Now that you have learned nouns and participles, you are ready to approach verbs!
For those who have learned another language as an adult, you will know that verbs are often the most difficult part of language learning since they change form so much. For example, in English, learning a noun like “language” requires that you only learn two forms—singular (“language”) and plural (“languages”). However, learning a verb like “learn” requires you learn many forms—past (he “learned”), perfect-singular (he “has learned”), perfect-plural (they “have learned”), present-singular (he “learns”), present-plural (they “learn”), continuous-singular (he “is learning”), etc. The same is true for Hebrew—there is much more to learn with verbs than with nouns, adjectives, prepositions, conjunctions, etc.
But they are not only challenging; they are also important. Verbs are the anchor of a language. Nouns do not stand alone, but function as the subject or object of a verb. Conjunctions connect verbal ideas together, or connect parts together within verbal clauses. Likewise, prepositions, adjectives, and adverbs are all modifying some part of the verbal idea which has a verb at its center. Thus, to read and understand Hebrew well, the most important words to understand are the verbs.
Fresh inspiration
Of course, beginning to work with Hebrew verbs can be intimidating. But it is worth the effort! Consider Ligon Duncan’s thoughts on the value of learning the biblical languages to gain some fresh inspiration before we dive in.
Parsing categories for verbs
So if we want to learn the grammar behind Hebrew verbs, what are we going to need to know? What are the categories of ways in which Hebrew verbs change form?
Standard verbs in Hebrew have five different parsing categories.
stem the template of the verb
The term “stem” in Hebrew grammar refers to something completely different than what it refers to in English, and is best understood by distinguishing it from a verb’s root. The root of a verb in Hebrew is a group of three letters which establish its base meaning. (Verbs will also share their root with nouns, adjectives, and adverbs with related meaning, as you have already seen in some of the vocab we have learned.) On the other hand, the stem of a verb in Hebrew is one of seven templates for that root to be injected into. (See the menorah on the Hebrew II cheat sheet, noting how the root letters פעל get presented differently with the different stems.) The stem affects the verb’s meaning in an interesting way, which we’ll talk about in Lesson 9.
aspect the angle of the verb
Unlike English which is built around tenses, Hebrew verbs have an aspect. And while this can often lead us to understand the implied tense of a verb (i.e. whether it is speaking about the past, present, or future), it is by no means the same thing.
Note: Other grammars might use the term “tense” for this category. In fact, your coach may even slip up and refer to the “perfect tense” or “imperfect tense”! But it is most accurate to say “aspect” and hence that is the term we prefer.
Additionally, besides giving the verb’s angle, two sub-categories of aspect also signal a step forward in the text. These two sub-categories are called sequentials as highlighted in this lesson’s devotional.
person helps identify the verb’s subject
Here, Hebrew is more precise than English. Whereas the form of English verbs tells us very little about their subject, Hebrew tells us much more. For instance, the form of a Hebrew verb indicates if the subject is 1st person (i.e. I or we), 2nd person (i.e. you) or 3rd person (i.e. they).
gender helps identify the verb’s subject
The form of a Hebrew verb can also indicate whether the subject is masculine or feminine.
number helps identify the verb’s subject
And Hebrew verb forms also indicate whether the subject is singular or plural. (English often does the same, as seen in the difference between “he goes” and “they go.”)
So the person, gender, and number all serve to identify the verb’s subject—far more information about the subject than English verbs provide. As a result, a subject pronoun is unnecessary and only used for emphasis. For example, in the song בֵּֽאלֹהִים (back in Hebrew I, Lesson 4) we saw the verb “הִלַּלְנוּ” and translated it “we have boasted.” Hebrew does have a pronoun for “we,” but it is not used here because it is unnecessary. The form of the verb has already indicated that “we” is the subject!
Moving along, the aspect of a Hebrew verb is going to be the biggest challenge for you to understand, since it is not only a new category for English speakers, but a whole new way of thinking. We will begin tackling aspect a little later on in this lesson and then look at our first sequential sub-category of aspect in the next lesson.
But first, let’s look at an example verse in the next step to help make the categories a bit more clear.