learned that Hebrew verbs are built on a root of three consonants. Now look at one word from Genesis 1:3.

וַיְהִי, "vayhi", means "and there was". Take away the consecutive imperfect's וַ and you are left with יְהִי. Its first י is the imperfect prefix, so only two root letters remain, ה and י. The root of this verb, הָיָה, has three letters, but the last ה has dropped away. Verbs whose root letters drop out or change like this are called weak verbs. You do not need any new labels for them. Qal, perfect, imperfect and consecutive imperfect still apply. All you need is to understand why a letter seems to be missing.

The goal of this lesson is recognition, not memorising paradigms. Your guide is a single habit: trust the panel. It shows each word's dictionary form, meaning, stem and tense. Use the patterns below only to make sense of what the panel says, and whenever a form looks short of letters, ask "has a root letter dropped out?"

Five common kinds

First נ. In Genesis 4:5, וַיִּפְּלוּ, "vayipelu", means "and (his face) fell". It comes from נָפַל, "fall", which occurs about 276 times. The root's נ is not visible, but the פ has a doubling dot, the trace the vanished נ left behind. In Genesis 18:2, וַיִּשָּׂא, "vayissa", means "and he lifted up" (his eyes). It is from נָשָׂא, "lift, bear", about 220 times, and again the next letter, שׂ, carries a dot. In Genesis 15:2, תִּתֶּן, "titten", is "will you give?", from נָתַן, "give", where Abram asks what God can give him.

First י. In Genesis 11:5, וַיֵּרֶד, "vayered", means "and he came down". It is from יָרַד, "go down", about 380 times. The י has vanished after the prefix. Genesis 4:16, וַיֵּשֶׁב, "vayeshev", "and he settled", is the same kind, from יָשַׁב, "sit, dwell".

Then the LORD came down to see the city and the tower that the sons of men were building.

Genesis 11:5

Last ה. וַיַּרְא, "vayar", "and he saw", is from רָאָה, "see", with the final ה gone. Genesis 6:22, וַיַּעַשׂ, "vaya'as", "and he did", is from עָשָׂה, "do, make", the same way. Verbs of this kind are very common in the Bible, so they are worth learning to spot.

Middle ו/י. These are sometimes called "hollow" verbs. The middle letter is absorbed into a vowel, so the root looks like two letters. Take שׂוּם, "set, make", about 273 times. In Genesis 2:8, וַיָּשֶׂם, "vayasem", is "and he put": God put the man in the garden.

Reading the warning in Eden

God's warning to Adam shows several of these forms at work.

but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; for in the day that you eat of it, you will surely die.”

Genesis 2:17

תָּמוּת, "tamut", means "you will die". Its root is מוּת, but the middle ו behaves like a vowel (וּ) wedged between the letters, with תָּ as the imperfect prefix. The word before it, מוֹת, is the absolute infinitive that gives the sense "surely", the same structure you met in the lesson on infinitives. Using the same root twice yields "you will surely die".

Finally, throat letters (א, ה, ח, ע and others) in a root tend to change the vowels. וַיֹּאמֶר, "vayomer", "and he said", is from אָמַר; the initial א in the root changes the prefix vowel to ō. One more form: וָחַי, "vachai", "and he will live", is a consecutive perfect from חָיָה, "live", about 282 times. This short form has no final ה, so only two letters show.

Summary

When a form looks short of letters, first look at the panel's dictionary form and meaning. A first נ vanishes and doubles the next letter; a first י vanishes after the prefix; a final ה falls away; a middle ו/י becomes a vowel; throat letters change vowels. You do not have to memorise all this. You only need to be able to tell "this is a weak verb with a letter missing" from "this is a different word".

Words in this lesson

• נָפַלnaphalto fall: fall276 times in the OT
• נָשָׂאnasato lift: bear220 times in the OT
• שׂוּםsumto set: make273 times in the OT
• יָרַדyaradto go down380 times in the OT
• חָיָהchayahto live282 times in the OT

Practice