But, of course, there are weak verbs when it comes to the imperfect, as there were with the perfect. Such weak verbs fall into three main categories. (You don’t need to memorize these charts, but do spend some time carefully noting how they differ from the basic qal imperfect paradigm.)
Hollow verbs
As with the qal perfect, the qal imperfect looks a bit different when the second letter of the root is a י or ו. Notice two things: (1) At times the second letter drops out, though its sound remains. (2) The first vowel becomes a-class (or a shva, when the verb also has a pronominal suffix).
qal imperfect for בּוֹא
| 1cs |
אָבוֹא |
I will come |
| 1cp |
נָבוֹא |
we will come |
| | |
| 2ms |
תָּבוֹא |
you [sir] will come |
| 2fs |
תָּבֹאִי |
you [ma’am] will come |
| 2mp |
תָּבֹאוּ |
you all will come |
| 2fp |
תָּבֹאנָה |
[ladies] you all will come |
| | |
| 3ms |
יָבוֹא |
he will come |
| 3fs |
תָּבוֹא |
she will come |
| 3mp |
יָבוֹאוּ |
they will come |
| 3fp |
תָּבֹאנָה |
[those ladies] will come |
Weak final letter
In the imperfect, as was with the perfect, the final weak letter of the root can be lost when the form adds letters on to the end. הָיָה is the most frequent example of this. (Another common qal imperfect with a weak third letter is עָשָׂה.) You will also notice that the cholam vowel is replaced by a segol.
And just like we told you in Hebrew II, you should learn this word well in the imperfect form. You will see it everywhere and it will serve as a model to you for how other verbs with a weak third letter in their root appear in the qal imperfect.
(Note: As with the perfect, the weak letters are י ,ו ,ה and נ.)
qal imperfect for הָיָה
| 1cs |
אֶהְיֶה |
I will be |
| 1cp |
נִהְיֶה |
we will be |
| | |
| 2ms |
תִּהְיֶה |
you [sir] will be |
| 2fs |
תְּהִי |
you [ma’am] will be |
| 2mp |
תִּהְיוּ |
you all will be |
| 2fp |
תִּהְיֶינָה |
[ladies] you all will be |
| | |
| 3ms |
יִהְיֶה |
he will be |
| 3fs |
תִּהְיֶה |
she will be |
| 3mp |
יִהְיוּ |
they will be |
| 3fp |
תִּהְיֶינָה |
[those ladies] will be |
Weak first letter
Since the imperfect features a letter prefix, some words with a weak first letter in their root lose that initial root letter. We say some because you will note that הָיָה (above) did not lose its initial ה. But many words do. Common examples are לָקַח ,נָתַן and הָלַךְ. (Note that while ל is not typically a weak letter, it is with the word לָקַח.)
qal imperfect for נָתַן
| 1cs |
אֶתֵּן |
I will give |
| 1cp |
נִתֵּן |
we will give |
| | |
| 2ms |
תִּתֶּן |
you [sir] will give |
| 2fs |
תִתְּנִי |
you [ma’am] will give |
| 2mp |
תִּתְּנוּ |
you all will give |
| 2fp |
|
|
| | |
| 3ms |
יִתֵּן |
he will give |
| 3fs |
תִּתֶּן |
she will give |
| 3mp |
יִתְּנוּ |
they will give |
| 3fp |
|
|
You may also notice that, though this verb’s root ends in נ, it doesn’t treat that נ like a weak final letter in the 2fs, 2mp, and 3mp forms where letters are added to the end.
**Note: The 2fp and 3fp are left blank because those forms do not appear in the תנ״ך (at least not for לָקַח ,נָתַן and הָלַךְ).
Other weak forms
As with the perfect, there are other weak forms, but these paradigms cover the majority of cases. That said, keep an eye out for guttural letters (ע ,ח ,א and ר), remembering that they prefer a-class vowels. In addition, some verbs that have א as the first letter of their root do something surprising. We’ll see what this looks like later in this lesson.