In short

To say what someone wants, needs, or is able to do, Modern Hebrew pairs two verbs: an agreeing modal followed by an infinitive. אני רוצה לאכול (ani rotze le’echol) = “I want to eat”; היא צריכה ללכת (hi tzricha lalechet) = “she needs to go”. The pattern is always subject + modal + infinitive (+ object).

The trick is that the two verbs behave in opposite ways. The modal agrees in gender and number with the subject — just like any present-tense binoni you met in lesson 6 — while the infinitive is frozen. The infinitive, called שם הפועל (shem ha-po’al, “the name of the verb”), is the dictionary form: it always begins with ל־ (le-/li-) and never changes for person, gender, or number. Learn to keep the second verb rigid and let only the first one move.

The rule

• The infinitive is the invariant ל־ form. שם הפועל (shem ha-po’al) is what a dictionary lists: לכתוב (lichtov, “to write”), לאכול (le’echol, “to eat”), ללכת (lalechet, “to go”). It carries no marking for who, how many, or which gender. Once you have it, it never bends — it is the one truly fixed verb form in the language.

• It always keeps its ל־ prefix. The leading ל־ (spelled attached, no space) is part of the form, not a separate word. There is no “bare” infinitive in Hebrew as there is in English: you cannot strip the ל־ off לכתוב the way English drops “to” from “to write”. Say and write the whole thing — לאכול, ללכת, לשתות — every time.

• Three everyday modals: רוצה, צריך, יכול. רוצה (rotze) = “want”, צריך (tzarich) = “need / have to”, יכול (yachol) = “can / be able to”. Each is an ordinary present-tense verb, so each has four forms (m.sg, f.sg, m.pl, f.pl) and must agree with the subject.

• The modal agrees — the infinitive does not. All the grammatical work happens on the modal: match it to the subject’s gender and number, exactly as you learned for the binoni in lesson 6. The infinitive that follows just sits there unchanged. הוא רוצה ללכת / היא רוצה ללכת / הם רוצים ללכת — the modal shifts (rotze → rotza → rotzim) while ללכת (lalechet) stays put.

• Word order: subject + modal + infinitive (+ object). אני צריך לכתוב מכתב (ani tzarich lichtov michtav, “I need to write a letter”). The object, if any, comes after the infinitive, and if it is definite it still takes את (et) from lesson 15: אני רוצה לקרוא את הספר (ani rotze likro et ha-sefer, “I want to read the book”).

• Watch the unpointed רוצה — rotze or rotza. Because we write without niqqud, the masculine רוצה (rotze) and the feminine רוצה (rotza) are spelled with the exact same three letters. A man reading אני רוצה says ani rotze; a woman reading the identical text says ani rotza. The spelling doesn’t tell you — the speaker’s gender does. (The other two modals differ in writing: צריך vs צריכה, יכול vs יכולה.)

• To make it negative, put לא before the modal. At this stage negation is simple: drop לא (lo, “not”) in front of the modal, never the infinitive. הם לא רוצים ללמוד (hem lo rotzim lilmod, “they don’t want to study”). The full machinery of negation comes later; for now, לא + modal is all you need.

Forms & patterns

The infinitive (shem ha-po’al) — one frozen ל־ form per verb:

The three modals, agreeing in gender + number (like any binoni):

The pattern in action — only the modal moves, the infinitive is fixed (verb: ללכת, lalechet):

Negation at A2 — לא goes before the modal:

Examples

Common mistakes

• היא צריכה הולכת -> היא צריכה ללכת (hi tzricha lalechet) - after a modal you use the frozen infinitive, never a conjugated present-tense form.
• אני רוצה אכול -> אני רוצה לאכול (ani rotze le’echol) - the infinitive always keeps its ל־ prefix; you cannot drop it the way English drops “to”.
• היא צריך ללכת -> היא צריכה ללכת (hi tzricha lalechet) - the modal must agree in gender; a feminine subject takes צריכה, not צריך.
• הם יכול לעזור -> הם יכולים לעזור (hem yecholim la’azor) - the modal agrees in number too; a plural subject takes יכולים.
• הם רוצים לא ללמוד -> הם לא רוצים ללמוד (hem lo rotzim lilmod) - to say they don’t want to, put לא before the modal, not before the infinitive.
• אני רוצה (ani rotze, spoken by a woman) -> אני רוצה (ani rotza) - the unpointed רוצה is read rotze by a man but rotza by a woman; match the pronunciation to the speaker.
• אני צריך ללכת עכשיו הבית -> אני צריך ללכת עכשיו הביתה (ani tzarich lalechet achshav ha-bayta) - the goal of the motion keeps its normal marking: “home” as a destination is הביתה, not הבית. Only the infinitive itself is frozen.

Tips

• Think of the pair as one moving part and one fixed part: the modal moves (agrees), the infinitive is fixed. Get the agreement right on the first verb and forget the second.
• The infinitive is the form you memorize from a dictionary. It always starts with ל־ and always sounds the same, so you only ever learn it once.
• Never re-conjugate the infinitive. There is no לאוכלת or ללכתים — the whole point of שם הפועל is that it has no gender/number.
• Agree the modal exactly like the present-tense binoni of lesson 6: רוצה / רוצה / רוצים / רוצות, צריך / צריכה / צריכים / צריכות, יכול / יכולה / יכולים / יכולות.
• Remember the silent-gender trap: רוצה is written the same for a man (rotze) and a woman (rotza). Read it aloud according to who is speaking.
• To negate, just slot לא before the modal: אני לא יכול, היא לא רוצה, הם לא צריכים.
• A definite object of the infinitive still needs את (et): רוצה לקרוא את הספר — the modal-plus-infinitive frame doesn’t change that rule.
• Separate “someone wants to do” (infinitive) from “someone wants that someone else do” — the latter needs a she- clause and comes much later; here both verbs share one subject.