In short

Very often the agent of a Hebrew sentence is unknown, generic, or simply beside the point: someone stole your wallet, people in general speak Hebrew here, they say it’ll rain. English reaches for a vague they, you, people, one, or a passive. Modern Hebrew has a neater trick — it just leaves the subject out and lets the verb stand alone. This is the משפט סתמי (mishpat stami, the “impersonal / indefinite sentence”).

There are two everyday devices. The main one is the general plural: a bare third-person masculine-plural verb with no subject pronoun — אומרים ש… (omrim she-, “they say that…”), גנבו לי (ganvu li, “someone stole from me”). The second is the colloquial generic “you” — אתה / את (ata / at) plus a present verb, addressing people-in-general rather than the listener. Both are active, and both differ from a true passive, which you meet in the next lessons.

The rule

• The general-plural stami is a bare 3rd-person-masculine-plural verb, with no subject at all. Take the ordinary present masculine-plural (the ־ים / -im form) or the past third-person plural (the ־ו / -u form) and use it on its own, with no pronoun and no noun in front: אומרים (omrim, “one says / they say”), חושבים (choshvim, “people think”), גנבו (ganvu, “someone stole”), אמרו (amru, “they said”). The empty subject slot is the meaning — “some unspecified person(s)”.

• Present stami = generic truths, rules, signs and hearsay. Standing facts about a place or a norm: בארץ מדברים עברית (ba-aretz medabrim ivrit, “in Israel people speak Hebrew”); כאן לא מעשנים (kan lo me’ashnim, “no smoking here”, lit. “here one doesn’t smoke”). And reported common opinion — the “they say” of rumour and forecast: אומרים שיהיה גשם מחר (omrim she-yihye geshem machar, “they say it’ll rain tomorrow”).

• Past stami = a one-off act by an unknown doer. When something was done and you don’t know or don’t care who did it, use the plural past: גנבו לי את הארנק (ganvu li et ha-arnak, “someone stole my wallet”, lit. “they-stole from-me the-wallet”); התקשרו אליך בבוקר (hitkashru elecha ba-boker, “someone called you this morning”).

• Keep it masculine plural — always. The form never agrees with the real agent. Even if the thief was one woman, it stays the masculine plural גנבו (ganvu), never a feminine or a singular. The plural here is grammatical packaging for “unknown person(s)”, not a claim that several men were involved.

• Never fill the empty subject slot. The moment you add a pronoun or a noun, the sentence stops being impersonal and becomes specific: הם אומרים (hem omrim) means “they (those particular people) say”, and אנשים מדברים (anashim medabrim) means “people (as a named group) speak”. For the true stami, leave the slot empty — that is the whole device.

• The naming idiom is a frozen stami. “To be called” is expressed with קוראים ל־ (kor’im le-, lit. “they call to-”): קוראים לי דנה (kor’im li Dana, “my name is Dana”); איך קוראים לך? (eich kor’im lecha / lach?, “what’s your name?”); איך קוראים לזה בעברית? (eich kor’im le-ze be-ivrit?, “what’s this called in Hebrew?”). Note the preposition ל־ (le-) — the thing named is not a direct object.

• The colloquial generic “you” addresses everyone, not the listener. In casual speech ata / at + a present verb works like English generic “you” or “one”: כשאתה גר בעיר גדולה, אתה מתרגל לרעש (kshe-ata gar be-ir gdola, ata mitragel la-ra’ash, “when you live in a big city, you get used to the noise”). It is warmer and more conversational than the general plural, but it means “anybody”, not the person in front of you.

• The stami is ACTIVE — it is not a passive. In גנבו לי את הארנק the verb is active pa’al and the wallet is still the object (marked with את, since it’s definite). Compare the true passive הארנק שלי נגנב (ha-arnak sheli nignav, “my wallet was stolen”), where the wallet becomes the subject of a nif’al verb and there is no את. Both hide the agent, but only the stami keeps the ordinary active frame — so a definite object still takes את. Passive morphology itself is left to the nif’al and pu’al/huf’al lessons.

Forms & patterns

Present stami — the plain masculine-plural present, used with no subject:

Past stami — the third-person-plural past, used with no subject:

Stami (active) vs. true passive — same “hidden agent”, different frame:

The naming idiom קוראים ל־ (kor’im le-) — a fixed stami:

Examples

Common mistakes

• הם אומרים שיהיה גשם מחר (for a generic “they say”) -> אומרים שיהיה גשם מחר (omrim she-yihye geshem machar) - adding הם makes it “those people say”; the stami leaves the subject slot empty.
• גנבה לי את הארנק (matching one female thief) -> גנבו לי את הארנק (ganvu li et ha-arnak) - the stami is always masculine plural, whatever the real agent’s gender or number.
• אנשים מדברים עברית בארץ -> בארץ מדברים עברית (ba-aretz medabrim ivrit) - for the generic statement drop the subject; אנשים turns it into a claim about “people” as a named group.
• כאן לא מעשן -> כאן לא מעשנים (kan lo me’ashnim) - the stami uses the plural verb; the singular מעשן reads as “he doesn’t smoke”.
• הארנק גנבו -> גנבו לי את הארנק (active stami) / הארנק נגנב (passive) (ha-arnak nignav) - don’t half-passivize: either keep the active stami with את, or use the nif’al passive with the wallet as subject.
• קוראים אותי דנה -> קוראים לי דנה (kor’im li Dana) - the naming idiom takes ל־ (le-), not the object marker; it’s “they call to me Dana”, never oti.

Tips

• Reach for the stami as your default whenever the doer is unknown, generic, or irrelevant — you don’t need to invent a “they” or hunt for a passive.
• Spot it by its shape: a masculine-plural verb standing alone, with no pronoun and no noun subject in front of it.
• Split the two tenses by job: present stami for standing facts, rules and signs (כאן לא מעשנים) and for hearsay (אומרים ש…); past stami for a single act by an unknown hand (גנבו לי, התקשרו אליך).
• Freeze the gender: it is always masculine plural. Never bend גנבו to a feminine or singular to match who “really” did it.
• Never plug the subject slot. הם / אנשים / מישהו turn the impersonal into the specific — the empty slot carries the meaning.
• In relaxed speech the generic “you” (ata / at + present) is very natural for life-lessons and habits — כשאת נוסעת לחו”ל את לומדת המון (kshe-at nosa’at le-chul at lomedet hamon) — but remember it means “anyone”, not your listener.
• Keep stami and passive apart: the stami stays active, so a definite object still takes את (גנבו את המכונית, ganvu et ha-mechonit); the passive makes that object the subject and drops את (המכונית נגנבה, ha-mechonit nigneva).
• Learn קוראים ל־ (kor’im le-) as a ready-made block for names and labels — קוראים לי…, איך קוראים ל… — and always with the preposition ל־.