Hebrew Basics |The Hebrew Writing System | Lesson 3
Pastor Billy Myron
Several of the Hebrew letters can be written differently at times. The first type of difference is called a daghesh lene. It is a dot in the center of the letter. This hardens the pronunciation of that letter. Only six letters can have a daghesh lene.
בּ Beth pronounced “b” as in “barn”
גּ Gimel pronounced “g” as in “gravel”
דּ Daleth pronounced “d” as in “door”
כּ Kaph pronounced “k” as in “king”
פּ Pe pronounced “p” as in “porch”
תּ Taw pronounced “t” as in “torch”
Be aware that not every dot in the center of a Hebrew letter is a daghesh lene. There are other reasons, besides hardening the pronunciation, that can cause a dot to be in the center of the letter. We will go over those in the near future.
The second type of difference we will cover is a change to how some letters are written when they are the last letter of the word. These five letters have a “final form” as follows:
כ Kaph’s Final Form: ך
מ Mem’s Final Form: ם
נ Nun’s Final Form: ן
פ Pe’s Final Form: ף
צ Tsadhe’s Final Form: ץ
For example; the word for water is not written מַיִמ but rather מַיִם . The Mem uses its regular form when it is the first letter of the word, but uses its final form when it is the last letter of the word.