Each Hebrew word has a three-consonant root. Hollow verbs have a medial (middle) ו or י, such as בוא, שׂים, צום, קום, מות, בושׁ, and רוץ. These verbs are called hollow because the medial ו or י is not displayed in some forms. Although these words are found in a Hebrew lexicon under their original roots קום and בוא, they are inflected in the perfect verb form as קָם and בָּא. Some grammarians refer to hollow verbs as biconsonantal verbs because the perfect and participle forms of these verbs display two root consonants instead of three.

Note the following hollow perfect verb inflection for both the strong and weak hollow verbs: PNGStrong Hollow Weak Hollow 3ms קָטַלקָםבָּא 3fs קָטְלָהקָמָהבָּאָה 2ms קָטַלְתָּקַמְתָּבָּאתָ 2fs קָטַלְתְּקַמְתְּבָּאת 1cs קָטַלְתִּיקַמְתִּיבָּאתִי 3cp קָטְלוּקָמוּבָּאוּ 2mp קְטַלְּתֶםקַמְתֶּםבָּאתֶם 2fp קְטַלְּתֶןקַמְתֶּןבָּאתֶן 1cp קָטַלְנוּקַמְנוּבָּאנוּ Although hollow verbs are considered to be weak overall, within the category they have a strong and weak form. If one of the root consonants is a guttural, it is considered a weak hollow verb. Strong hollow verbs have a qamatz under the first root of all third- person forms and a patakh under the first root for all second- and first-person forms. Weak hollow verbs have a qamatz under the first root of all forms. The א of the weak hollow form does not have a shewa as expected. When an א closes a syllable, it is not pronounced and does not take a shewa.

The paradigm for hollow participles is as follows: MasculineFeminine Singular קָםקָמִים Plural קָמָהקָמוֹת Note that the 2fs participle and the 3fs perfect forms are identical. The difference between the two is the stress: the 3fs perfect form has stress on the first syllable and the 2fs participle form has stress on the last syllable. One guideline to distinguish between the two identical forms is that the participle form usually comes after the subject while the perfect form usually precedes the subject. This guideline along with the context of the sentence will help you determine which form to use in a given translation.

The prepositions מִן and כְּ take slightly different forms when pronominal suffixes are added. מִמֶּנִּי from me כָּמוֹנִי like me מִמְּךָ from you (ms) כָּמוֹךָ like you (ms) מִמֵּךְ from you (fs) כָּמוֹךְ like you (fs) מִמֶּנּוּ from him כָּמוֹהוּ like him מִמֶּנָּה from her כָּמוֹהָ like her מִמֶּנּוּ from us כָּמוֹנוּ like us מִכֶּם from you (mp) כָּכֶם like you (mp) מִכֶּן from you (fp) כָּכֶן like you (fp) מֵהֶם from them (mp) כָּהֶם like them (mp) מֵהֶן מֵהֵנָּה from them (fp) (or) from them (fp) כָּהֶן like them (fp) The forms for 3ms and 1cp are identical. Context will help you decide which translation is correct. The singular and 1cp forms have a longer spelling of מִן and כְּ. For מִן, the preposition is actually written twice: מִן and מִן combine to create מִמֶּנ. The longer form of כְּ is כָּמוֹ. The second- and third- person plural forms have a shortened spelling of מִן and כְּ.

The Hebrew equivalent of the English words all, each, every, and whole is כֹּל (also spelled as כָּל ). כֹּל precedes the noun that it modifies. Sometimes כֹּל is connected to a noun by a maqqep. Note the following examples that are translated as all instead of each or every. All is generally used when the noun being modified has the definite article. כֹּל־גּוֹי each nation (or) every nation כֹּל־הַגּוֹי all the nation (or) the whole nation כֹּל־הַגּוֹיִם all the nations כֹּל־בּׁקֶר each morning (or) every morning כֹּל־הַבּׁקֶר all the morning (or) the whole morning כֹּל־הַבּׁקֶרִם all the mornings

כָּל־אֲשֶׁר means “everything which” or “everything that.” כָּל־אֲשֶׁר is preceded by אֶת ־ when it is the object of a verb. For example: כָּתַב הָאִישׁ אֶת־כָּל־אֲשֶׁר אָמַר The man wrote everything that he said. When combined with an adjective, כָּל has an indefinite pronominal translation. For example: כָּל־טוֹב Anything good.