chapter eleven: the hebrew participles

Chapter

11

11.1The Hebrew Participles (פועל בינונים)There are two Participles in used in Classical Hebrew, namely, the Active Participle and the Passive Participle. Comparable are these two with the two participles in the English language, that is, the Present Participle and the Past Participle.

11.2The active voice denotes that the subject is the actor or executive of the action of the controlling verb; the passive voice indicates that the subject is acted upon by the action of the controlling verb. Only the Qal binyan (בניין קל) has both Passive and Active Participles in the Hebrew language.

11.3Nature of the ParticipleTwo forms of the Participle are in use in the Hebrew language: the Passive Participle and the Active Participle, analogous to the Past Participle and the Present Participle in the English language.

11.4The nature of the participle, either active or passive, of each derived stem of the verb (בניינים), that is, wheather it is a passive or active Participle, is determined by the nature of each בניין. As such, Pi’el (פעל), Hithpa’el ,are active voice of the derived stems, hence (הפעיל) and Hiphil (התפעל)

The Participles and The Present Tense

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2 Hebrew Verbal System

the participle of each of these stems is active participle; therefore there is no passive form of the participle for these בניינים.

11.5Like wise, Niph’al (נפעל), Pu’al (פעל) and Hophal (הפעל) are passive voice of the binyanim, hence, the participle of each of these binyanim is a passive participle, and each of the masculine singular would carry a [○] (קמץ) as the stem vowel or the pillion vowel, which would be immutable during conjugation. These binynim do not have the active participle—except Qal binyan, which has both the passive and the active participle.

11.6Basically, it is more appropriate to think of the Hebrew Participles in term of active voice (Qal Active Participle, Pi’el Participle, Hiphil Participle and Hithpa’el Participle) and passive voice (Qal Passive Participle, Niph’al Participle, Pu’al Participle, Hophal Participles), as each active binyan has the active participle but without the passive participle—except Qal binyan, which has both the passive and the active participle—while the passive binyan has the passive participle but without the active participle.

11.7Except for the Qal Participles, which do not carry prosthesis, Participles of all the other בניינים are preceded by the consonant [מ] (מם) vowelled with [○] (שוא נע), whereas Niph’al (נפעל) Participle is loaded with [ ] as prosthesis, and vowelled with (נון) [נ Both of these .(שוא נע) [○are members of the Simple binyan.

11.8When one of the consonant in the שורש has a guttural or weak consonant, the שווא rules for guttural consonant shall apply, mostly engaging weak consonants in the 'ע or 'ל position.

11.9The Hebrew Participle could have the article prefixed to them, and by

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3CHAPTER ELEVEN: The Participle and The Present Tense

the same token, the use of preposition is allowed with the Participles.

11.10A participle is generally the non-finite forms of a verb quite similar to the infinitive. Unike the Infinitive, a participle does carry information pertaining to gender and number apart from the action of the verb, but it depends on the controlling verb for its tenses.

11.11The Participle shares some characteristics of a verb and some of an adjective. It is very often used substantively—as a noun. As a verb, it is allowed to take an object or predicate, but it has no tense determination.

11.12A participle derived from a verb and used as an adjective is termed a gerund when used as noun, which in effect is a non-finite verb. The distinction lies in how the participle is used, as both would have the same form.

11.13Unlike the Perfect Tense and the Imperfect Tense, the Hebrew Participle must have a pronoun as the subject. Independent personal pronouns are used to produce a full force of expression equivalent to the English Present Tense (Present Continuous Tense or Simple Present Tense). The Active Participle (the Present Tense) of a verb often could be used as a noun.

11.14Like adjectives, Participles must agree with the main noun in gender and number they seek to modify, and therefore the participles take on four possible forms of declension: two for masculine participles (singular and plural), and two for feminine participles (singular and plural): there are two types of declension for feminine singular participles. These declensions are changed by means of adding personal pronoun affixes

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to the root, in the same manner as declensions done to the nouns.

11.15Like a noun, the participle may take on a construct state, which declension would be similar to the construct state of a noun.

