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Verb Tenses

Verb Tenses

You are now going to be entering an extremely exciting phase of this study as you begin to learn the verb tenses, voices and moods. This is what might be called the "guts" of biblical Hebrew in that this is what will enable you to understand what is actually being said in the Hebrew text.

We will start off by looking at the seven, main verb tenses (I say main because there are some others that we will also include later) in the perfect tense of completed action:

1. Kal (Qal) Simple Active “He shot”
2. Niphal Simple Passive “He was shot”
  and Reflexive “He shot himself”
3. Piel Intensive Active/Causative “He really shot”
4. Pual Intensive Passive “He was really shot”
5. Hiphil Causative Active “He caused to be shot”
6. Hophal Causative Passive “He was caused to be shot”
7. Hithpael Reflexive “He shot himself”

These are the seven, main verb tenses, but there are also some more that are offshoots of the above with an intensive and reflexive emphasis. And while these are far less frequent than the above (and there are other Hith forms even less frequent), you will encounter them, and, therefore, you need to know what they are.

1. Polel Intensive Active “He really shot”
2. Pilel Intensive Active “He really shot”
3. Polal Intensive Passive “He was really shot”
4. Polpal Intensive Passive “He was really shot”
5. Hithpolel Reflexive “He shot himself”
6. Hithpalel Reflexive “He shot himself”
7. Hithpaal Causative Passive/Reflexive “He was caused to be shot”
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