The Verb System & Five Binyanim

The Aramaic verb system has five major binyanim:

Pick a binyan and see its full inflection — perfect, imperfect, participle, imperative and infinitive — on the model root q-t-l. All binyanim share one skeleton; only prefixes and vowels shift.

Roots with a weak radical (א, ה, ו, י) and geminate roots inflect with characteristic shifts. Main classes:

Talmudic Aramaic distinguishes past, imperfect, imperative, participle (present), and infinitive (often prefixed with מ־ / לְ־).

The key to tense in a sugya is not the isolated verb but the compound: participle + הֲוָה, or participle + קָא. These add aspect — progressive, habitual, or narrative background.

The Peal infinitive is built with מֵי־ / לְמֵי־ (לְמֵימַר, לְמֵיתַב); the derived binyanim use מ־ plus ־וּיֵי (לְקַיּוּמֵי, לְאַשְׁמוּעֵי). This form carries much of the sugya’s argumentative work.