Learn the difference between the niqqud "kamats" and "patakh" and between "tzere" and "segol"
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| Hi everybody! Yana here. Welcome to Ask a Teacher where I’ll answer some of your most common Hebrew questions. |
| The question for this lesson is… |
| What's the difference between the niqqud “kamats" and “patakh” and between “tzere” and “segol”? |
| To understand this, it's important to know that vowels in Hebrew were traditionally of three lengths. Some vowels were long, some short, and some super short. |
| Kamats and patakh both repressssent an A sound, but kamats is long while patakh is short. |
| Here's a few examples: |
| שָׁלוֹם |
| קַל |
| Some words have both Kamatz and Patakh: |
| כָּתַב, גַּנָּב, מַצָּה |
| Similarly, tzere is the long version of the E sound, while segol is the short version. |
| Here are a few examples: |
| לֵב, עֵץ, מועֵד |
| מֶלֶךְ, כַּרְמֶל, בַּרְזֶל |
| In the past, knowing the difference between these sounds was crucial to speaking and understanding proper Hebrew, but in contemporary Hebrew, there's no difference at all. |
| That's right listeners, they all sound exactly the same. |
| How do you know, then, which one to use? |
| Since they have no impact on pronunciation, the only real way to learn the proper spelling and use of the niqqud is simply by memorizing it. |
| As you study Hebrew, you may start to recognize patterns that make this easier, but on the whole there are no shortcuts. |
| How was it? Pretty interesting right? |
| Do you have any more questions? Leave them in the comments below and I’ll try to answer them! |
| lehitraot! |
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