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Root א־ה־ב: love

Roots Atlas 217 · שֹׁרֶשׁ א ה ב · the love root
א ה ב
a · h · v
everything to do with loving and being loved
6 words · 1 root · 3 verb-voices

Three consonants carry one idea: love. The plain verb is to love; flip its voice and you are loved; turn it reflexive and you fall in love. The same three letters then settle into the great noun ahava, and into the people of love: the beloved one and the one who is in love. Nothing here is a separate vocabulary item; it is one root rotated through the binyanim. Every word is verified against pealim, niqqud included.

The verb across the binyanim (voices)

The same root runs through the verb system. Each binyan is a voice: it bends the one idea into active, passive, causative or reciprocal. Tap to hear.

Pa'al
לֶאֱהֹבle'ehov
simple active, the plain action
to love
Nif'al
לְהֵאָהֵבlehe'ahev
passive / middle, it happens to the subject
to be loved
Hitpa'el
לְהִתְאַהֵבlehit'ahev
reflexive / reciprocal, to / on oneself
to fall in love (with) (ב-)

The active pa'al (to love) pairs with its passive nif'al (to be loved), and the hitpa'el turns the feeling inward at its onset: to fall in love. The intensive and causative tracks (pi'el, hif'il) are not lexicalized for this root; love does not need a "make someone love" verb in everyday Hebrew.

Words born from the root

Same root letters, different noun moulds (mishkalim). The mould tells you the function: who does it, the act of doing it, or the thing produced.

① The feeling: love itself

אַהֲבָה
ahava
love
קַטָלָה

② The people: beloved and in love

אָהוּב
ahuv
beloved, loved (one)
קָטוּל
מְאֹהָב
me'ohav
in love (with) (ב־)
מְקֻטָּל

Decode it yourself

Strip the prefixes, suffixes and vowels. Three consonants remain, and the meaning lives there.