11.16The Participle in the Hebrew language may be used in the following manners:

(i) The Active Participle is used as adjective, agreeing with the subject in gender, number and definiteness. It may be used either as the substantive, the attributive or the predicative position.

(ii) As an adjective, the Participle has no tenses; but it has a

sense of completed action similar to a perfect meaning, especially so with the Passive Participle, as in the case with the English Past Participle.

(iii) The Active Participle could be used as a subject of the

verb (substantive use of the Active Participle), in which case it has the sense as the actor or an agent who performs or one who is doing the action of the controlling verb. In this way, a Hebrew word in the form a Participle could be used as an ordinary common noun; a sample word of this: שמר, which word could denote "the act of guarding" or "the person who is doing the job of guarding", that is, "the guard".

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Construct Absolute

plural singular plural singular

רבים שמרי שמר שמרים שמר יחיד

רבות שמרות/שמרת

שמרת/שמרת

שמרות/שמרת

שמרת/שמרה יחידה


(iv) When used as a noun, the Active Participle could accept the Article: e.g. הזקן the elder, השמר the guard.

(v) As a noun, the Active Participle may occur in the construct state or take a pronoun suffix:

(vi) The Active Participle could be used as a verb; but it takes no article and can be used in the past, the present, or the future time of the controlling verb. On this ground, the Active Participle is used as Present Tense for the Hebrew verb.

(vii) As a verb, the Participle has verbal stem (בנין) and voice,

gender and number.

(viii) In the main thrust, the Participles unfolds a process of the verb that could be understood as linear, iterative, repeated action, or simply trying to be vivid.

11.17The Qal Active ParticipleAs far as the Active Participle is concern, by the time of the Dead Sea Scrolls, it seems, the head vowel had already been deflected to [ ○] ] but emerged as (הולם חסר) in Isaiah manuscript of (הולם מלא) [וthe Dead Sea Scrolls.

11.18In Biblical Hebrew, the vowel [ placed after the first (הולם חסר) [○root consonant is sometimes written as [ו] (הולם מלא): e.g. שומרות This form is used more frequently in Modern .שומר, שומרת, שומרים,Hebrew especially of word which root has a [מ] (מם) in the third position of the word.

11.19Forms and Default Vowel Scheme of Qal ParticiplesDefault vowels for the Qal Participles are those identical in currency in

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the sample words: פועל or פעל for the Qal Active Participle; פעול for Qal Passive Participle.

11.20Only four pronoun forms (masculine singular and plural, female singular and plural) are used in the Participle. The feminine singular has two types of ending: (i) [ת○○] (סגול+סגול+ת), similar to segholate nouns; (ii) [ה---] (קמץ+הא), (e.g. נקטלה), the alternative feminine singular ending but is less common. It is required in participles with a weak middle letter in the verbal roots. Both of these two are vocalic sufformative conjugation.

11.21Alternative form of the Active Participle could be written with vowel combination of [ This .בנין קל used mainly for ,(חולם מלא+צרי) [ו+○alternative form is mostly used in Modern Hebrew.

11.22The vowel scheme for other בניינים would emulate the vowels used in the base form of the verb, that is, the Infinitive Construct of each stem (see the paradigm given).

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Examples The Vowels Default vowel scheme for the Participles

קטול [ +ו ○]To be used in the Passive Participle, as the vowels in the sample word: פעול 1.

קטל [ ○+○]To be used in the Active Participle, as the vowels in the

sample word: פועל or פעל 2.

Paradigm: Qal Participles of Strong Verb

Qal Passive Qal Active

קטול קטל יחיד

קטולים קטלים יחידה

קטולה קטלת / קטלה רבים

קטולות קטלות רבות


11.23The Qal Active Participle as the Present Tense (זמן־הווה)Unlike English, the Hebrew language does not have a separate set of verbal form for the Present Tense: the Active form of the Hebrew Participle is used for this purpose, especially so in Modern Hebrew.

11.24The sense of a present tense of a verb, however, may be expressed by using other verbal forms as well, such as the Imperfect Tense.

