In short

Lesson 44 laid out the seven binyanim as a voice grid and named the three active↔passive pairs: פעל↔נפעל (pa’al↔nif’al), פיעל↔פועל (pi’el↔pu’al), הפעיל↔הופעל (hif’il↔huf’al). You already handle the first pair — nif’al is lesson 40. This lesson conjugates the other two passives in full: פועל (pu’al), the passive of pi’el, and הופעל (huf’al), the passive of hif’il.

Two things make these binyanim unusual. First, they are passive-only — בושל (bushal) means nothing but “was cooked”, the passive twin of בישל (bishel), and הוזמן (huzman) is only “was invited/ordered”. Second, they are defective in tense: they live in exactly three forms — present, past and future — and have no infinitive and no imperative at all. When you need “to be cooked” or “get invited!”, you recast the sentence with the active binyan instead.

The rule

• Two passive skeletons, one for each pair. The pu’al present is meCuCaC — מבושל (mevushal, “cooked”), מסודר (mesudar, “arranged / tidy”), מטופל (metupal, “treated / cared for”). The huf’al present is muCCaC — מוזמן (muzman, “invited”), מופעל (muf’al, “operated / activated”). Both begin with a מ (m-) in the present, but the vowel pattern differs: pu’al has an “u–a” spread over three consonants, huf’al packs “u” right after the מ. Do not blur them.

• Present is a binoni — it agrees in gender and number only. Like every participle (lesson 6), the passive present has four agreement forms and no person. Pu’al: מבושל / מבושלת / מבושלים / מבושלות (mevushal / mevushelet / mevushalim / mevushalot). Huf’al: מוזמן / מוזמנת / מוזמנים / מוזמנות (muzman / muzmenet / muzmanim / muzmanot). The pronoun supplies “I / you / he”, exactly as in pa’al.

• Past hangs the familiar person-endings on a “u”-vowelled stem. Pu’al past of ס.ד.ר: סודרתי (sudarti, “I was sorted out”), סודרת (sudarta / sudart), סודר (sudar, “he/it was arranged”), סודרה (sudra), סודרנו (sudarnu), סודרו (sudru). Huf’al past of ז.מ.ן: הוזמנתי (huzmanti, “I was invited”), הוזמן (huzman), הוזמנה (huzmena), הוזמנו (huzmanu / huzmenu). Same suffix set you drilled for pi’el and hif’il — only the internal vowels turn passive.

• Future takes the ordinary prefix set on the passive stem. Pu’al: יסודר (yesudar, “it will be arranged”), תסודר (tesudar), אסודר (asudar), נסודר (nesudar), יסודרו (yesudru). Huf’al: יוזמן (yuzman, “he’ll be invited”), תוזמן (tuzman), אוזמן (uzman), נוזמן (nuzman), יוזמנו (yuzmenu). The prefixes י/ת/א/נ are the same ones from lesson 43; the stem vowels are what mark the passive.

• No infinitive and no imperative — recast with the active binyan. There is no לבושל (“to be cooked”) and no תסודר! command in the passive sense. To express those ideas you flip to the active: use the pi’el/hif’il infinitive (לבשל, “to cook”) or imperative (בשל!, “cook!”), or reword impersonally. This gap is a defining property of pu’al and huf’al, not an oversight.

• Name the agent with על ידי (al yedei, “by”). As with any passive, the doer — if you mention it at all — goes in a על ידי phrase, never in a מ־ (“from”) phrase: הארוחה בושלה על ידי השף (ha-arucha bushla al yedei ha-shef, “the meal was cooked by the chef”), החולה מטופל על ידי רופא (ha-chole metupal al yedei rofe, “the patient is treated by a doctor”). Most passives simply leave the doer out.

• Unvocalized, the mater vav is your diagnostic — keep it. In ktiv male the passive “u” is written with a ו (vav) that the active lacks. So פועל סודר (sudar, “was arranged”) differs from pi’el סידר (sider, “arranged”) only by that vav-vs-yod, and huf’al הופעל (huf’al) / present מופעל (muf’al) differs from hif’il הפעיל (hif’il) / present מפעיל (maf’il) by the vav after the first letter — and by the missing yod before the last one, which hif’il has. Drop or add that vav and you have flipped the voice. Read it carefully; write it carefully.

