I teach my students that if a stem (binyan) has an intrinsic prefix (example,
נ for Niphal; ה for Hiphil, Hophal, etc.), then when you remove a subject
prefix (example, the י of 3ms or ת of 3fs/2ms) a ה will appear, regardless of
what the intrinsic prefix was. Now, this is something of a cheat-method but
I've found it works. Whether there is anything specifically encoded into
Hebrew, I'm not sure. In other words, is the memory hook I teach my students
indicative of what actually happens across all stems, or is the Niphal
totally anomalous in gaining an unexpected ה?
I'm not sure.
GEORGE ATHAS
Moore Theological College (Sydney, Australia)
www.moore.edu.au