11.25The Participle, depending on the context of the controlling verb in the sentence, may express a past sense; a popular example: .(Genesis 1:3) רוח אלהים מרחפת על־פנ המים:

11.26The sample given here shows the Participle is used as an adjective in the predicative in a non-verbal sentence;

Other possible implications of the sample phrase:

• The man was guarding.• The man is/was observing (watching).• The man is one who guards (The man is the guard).• The man kept.• The man is about to guard.• The man will guard.

11.27Independent personal pronouns should be used with this type of sentences to generate a sense of the verb similar to the English Present Tense.

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The man guardscould also mean

The man (is) guarding

האיש שמר←


11.28Unlike English, sentences in Hebrew in the Present Tense that seek to convey an adjectival effect may not require copula verb (verb to be), known as verbless or zero verb sentences in some Hebrew grammar textbooks. Hebrew is not the only language to be privileged with this feature. It is also found in the Malay language and Mandarin Chinese where a supposed of the verb to be is absent in places where it to be expected in the counterpart sentences in the English language, usually expressing a simple direct relationship or a condition.

11.29There is no active participle for the Niph’al binyan.

11.30The (Active) Participle for Pi’el, Hithpa’el and HiphilAll Participles, active as well as passive, outside the Simple binyanim

(Qal and Niphal) are given the prosthesis [ as the key sign for (מם) [מthe Participles. In the case of Pi’el Participle, the prosthesis [ (מם) [מis prefixed to the Pi’el Infinitive Construct without disruption to the default vowels of the Pi’el binyan, and as there is no accent shift and therefore propretonic reduction of head vowel would not happen. The given שווא of the prosthesis מ is a שווא נע, as the vowels in the sample word: מקטל. The same maneuver would be applicable to the formation of Hithpa’el Participle, which is an active participle, where the default [ ] would be replaced by (הא) [ה ,the prosthesis for Participles (מם) [מas the vowels in the sample word: מתקטל. To configure the Participle for Hiphil, which is an active stem, the prosthesis for participle [ [מ in the default head syllable, as (הא) [ה] would take the place of (מם)the vowels in the sample word: מקטיל. The stem vowel for all active binyanim would load a [○] (צרי) as the stem vowel. For Hiphil binyan , the key signature [י○] (היריק מלא) is immutable and it plays the role of the stem vowel for Hiphil Participle—except in the declension for feminine singular, which assumes a segholate noun format—and all forms of the Hiphil binyan, except zero vowel conjugation in Hiphil.

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11.31As the Participles are verbal noun, the inflection for participle would be known as declension, and attention is needed to take note that the declension for feminine singular participle would take a segholate noun format, which would be the standard declension for all active participle feminine singular, as the vowels in the sample words: קטלת, מקטלת.

11.32The Passive ParticiplesThe Passive Participle has the same function as the Active Participle: to be used as an attributive adjective, predicative adjective, or substantive noun.

11.33Termed as passive, the Hebrew Passive Participle is really in the active stem; A Passive form of the verb could occur only in the Transitive verb.

11.34The method and manner of declension for the Active Participle would be applicable to the Passive Participle.

11.35The declension for the Participles of the weak verbs would be similar to the strong verbs, making adjustment for contiguous שוואים as well as other related rules.

11.36The Passive voice of each binyan would have the passive participle, and the Qal binyan also has a Passive Participle, hence there are five passive participles, including one in Qal binyan and two in the Hophal binyanim.

11.37Only the Qal stem has both an Active Participle and a Passive Participle

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10Hebrew Verbal System

form of a verb. Participle in the Qal stem, both Active and Passive, does not carry prefixes.

11.38Other Passive Participles are found in Niph’al, Pu’al, Hophal, and these three binyanim do not have the Active Participle as each of these three is the passive voice of the verb of which an active counterpart is separately available: the Active Participle for Pu’al is Pi’el Active Participle, the Active Participle for Hophal is Hiphil Active Participle and the Active for Niph’al is Qal, which has an Active and an another Passive form of the Participle of it own, and so on.

