Symbols Explained

Lets learn the sound symbols in Ivrit which act as vowels.

Before you start this lesson please ensure you are comfortable with the Ivrit Block letters and their sound.

NOTE: I want you to keep in mind, before we start, that there is more than one symbol per sound.  Just like in English where the sound 'ee' and the sound 'ea', sound the same;

For example in the words: Seem Seam

I am NOT going to match each sound symbol in Ivrit to a particular vowels in English because its not exactly right.

I am going to talk about sounds rather then vowels and since the sounds are lines and dots I will call them sound symbols.  

Here we will learn the sound symbols, using English words.

Ivrit letters have quick sound and there are 5 different sounds letters can have:

a, u	like in Cat / Rug
e	like in Red
ee / ea / i  and y	like in Been / Bean / Bin  and like in Baby
oo / u	like in Look / Pull
o	like in Log

The Quick sound like 'n' and 'k' in Frank 

There is one symbol for quick sound which is 2 vertical dots like this סְ
Also when the letter doesn't have a sound symbol at all, it will make a quick sound.

Usually all letters, when they appear at the end of a word, they will make a quick sound so they wont have a the two dots symbol סְ

So in the word Frank we will:
Place 2 vertical dots for the פְ

Place the 2 vertical dots symbol for the n - נְ

No sound symbol for the letter k - ק

פְרָנְק

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The sound 'a' like in Cat

There are 2 sound symbols for this sound and they are made of flat lines that are placed under the letter. Like this: סַ סָ
Hint to remember the sound: FLAT lines.

So in the word Cat we can place either of the above sound symbols under the C - ק

קַט

קָט

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The sound 'e' like in Red

There are 2 sound symbols for this sound, they are made of dots that are placed under the letter. Like this:  סֵ סֶ
Hint to remember the sound: pile of EGGS.

So in the word Red we can place either of the above sound symbols under the R - ר

רֶד

רֵד

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Before we start with the next 3 sounds I want to remind you that in Ivrit we read from Right to Left. 

If a letter is used as a vowel, it will be placed after the letter which will be on the left.

The sound 'i' / 'ee' like in Green or Bin and 'y' like in baby

There is one sound symbol for this sound made of one dot that is placed under the letter. Like this: סִ

Also the smallest letter of the alphabet (Yud) can be used to create this sound and is placed after the letter like this:  סי

Hint to remember the sound: TINY dot \ TINY letter.

In the word Green we can place the above sound symbols under the R - ר

גְרִן

or the letter yud after the ר

גרִין

In the word baby we can place the small letter Yud after, on the left, of the second B - ב

בֶּבִּי

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The sound 'oo'/ 'u' like in Look and Blue

There is one sound symbols for this sound made of dots that iss placed under the letter. Like this: סֻ

Also the letter (Vav) with a dot in the middle can be used to create this sound and is placed after, on the left, of the letter like this: ּסו

Hints to remember the sound: 

String of LOOPS.

Imagine the Vav being a person being hit in the tummy with a ball... he will say oooooo!! 

In the word Blue we can place the sound symbol under the letter L - ל

לֻק

Or the letter (Vav) with the dot in the middle after, on the left, of the letter L - ל

לוּק

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The sound 'o' like in Orange or Dog

There is one symbols for this sound made of 1 dot on the top left hand corner of the letter. סׂ

Also the letter (Vav) with a dot on top can be placed after, on the left, of the letter like this  סׂו

Hints to remember the sound: 

On Top

Imagine the Vav being a person being hit on his head with a ball... he will say Oh!! 

In the word Orange we will place the sound symbol at the top left hand corner of the O - א

'אֹרֵנְג

Or the letter (Vav) with the dot on top after, on the left of the letter

'אוֹרֵנְג

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Ignored symbols.

Some of the symbols explained above may appear with the 2 vertical dots on their right.  
This will not change anything and you just ignore the 2 vertical dots. סֲ סֳ סֱ 
So both of these say Cat:  קֳט קֲט  


There are 3 letters Bet ב, Kaf כ and Peh פ that have weak and strong sound, the strong sound is achieved by placing a dot in the letter. 

Sometimes a dot will appear in a letter that doesn't have double sound, it can be ignored
So in this letters the  dot will not change anything and you just ignore the dot  יּ תּ גּ לּ

Example of Text

Look at the biblical text bellow and the symbols we learnt above, identify what can be ignored.
Look at some letters that have dots inside but their sound don't change, so the dot is ignored.
These are all inherited from ancient Hebrew (and had some meaning in biblical Hebrew), but then Hebrew was modernised and made simpler and that is why today we ignore these extra symbols.