Past tense עבר
The past tense is the first conjugation where the verb itself names the person, so כתבתי already means I wrote and you can drop אני. The dictionary form of many verbs is the third-person masculine singular past.
Add the past suffixes ־תי, ־ת, ־ת, ־∅, ־ה, ־נו, ־תם, ־תן, ־ו to the past stem; third-person masculine singular is the bare stem.
כתבתי, כתבת, כתבת, כתב, כתבה, כתבנו, כתבתם, כתבתן, כתבו. Second-person masculine and feminine singular are both כתבת in unvowelled writing; nikud shows כָּתַבְתָּ versus כָּתַבְתְּ. Third-person plural כתבו covers men, women, and mixed groups in ordinary use.
| Hebrew | Transliteration | English |
|---|---|---|
| כָּתַבְתִּי | katavti | I wrote |
| כָּתַבְתָּ | katavta | you wrote (ms) |
| כָּתַבְתְּ | katavt | you wrote (fs) |
| כָּתַב | katav | he wrote |
| כָּתְבָה | katva | she wrote |
| כָּתַבְנוּ | katavnu | we wrote |
| כְּתַבְתֶּם | ktavtem | you wrote (mp) |
| כְּתַבְתֶּן | ktavten | you wrote (fp) |
| כָּתְבוּ | katvu | they wrote |
The she-form כתבה and the they-form כתבו often lose the second a of katav: katva, katvu. Second-person plural כתבתם starts with a reduced first syllable: ktavtem. These reductions are regular in pa'al. Hearing katva instead of katava is a feature, not a slur.
| Hebrew | Transliteration | English | |
|---|---|---|---|
| היא כתבה מכתב | hi katva mikhtav | She wrote a letter. | |
| הם כתבו מכתב | hem katvu mikhtav | They wrote a letter. |
היה, היתה, היו, הייתי, היית, היינו, הייתם stand in for was / were and for the past of יש. היה לי is I had. Agreement follows the subject (or the possessed noun with לי). There is no present copula to match; the past suddenly has a real verb.
| Hebrew | Transliteration | English | |
|---|---|---|---|
| דן היה מורה | dan haya more | Dan was a teacher. | |
| רות היתה בבית | rut hayta ba-bayit | Ruth was at home. | |
| הייתי עייף | hayiti ayef | I was tired. |
כתבתי can be I wrote, I have written, or I had written depending on the rest of the sentence. Hebrew is not required to mark that split on the verb. Time words (אתמול, כבר, מזמן) and context do it. Do not hunt for a separate present-perfect conjugation; it is not there.
| Hebrew | Transliteration | English | |
|---|---|---|---|
| כתבתי אתמול | katavti etmol | I wrote yesterday. | |
| כבר כתבתי | kvar katavti | I have already written. |
Exceptions
Hollow and final-he verbs shrink
קם, באה, ראו, עשתה do not look like כתבתי. Verbs whose middle root letter is ו or י, and verbs that end in ה, have shorter past forms. Learn היה, עשה, ראה, בא, קם, גר as whole past charts. The suffixes ־תי and ־נו still attach: קמתי, באנו, ראיתי, עשינו.
| קמתי מוקדם | kamti mukdam | I got up early. |
| ראיתי אותך | ra'iti otkha | I saw you. |
| עשינו שיעורי בית | asinu shi'urei bayit | We did homework. |
כתבת is two persons
Without nikud, כתבת is both you (ms) and you (fs). Speech keeps katavta versus katavt. In writing, the next words or a pronoun אתה / את tell the reader which one you meant.
Common mistakes
אני כתב → כתבתי
First person past needs ־תי; כתב is he wrote.
היא כתב → היא כתבה
Feminine third person takes ־ה: כתבה.
אתם כתבו → אתם כתבתם
Second-person plural past is כתבתם, not the they-form כתבו.
Go on to
Future tense
The future puts a prefix on the verb: a- for I, t- for you and she, y- for he and they, n- for we. אכתוב is I will write, and the same conjugation also builds many commands and a lot of polite requests.
A2 · 14 minPresent tense
The Hebrew present is a four-form participle: one each for masculine singular, feminine singular, masculine plural, and feminine plural. It covers I am writing and I write, and it does not mark person.
A1 · 12 minPa'al (qal)
Pa'al, also called qal, is the basic active pattern. Dictionary citations such as כתב, שמר, and הלך are pa'al past tense, and a large share of the first verbs you learn sit in this binyan.
B1 · 15 min