Study Tips

Question 1

[Don’t memorize] Study Tips

Answer 1

1. Focus first on completely memorizing the name and symbol of 7 vowels (Qamets, Pathach, Tsere, Seghol, Hireq, Holem, Qibbuts); their names have the vowel’s type (long, short, reduced), and class (a,e,i,o,u) embedded within it (for exp. Qamets has a long ‘a’ sound, so it is a long vowel in the a-class); additionally, these 7 vowels form the basis of most of the other vowels and will aid learning the others. So memorize these first before learning the others
2. Because the Qamets has a long ‘a’ sound as in father, it also can double as an o-class vowel for the short and reduced vowel types: Qamets Hatuf (short), ‘o’ as in bottle; and Hateph Qamets (reduced), ‘o’ as in commit
3. Because the Yod makes a ‘y’ sound and likes to be pronounced with e/i-class vowels, it will be paired with the Tsere, Seghol, and Hireq (the only vowels that have an ‘e’ and ‘i’ sound)
4. Remember that the vowel letter Waw is very abnormal and so (1) has a unique vowel, Shureq, and (2) the Holem goes above the Waw instead of the preceding consonant as all the others.

Question 2

Way to remember the when it is a Daghesh Forte or Lene.

Answer 2

1. Does it make more sense to begin a word with a hard pronunciation or a doubled consonant? (mmilk, pplease).
2. Obviously the hard pronunciation. So it is a Lene if at the beginning of a word.
3. Almost all Hebrew words end with a consonant, so remember that it is a Lene if preceded by a consonant whether from another word or the previous syllable.