25 Hebrew Verbs You'll Use Every Single Day

When a student tells me she wants to speak more Hebrew, the first thing I give her is a list of 25 verbs. Not 250. Not 100. Twenty-five. These are the verbs that show up in almost every sentence you'll speak in a normal day. If you master these, you can construct a surprising amount of conversation on your own. Here they all are, each with a simple example.

The essential 25

• Lihyot, to be. Used in past and future, skipped in present (because Hebrew drops "am/is/are").
• Lelechet (לָלֶכֶת), to go. Ani holech la-yam, I'm going to the sea.
• Lavo (לָבוֹא), to come. Ata ba?, you coming?
• Lir'ot, to see. Ra'iti kelev, I saw a dog.
• Lishmo'a, to hear. Ata shome'a et ze?, do you hear that?
• Ledaber (לְדַבֵּר), to speak. Ani medaber Ivrit, I speak Hebrew.
• Lomar, to say. Ma amarta?, what did you say?
• Lachshov, to think. Ani choshev she-ken, I think so.
• Lada'at, to know. Lo yada'ti, I didn't know.
• Livhov... correction: le'ehov (לֶאֱהֹב), to love. Ani ohev kafe, I love coffee.
• Lirtzot (לִרְצוֹת), to want. Ani rotseh lechem, I want bread.
• Litzrot... correction, letzarech... simpler: lihyot tzarich, to need. Ani tzarich ezra, I need help.
• Lakachat, to take. Kach et ze, take this.
• Latet, to give. Ten li et ha-sefer, give me the book.
• La'assot (לַעֲשׂוֹת), to do or to make. Ma ata oseh?, what are you doing?
• Le'echol, to eat. Achalnu pizza, we ate pizza.
• Lishtot, to drink. Ani shoteh mayim, I'm drinking water.
• Lishon, to sleep. Yashanti sheva sha'ot, I slept seven hours.
• La'avod, to work. Ani oved ba-bank, I work at the bank.
• Likrot, to read. Hi korat sefer, she's reading a book.
• Lichtov, to write. Katavti email, I wrote an email.
• Likno't, to buy. Kaniti chultza, I bought a shirt.
• Limkor, to sell. Hem mocherim beigel, they're selling bagels.
• Lehachin, to prepare. Ani mechin aruchat boker, I'm preparing breakfast.
• Letayel, to travel/hike. Anachnu metaylim ba-galil, we're hiking in the Galilee.

Why these 25?

Because they cover the actions of a normal day. Waking up, going somewhere, eating, drinking, working, seeing things, talking to people, reading, writing, buying, sleeping. If you pay attention to a transcript of your own English speech from a random hour, you'll notice the same small pool of verbs coming up again and again. Hebrew is the same.

How to actually memorize them

Don't try to memorize all 25 at once. Take five at a time and build a routine:

• Day 1: Learn 5 verbs. Write one sentence with each.
• Day 2: Learn 5 more. Review yesterday's.
• Day 3-5: Repeat.
• Day 6-10: Use all 25 in a written diary entry of your day.

By the end of two weeks, you'll own these verbs. They'll come out of your mouth without thinking.

Verbs come in conjugations

Each of these verbs has past, present, and future forms that change based on gender and number. I covered how Hebrew verb tenses work in separate posts. For now, just learn the infinitive (the "to" form) and one or two common conjugations per verb.

Start with the top five

If 25 feels like too much to start, just learn these five right now:

• Lirtzot, to want.
• Lihyot tzarich, to need.
• Lelechet, to go.
• Le'echol, to eat.
• Lada'at, to know.

These five alone will get you through most basic situations: ordering food, asking for help, expressing needs, answering questions. Build from there.

For more verbs with audio and conjugations, our grammar section walks through verb patterns in detail. And our topics pages include verbs in context with other vocabulary.

25 verbs is less than a week of learning. The return is huge.