Hollow Verbs in Hebrew: Strong and Weak Forms Learn about the unique characteristics of hollow verbs in Hebrew, such as their biconsonantal nature and the absence of medial or in some forms.

2. Each Hebrew word has a three-consonant root. Hollow verbs have a medial (middle) or , such as , , , , , , and . These verbs are called hollow because the medial or is not displayed in some forms. Although these words are found in a Hebrew lexicon under their original roots and , they are inflected in the perfect verb form as and . Some grammarians refer to hollow verbs as biconsonantal verbs because the perfect and participle forms of these verbs display two root consonants instead of three.

3. Note the following hollow perfect verb inflection for both the strong and weak hollow verbs: PNG Strong Strong Hollow Weak Hollow 3ms 3fs 2ms 2fs 1cs 3cp 2mp 2fp 1cp Although hollow verbs are considered to be weak overall, within the category they have a strong and weak form. If one of the root consonants is a guttural, it is considered a weak hollow verb. Strong hollow verbs have a qamatz under the first root of all third- person forms and a patakh under the first root for all second- and first-person forms. Weak hollow verbs have a qamatz under the first root of all forms. The of the weak hollow form does not have a shewa as expected. When an closes a syllable, it is not pronounced and does not take a shewa .

4. The paradigm for hollow participles is as follows: Masculine Feminine Singular Plural Note that the 2fs participle and the 3fs perfect forms are identical. The difference between the two is the stress : the 3fs perfect form has stress on the first syllable and the 2fs participle form has stress on the last syllable. One guideline to distinguish between the two identical forms is that the participle form usually comes after the subject while the perfect form usually precedes the subject. This guideline along with the context of the sentence will help you determine which form to use in a given translation.

6. The prepositions and take slightly different forms when pronominal suffixes are added. from me like me from you (ms) like you (ms) from you (fs) like you (fs) from him like him from her like her from us like us from you (mp) like you (mp) from you (fp) like you (fp) from them (mp) like them (mp) from them (fp) (or) from them (fp) like them (fp) The forms for 3ms and 1cp are identical. Context will help you decide which translation is correct. The singular and 1cp forms have a longer spelling of and . For , the preposition is actually written twice: and combine to create . The longer form of is . The second- and third- person plural forms have a shortened spelling of and .

8. The Hebrew equivalent of the English words all , each , every , and whole is (also spelled as ). precedes the noun that it modifies. Sometimes is connected to a noun by a maqqep. Note the following examples that are translated as all instead of each or every . All is generally used when the noun being modified has the definite article. each nation (or) every nation all the nation (or) the whole nation all the nations each morning (or) every morning all the morning (or) the whole morning all the mornings

9. means everything which or everything that. is preceded by when it is the object of a verb. For example: The man wrote everything that he said. When combined with an adjective, has an indefinite pronominal translation. For example: Anything good.