Maltese and Hebrew

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Maltese verbs

No infinitive. Stem is third person singular, masculine perfect tense.

Second verb infinitive does not exist, instead both verbs are conjugated. "I want to eat" = "I want I eat"

A verbal stem can consist of:

Three consonants (radicals) with the medial radical between one of six vowel combinations. (Triliteral)
- kiteb
Four consonants, some having two repeated biradical bases. (Quadriliteral)
Two consonants, or a consonant and a semivowel

In verbs with 'għ' or a + 'j' as the third radical, only have the first two radicals in the stem word which ends in 'a' (open syllable).

Verbs that have three non-semivocalic consonants are called sound or strong verbs.
Verbs that have three radicals, with the last radical being 'għ' or 'j' are called defective or weak verbs.
Triliteral verbs with long 'a' or 'ie' between 1st and 2nd radicals are called hollow verbs.
Triliteral verbs with where the second and third radicals are the same are called doubled or geminated verbs.

Examples:

Type	Example	Cons	Vowel config	Translation
Sound (Tri)	ħareġ	ħ·r·ġ	2. a·e	he went out
Sound (Quad)	ħarbex	ħ·rb·x	2. a·e	he scribbled
Defective	qata'	q·t·għ	1. a·a	he cut
Weak	mexa	m·x·j	4. e·a	he walked
Hollow	qal	q·w·l	1. a·a	he said
Hollow	sab	s·j·b	1. a·a	he found
Doubled	habb	h·b·b	1. a·a	he loved

Tenses:

Perfect: Action in the past
- seraq "he robbed"
Imperfect: Action in the present/future
- jisraq "he steals" or "he will steal"
Imperative: Order/command
- israq (sg), isirqu (pl) "steal!"
Present participle: Only from intransitive verbs, and some verbs of motion. Has both verbal/adjectival function. Has m/f/pl
- nieżel (m.sg) "descending"
- nieżla (f.sg) "descending"
- neżlin (mf.pl) "descending"
Past participle: as with present participle
- misruq (m.sg) "stolen"
- misruqa (f.sg) "stolen"
- misruqin (mf.pl) "stolen"
Verbal noun
- serq "robbing", "theft"

Vowel patterns: