Lesson 7 | Qal Perfect
[1] Form
We will begin by learning the perfect form in the qal stem (the most basic stem) only.
Letters are added to the root in order to create the different inflected forms. These letters have been placed in yellow to make them easy to spot. On the left-hand side of the chart, you can see a short-hand indicator of the person, gender, and number. On the right-hand side of the chart is an English gloss. The glosses are a bit creative to distinguish between gender and number where Hebrew makes those clear. Finally, the verb אָמַר was chosen as an example because it appears 1,167 times in the Hebrew Bible with a perfect form.
qal perfect for אָמַר
| 1cs |
אָמַרְתִּי |
I said |
| 1cp |
אָמַרְנוּ |
we said |
| | |
| 2ms |
אָמַרְתָּ |
you [sir] said |
| 2fs |
אָמַרְתְּ |
you [ma’am] said |
| 2mp |
אֲמַרְתֶּם |
you all said |
| 2fp |
אֲמַרְתֶּן |
[ladies] you all said |
| | |
| 3ms |
אָמַר |
he said |
| 3fs |
אָמְרָה |
she said |
| 3cp |
אָמְרוּ |
they said |
Memorize this paradigm! Start from the top and say the forms one after the other, noting the parsings and meanings as you do so. By memorizing this chart, you will not only be learning how to identify the qal perfect forms of אָמַר, but also learning the basic qal perfect form for other verbs—the only difference being the three letter root used in each word.
For example, can you figure out the person, number, and gender of the following qal perfect verbs?
שָׁמַעְתִּי יָדַעְתָּ בָֽטְחוּ
Observant students may have noticed that the qal perfect 3ms in the paradigm above, אָמַר, looks just like the form you memorized in your vocab. The form of verbs in the New Vocabulary sections, and in any lexicon you may reference, is the qal perfect 3ms (called the “lexical form”). The exception is hollow verbs (which you’ll learn about in the next step), whose lexical form is the qal infinitive-construct.
**Minor note: The complex vowel אֲ in the 2mp and 2fp forms is not normal, but will only appear on words with an א as the first letter in their root. Normally, you will see a kamatz there instead.