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W
- The consonant
 is named in Hebrew "WAW" and sounds
nearly like the English "W".
- This consonant serves also as chair to the vowel "O"
and "U".
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End of the explanation of the consonant "Waw".
Back to lesson one
L
- The Hebrew name for this consonant is "Lamed".
- The consonant
 sounds like the "L" in the word
"list", thus in contrast to English, it is always pronounced in the
front of the mouth.
- In English the place of pronunciation depends on the vowels and consonants
in the direct neighborhood, compare the words "old", "live" and "world".
End of explanation of the consonant "Lamed".
Back to lesson one.
M
- This consonant has two forms:
- the
 is written in the beginning or in the
middle of a word and has the Hebrew name "Mem",
- and the
 which is written at the end of a word
and has the Hebrew name "Mem sofit" (final mem).
- This character does not differ from the "m" sound we know from other
languages.
- In Hebrew there are five characters which have a special form when they
are at the end of a word, the "mem" is one of them, thus the
in the word "Shalom" is a "Mem sofit".
End of explanation of the consonant "Mem".
Back to lesson one
SH
- The first part of the word "Shalom"
 is
composed of two elements, the character  , which if the
dot is on the right top of the character, sounds like "sh" in the word
"Jewish" and the vowel under the character
- This consonant is named in Hebrew "Shin".
- The same character but with the dot on the left-hand side
(
 ) is used for another sound "S", named "Sin".
- In modern written Hebrew the dots are not written, so you have to know
the word before you can pronounce it.
- Generally in Hebrew dictionaries the "right dotted" "Shim" and the "left
dotted" "Sin" appear together under the same character; the Hebrew words in
dictionaries are mostly provided with the dots and vowel signs.
End of explanation of the consonant "Shin".
Back to lesson one
A and some times O
- The Hebrew name of this vowel is "kamats".
- The basic sound is like the "A" in the English word "after".
- It is the longest "a" in Hebrew.
- This vowel sign is also used for a very short "O" sound, then it is named
in Hebrew "kamats qatan" id. "a small kamats", historically the sound was
between the "A" sound as described above, and an "O" sound.
- In the German and Yemenit Hebrew dialects this kamats became an "O" in all
cases.
- In standard modern Israeli Hebrew there is a difference between the kamats
and the kamats qatan as descibed above.
End of explanation of the vowel " kamats".
Back to:
- lesson one
- Explanation of character "Shin"
- lesson two
- lesson three
O
- The part
 of the word "shalom" is composed of two
elements: the consonant named in Hebrew "waw" and the dot
on it, which represents the "O" sound.
- In English the vowel "O" is pronounced very differently according to the
vowels and consonants in the direct neighborhood ("to", "old"
and "not"), in Hebrew the "O" is always the same sound as the "O" in
the English word "on", only the quantity can change.
- As in this case, the "waw" functions only as "chair" to the "O" vowel, and
its own sound "W" is not heard at all.
- If only the dot is written between two consonants, the sound is also "O", then the Hebrew name is "Holam haser" id. "lacking Holam".
- In classical Hebrew it was possible to say that the "waw" lengthened the
"O" sound, but today, after adoption of the spelling rules of the Hebrew
Academy, nearly every "O" sound is written with a "waw".
End of explanation of the vowel " Holam".
Back to lesson one
The Department for Jewish
Zionist Education
The Pedagogic Center
Web Site Manager: Esther Carciente
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