• These passives are literary and journalistic; speech dodges them. The full pu’al/huf’al passive is at home in writing and formal registers (lesson 60). In everyday speech Israelis usually reach for the impersonal 3rd-person-plural active instead (lesson 39): הזמינו אותי (hizminu oti, “they invited me”) for הוזמנתי, סידרו את זה (sidru et ze, “they sorted it out”) for זה סודר. Learn the passive to read and write it; recognise the spoken swap.

• Don’t overreach the two pairs. Pu’al passivises pi’el only; huf’al passivises hif’il only. The passive of a plain pa’al verb is not here — it is either the nif’al verb (lesson 40) or the CaCuC adjective בינוני פעול (lesson 54). Do not build a pu’al of a pa’al root. And leave guttural and weak roots (where the vav shifts or a letter drops) to lesson 62; here every root is strong.

Forms & patterns

Pu’al present (binoni, pattern meCuCaC) — root ב.ש.ל, “cook”:

Huf’al present (binoni, pattern muCCaC) — root ז.מ.ן, “invite / order”:

Past — the lesson-22 person endings on the passive stem (pu’al ס.ד.ר “arrange” / huf’al ז.מ.ן “invite”):

Unvocalized, 1c.pl and 3c.pl huf’al are homographs — both spelled הוזמנו (huzmanu “we were invited” / huzmenu “they were invited”). The subject pronoun tells them apart.

Future — the lesson-43 prefix set on the passive stem (pu’al ס.ד.ר / huf’al ז.מ.ן):

No infinitive, no imperative — the two boxes below stay empty; recast with the active binyan:

The active → passive pairs (same root, one step across):

meCuCaC vs muCCaC across the three tenses (3m.sg):

Examples

Common mistakes

• לבושל את הארוחה -> לבשל את הארוחה (levashel et ha-arucha) - pu’al has no infinitive; “to cook” is the active pi’el infinitive לבשל, and a passive idea gets reworded, not conjugated.
• תסודר את החדר! -> תסדר את החדר! (tesader et ha-cheder!) - the passive has no imperative; commands use the active pi’el (תסדר / סדר), never a pu’al form.
• המכתב סידר על ידי המזכירה -> המכתב סודר על ידי המזכירה (ha-michtav sudar al yedei ha-mazkira) - סידר (sider) is the active “arranged”; the passive “was arranged” keeps the vav — סודר (sudar).
• הוזמנתי מחבר -> הוזמנתי על ידי חבר (huzmanti al yedei chaver) - the agent of a passive is marked by על ידי (“by”), never by the preposition מ־ (“from”).
• החדר מסדר -> החדר מסודר (ha-cheder mesudar) - the pu’al present is meCuCaC with the diagnostic vav (מסודר); מסדר (mesader) is the active pi’el “arranges / tidies up”.
• האורחים מסודרים למסיבה -> האורחים מוזמנים למסיבה (ha-orchim muzmanim la-mesiba) - “invited” is the huf’al muCCaC מוזמן, not the pu’al מסודר (“arranged”) — don’t swap the two skeletons.

Tips

• Hear the two shapes: pu’al present is meCuCaC (מבושל, מסודר, מטופל), huf’al present is muCCaC (מוזמן, מופעל). Both open with מ in the present, but pu’al spreads “u–a” while huf’al packs “u” right after the מ.
• These binyanim have only three tenses — present, past, future — and no infinitive and no imperative. When you feel one of those coming, flip to the active binyan (לבשל, בשל!) or reword.
• Passivise by stepping one across the pair: pi’el → pu’al (סידר→סודר, בישל→בושל, טיפל→טופל) and hif’il → huf’al (הזמין→הוזמן, הפעיל→הופעל). Peg the 3m.sg and re-suffix or re-prefix from there.
• Mark the doer with על ידי (al yedei, “by”) and nothing else — not מ־. Most of the time you will drop the agent entirely, which is exactly why a passive is handy.
• In unvocalized text the mater vav carries the voice: keep it and you keep the passive — סודר (not סידר), מופעל (not מפעיל), הופעל (not הפעיל). Losing or adding the vav flips active↔passive.
• Remember the register split (lesson 60): the pu’al/huf’al passive is literary and journalistic, while speech prefers the impersonal 3rd-plural active (lesson 39) — הזמינו אותי for הוזמנתי, סידרו את זה for זה סודר.
• Do not passivise pa’al here. A pa’al verb goes passive as nif’al (נכתב, lesson 40) or as the CaCuC adjective (כתוב, lesson 54); pu’al and huf’al only serve pi’el and hif’il.