Lesson 9 | Stems
[1] הַמְּנוֹרָה
You will recall that a Hebrew verb stem is a sort of template into which the root is inserted. It is because of this template nature that we can learn a small handful of forms and know what other verbs should look like. We just take that model paradigm and insert the new root.
But to this point, we have only examined the qal stem. (Remember, קַל means “easy.”) There are six other stems to be learned as well. The rest of the stem names come from their form, based on the root פָּעַל (meaning “do”). This is extremely helpful since it means that if you know the name of the stem, then you already know the qal perfect 3ms form.
It is important to understand that a verb’s stem will not change the base meaning of the word. Instead, it affects whether that meaning is made passive, intensive, causative, and/or reflexive. The best way to illustrate this is with the picture of the מְּנוֹרָה that was in the temple.
מְּנוֹרָה
42x
lampstand (noun)
Note the following from the illustration above:
- There are three active, one reflexive, and three passive stems.
- There is a correlation between active and passive stem pairs (qal/niphal, piel/pual, and hiphil/hophal).
- The typical function of each stem is either simple, intensive, causative, or reflexive.
Exceptions
As with every language, the rules do not always hold true. The qal, for example, can sometimes have a passive meaning, and the niphal occasionally has an active meaning. But you will find exceptions like this are indeed rare.
An additional complication is that many grammarians mark other uncommon stems besides these seven. But in reality, such stems can all be understood as slight mutations of the seven. We will talk about them in this fashion whenever we encounter them in the remainder of the course.