11.39Rules of propretonic reduction of first vowel shall apply to all cases of Passive Participle with pronominal sufformative inflections, that is, masculine plural, feminine singular and feminine plural, with the exception of masculine singular verbs, which would be always a zero vowel sufformative conjugation.

11.40Qal Passive ParticiplesThe Qal Passive Participle is vowelled with [ the ,(קמץ+שורוק) [○+וdefault combination in all verb types (including ל"ה verbs), except verbs, known as Hollow verbs (II-yod/waw or Ayin-yod/waw) ע"י/ו(also known as biconsonantal verbs), which actually are single-syllable verbs.

11.41The Qal binyan has a set of default vowel for the Qal Passive Participle, as the vowels in the sample word: פעול. As the head vowel is a [ ○] in which case, it would response to propretonic reduction of ,(קמץ)head vowel in pluralization. The stem vowel [ is given by (שורוק) [וdefault for Qal Passive Participle, which is immutable. As participles, both active as well as passive, are verbal nouns, thus the declension of the participles would be similar to the declension of the nouns.

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Once again, attention is needed to take note that the declension for the Passive Participle feminine singular, however, assume a format as the vowels in the sample word: קטולה, which is different from that of the feminine singular of the Active Participle, the segholate noun ending. As could be seen from the sample declension, it is a vocalic sufformative conjugation, which would induce propretonic reduction of the head vowel. The declension for feminine plural would be similar to the declension of feminine nouns, in which case the key ending for feminine plural nouns: ות would be visible.

11.42Sometime Qal Passive Participle could be written as: קטל.

11.43As a general rule, all non-Qal binyanim would have a default prosthesis for each respective binyan, which would be immutable. There are two patterns of Hophal and thus two distinctive prostheses, one for each format. To configure the Passive Participle for each of the Passive binyan, by the same rules and method used for the Active Participle, the head default syllable would lead a standard stem vowel for the Passive Participle, which by default would be a [ .(קמץ) [○

11.44The declension of three main passive voice binyanim, namely, the Niph’al, Pu’al and Hophal are similar as that of the Qal active participle, including the segholate feminine noun ending for feminine singular. Each would be given a prosthesis: the Niph’al displays the [נ] (נון), while other would show the [מ] (מם) pair up with the vowel [ (קמץ) [○as theme vowel. All passive voice participles would assume a similar pattern in declension. There are two forms of Hophal Participles: (i) both are in the zero vowel sufformative declension ,מקטל or (ii) מקטל(ms). Participles in the Hophal binyanim are to be inflected like the Qal Active Participle where the declension for feminine singular would assume segholate feminine noun ending, with the exception of ל"ה verb where the Participles are to be assigned the vowel [ as the (סגול) [○theme vowel. שם ב

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12Hebrew Verbal System

11.45To sum up, for both the strong and the weak verbs, in the Intensive and Causative binyanim, in the Passive as well as Active Participle, the Participles are prefixed with the prosthesis syllable [ which is ,(מם) [מthe main characteristic of non-Qal Participles, except the Niph’al, which assume its own prosthesis the [נ] (נון). All these בניינים follow a rather consistent pattern: מקטל, מקטיל, מקטל, מקטל, מקטל or מתקטל. Actually these base forms are also the vowels used in the names of each binyan.

11.46Paradigms of the Participles (a) The strong verbs (for paradigms of בניין קל see the paradigm above):

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The Participles of non-Qal Binyanim הפעל הפעיל התפעל פעל פעל נפעלHophal Hiphil Hitpa’el Pu’al Pi‘el Niph‘al

**מקטל מקטיל מתקטל מקטל מקטל נקטל ms מקטלים מקטילים מתקטלים מקטלים מקטלים נקטלים mpמקטלת מקטלת מתקטלת מקטלת מקטלת נקטלה *fs מקטלות מקטילות מתקטלות מקטלות מקטלות נקטלות fp

*The optional ending with ה— [ is (נקטלה ,.e.g) (קמץ הא) [○available for any feminine singular participle but is less common. It is required with all participles from middle weak roots. **Another form is מקטל.

chapter eleven: the hebrew participles

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