\(Pre\) = Diagnostic Word-initial Combinations

  • A Hebrew strong verb conjugation, regardless of the stem, can usually be identified based on its initial combination of consonants, vowels, and from time-to-time, the presence of a Dagesh Forte
  • For example, in Lesson 15, we will learn the “Imperfect Preformatives” (we’ll describe what a preformative is a little later)
    • The 3ms and 3mp strong forms will always have:
      • Preformative consonant = Yod
      • \(V_P = I\) (Hireq), and
      • \(V_1 = \ :\) (Silent Sheva)
    • We can further shorten this by saying \(Pre =\) יִקְ,
      • י represents any Imperfect Preformative
      • ק represents \(R_1\) of any strong verb
    • \(Pre\) is the word-initial combination of preformatives, vowels, and possibly a Dagesh that can help us identify and translate a specific verb form