Biblical Hebrew Forum

["George Athas" <gathas AT hotkey.net.au>]

The Piel certainly has a causative idea. I tell my students to think of the 
Piel as indicating a heightened action of some kind, whether that be 
intensive (eg, 'smash' rather than 'break') or causative (eg, 'grow' rather 
than just 'be big'). Of course, some actions have a naturally heightened 
concept, and therefore do not have any regular equivalent in the Qal stem 
(eg, DiBBeR - to speak, a heightened form of saying).

It's also helpful, as Peter Kirk has already alluded, to see the Piel and 
Hiphil as Hebrew parallels (not equivalents) to the addition of certain 
English suffixes. For example, compare the suffixes -ise (naturalise, realise 
-- for the Americans amongst us, that's -ize) and -ify (magnify, rectify).

Best Regards,

GEORGE ATHAS
(Sydney, Australia)