A participle is one of the three kinds of verbals (cf. finite verb). Participles are often identified by their ending -ing; running, hitting, studying, etc. Participles are called “verbal adjectives” since they look like verbs but function like adjectives.
Start your study of Hebrew participles, by making sure you understand English participles. Then study this. Just like any adjective, Hebrew participles, can be attributive, predicate or substantival.
Attributive use:
-
- will not be part of a noun sentence;
- will directly follow the noun it modifies;
- will match this noun in gender, number, and definiteness. video
Predicate use:
-
- will be part of a noun sentence;
- will match this noun in gender and number but not definiteness;
- will be anarthrous. video
Substantival use:
-
- will be performing one of the noun functions. video
Paradigms:
Qal Active Participles:
|
Parsing |
Hebrew |
Gloss |
|
masculine singular |
קֹטֵל |
killing / killer |
|
feminine singular |
קֹטֶלֶת / קֹטְלָה |
killing / killer |
|
masculine plural |
קֹטְלִים |
killing / killers |
|
feminine plural |
קֹטְלוֹת |
killing / killers |
Hifil Active Participles:
|
Parsing |
Hebrew |
Gloss |
|
masculine singular |
מַקְטִיל |
causing to kill |
|
feminine singular |
מַקְטֶלֶת |
causing to kill |
|
masculine plural |
מַקְטִילִים |
causing to kill |
|
feminine plural |
מַקְטִילוֹת |
causing to kill |
Piel Active Participles:
|
Parsing |
Hebrew |
Gloss |
|
masculine singular |
מְקַטֵּל |
slaughtering |
|
feminine singular |
מְקַטֶּלֶת |
slaughtering |
|
masculine plural |
מְקַטְּלִים |
slaughtering |
|
feminine plural |
מְקַטְּלוֹת |
slaughtering |