Lesson 4 | Participles
[2] Qal Participles
In terms of form, participles in Hebrew are almost exactly like adjectives. They inflect by gender and number, resulting in four different forms for any given participle. Note that only the feminine singular ending differs from that of adjectives.
qal participle for יָשַׁב
singular & plural forms
| masculine |
יוֹשֵׁב |
יֹשְׁבִים |
sitting (he / they) |
| feminine |
יוֹשֶׁבֶת |
יֹשְׁבוֹת |
sitting (she / [those ladies]) |
As for the base form, the key identifier of a qal participle is an o-class first vowel.
What does “qal” mean?
As with verbs, participles come in multiple “stems”—different forms of the verb that carry subtle shifts of meaning. You’ll learn more about this in Lesson 6, and we’ll connect participles with stems in Lesson 9. But for now, know that the most basic (and common) form of the participle uses the qal stem (קַל means “easy”). Hence this is what you find in the paradigms for this lesson.
However, the key identifier of a qal participle is missing in certain types of verbs called “hollow” verbs. Hollow verbs are those with a ו or י as the second letter of their three-letter root. The verbs you have learned so far that fit into this category are שׂוּם ,שׁוּב ,מוּת ,בּוֹא and קוּם. As you can see, some of the most common verbs in the תנ״ך are hollow verbs. This is what they look like when appearing as qal participles:
qal participle for בּוֹא
singular & plural forms
| masculine |
בָּא |
בָּאִים |
coming (he / they) |
| feminine |
בָּאָה |
בָּאוֹת |
coming (she / [those ladies]) |
There are two things you should notice. First, instead of the o-class vowel, the middle letter of the root has dropped out. Second, the feminine singular ending now matches that of adjectives.