Modern Hebrew: An Essential Grammar

a Usually soft , , directly following the verbal prefix are usually soft, thus:Roots with , ,:‘soft orhard’?PA’ALFuture, . . . Infinitive NIF’ALPresent Past PI’ELPresent Future, . . . Infinitive PU’ALPresent Future, . . . HIF’ILPresentFuture,. . . PastInfinitive, . . . HUF’ALPresent Past, . . . Future, The only major exceptions are that after the HITPA’EL prefixes ( , ,etc.), , , are hard, thus , and similarly after the NIF’AL futureand infinitive prefixes, e.g. , and .b Usually hard , , as the middle root consonant are mostly hard. This nearly alwaysholds for the entire set of HIF’IL, HUF’AL, PI’EL, PU’AL and HITPA’ELforms, hence the hard in:PI’EL to delay . . . , , , HIF’IL to put to bed . . . , , , 91