In short

To tell someone directly to do something — write!, come!, sit down! — Modern Hebrew has a dedicated form, the ציווי (tzivui, “imperative”). It exists for exactly three addressees: one man, one woman, and a group. There is no genderless “you”, so you pick the form by who is in front of you: כתוב (ktov, to a man), כתבי (kitvi, to a woman), כתבו (kitvu, to several).

The good news is that you already know most of it. The pa’al tzivui is just last lesson’s future (lesson 37) with the ת prefix chopped off: תכתוב → כתוב (tikhtov → ktov). In everyday speech Israelis very often skip even that and just fire the full future form as a command (תכתוב, תשמור). To forbid an action, Modern Hebrew never negates the tzivui — it says אל (al) + the future: אל תדאג (al tidag, “don’t worry”).

The rule

• The tzivui commands one specific addressee, matched for gender and number. Hebrew offers three forms — masculine singular, feminine singular, and plural — and you must choose the one that fits your listener. To a man: כתוב (ktov). To a woman: כתבי (kitvi). To a group: כתבו (kitvu). Using the m.sg form for a woman is a real agreement error, not a stylistic slip.

• Build the pa’al tzivui from the future, minus the ת prefix. Take the second-person future you learned in lesson 37 and remove its opening ת: תכתוב → כתוב (tikhtov → ktov), תכתבי → כתבי (tikhtevi → kitvi), תכתבו → כתבו (tikhtevu → kitvu). The consonants are simply the future’s without the ת; the pronunciation shifts a little (the feminine and plural gain a helping i: kitvi, kitvu).

• The everyday spoken command is often just the full future. Alongside the true tzivui, Israelis constantly use the plain 2nd-person future as a command: תכתוב (tikhtov, “write!”), תשמור (tishmor, “keep it!”). Both are correct; the bare tzivui (כתוב, שמור) rings a touch more literary or clipped, and for a few high-frequency verbs — תשמע (tishma, “listen!”), תגיד (tagid, “tell me!”) — the future-as-command is simply the normal form, the true tzivui being felt as old-fashioned.

• A handful of common verbs have irregular, must-memorize tzivui forms. בוא/בואי/בואו (bo/boi/bou, “come”), לך/לכי/לכו (lech/lechi/lechu, “go”), תן/תני/תנו (ten/tni/tnu, “give”), קח/קחי/קחו (kach/kchi/kchu, “take”), שב/שבי/שבו (shev/shvi/shvu, “sit”). These are the commands you will say most, so learn them as whole words.

• The negative command is אל + future — only, and always. You never negate a tzivui and you never put a command word after אל. It is אל plus the ordinary 2nd-person future: אל תדאג (al tidag, “don’t worry”, to a man), אל תדאגי (al tidagi, to a woman), אל תדברי ככה (al tedabri kacha, “don’t talk like that”, to a woman). Note that even the prohibition agrees in gender and number.

• לא + future is Biblical prohibition, not a Modern command. The famous לא תגנוב (lo tignov, “thou shalt not steal”) uses לא, but that is the register of the Ten Commandments. In everyday Modern Hebrew לא + future is just a plain statement/prediction (“you won’t…”); to actually forbid, use אל. (See the Biblical orientation lesson for the contrast.)

• The derived binyanim have their own tzivui too — previewed here, taught later. One command each: pi’el דבר (daber, “speak!”), hif’il הסבר (hasber, “explain!”), hitpa’el התלבש (hitlabesh, “get dressed!”). Their full future-and-imperative paradigms come with the derived future in a later lesson; for now just recognize them.

• בבקשה softens; בוא + future says “let’s”. Hebrew has no separate polite verb form (no T/V), so the way to be courteous is to add בבקשה (bevakasha, “please”): תן לי בבקשה (ten li bevakasha, “give me, please”). For a first-person “let’s…”, use בוא/בואו plus the 1st-person-plural future: בוא נלך (bo nelech, “let’s go”), בואו נתחיל (bou natchil, “let’s start”).

Forms & patterns

The pa’al tzivui = the 2nd-person future minus its ת prefix (roots כ־ת־ב “write”, ש־מ־ר “keep”):

Common irregular tzivui — memorize as whole words:

Everyday future-as-command vs. the literary tzivui (to a man):

Negative command = אל + future (never a negated tzivui), root ד־א־ג “worry”:

Derived-binyan tzivui — one preview each (m.sg; full paradigms later):

Examples

Common mistakes

• אל כתוב כאן! -> אל תכתוב כאן! (al tikhtov kan) - a negative command is אל + future; you never negate the bare tzivui.
• לא תדבר איתי ככה! -> אל תדבר איתי ככה! (al tedaber iti kacha) - Modern Hebrew forbids with אל; לא + future is the Biblical prohibition (“thou shalt not”), not an everyday order.
• (to a woman) שמור על התיק -> שמרי על התיק (shimri al ha-tik) - the tzivui agrees with the addressee’s gender; to a woman it is שמרי, not the m.sg שמור.
• (to several) בוא הנה -> בואו הנה (bou hena) - address a group with the plural בואו, not the singular בוא.
• (said to a man) אל תדאגי -> אל תדאג (al tidag) - even the negative command agrees: תדאג to a man, תדאגי to a woman.
• תן לי המפתח -> תן לי את המפתח (ten li et ha-mafteach) - a definite object still takes את; the command doesn’t change that.

Tips

• Build the tzivui straight off lesson 37’s future: take the 2nd-person future and lop off the ת prefix — תכתוב → כתוב, תכתבי → כתבי, תכתבו → כתבו.
• In real speech Israelis very often just use the full future form as a command (תכתוב, תשמור), and for a few verbs — תשמע (tishma), תגיד (tagid) — that future-as-command is the normal way; the true tzivui (שמע, הגד) sounds literary or clipped.
• Always match the addressee: three forms only — m.sg, f.sg, pl. There is no genderless “you”, so pick כתוב / כתבי / כתבו by whom you’re talking to.
• Memorize the everyday irregular commands as fixed words — בוא/בואי/בואו, לך/לכי/לכו, תן/תני/תנו, קח/קחי/קחו, שב/שבי/שבו — they’re the ones you’ll say most.
• To forbid, reach for אל + future every time (אל תדאג, אל תלכו). Never put לא in front of a command, and never negate the tzivui itself.
• Soften any command with בבקשה (bevakasha, “please”) — תן לי בבקשה…, שבו בבקשה — since Hebrew has no separate polite verb form, this is the normal courtesy.
• For “let’s…”, use בוא/בואו + the 1st-person-plural future: בוא נלך (bo nelech), בואו נתחיל (bou natchil).