The characteristic pattern of the pa’al perfect is one open syllable with kamatz, and one closed syllable with patakh: זָ-כַר. Some of the suffixes for person, gender, and number cause one of the vowels to reduce to a sh’va. When the final root letter is ה or the middle root letter is ו or י, those weak root letters will disappear or be transformed in some of the pa’al perfect conjugations. Otherwise, all three root letters are visible.