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Originally, Hebrew had no vowels. Vowels, in the form of dots and lines below the consonants, were added to Hebrew writing in the seventh century CE. Before then, people read without vowels. Even today, most books, magazines, and newspapers in Modern Hebrew — not to mention the Torah scroll — are written without vowels.

Modern Hebrew has both long and short vowels. As a general rule, a long vowel can make up one syllable, but a short vowel needs either another vowel or a שָׁוְא (shuh-vah; two vertical dots below a consonant) to form a syllable. For more on the שָׁוְא, see “Introducing the Shvah” later in this chapter.

As I mentioned earlier, vowels are divided into long and short vowels. This categorization doesn’t have to do with their pronunciation but with the fact that long vowels are usually in open syllables — syllables that end with a vowel — and short vowels are usually in closed syllables — syllables that end with a consonant. The long vowel חִירִיק מָלֵא (Chirik Maleh), however, holds its sound longer than the corresponding short vowel חָרִיק חַסֵּר (hirek haser). Table 1-6 shows the long vowels.

TABLE 1-6 The Long Vowels

Name of the Vowel	Pronunciation	In Hebrew	The Sound It Makes
Hirik Maleh	ḥee-reek mah-leh	iאִי	Makes an Ee sound as in see
Holam	ḥoh-lahm	אֹ	Makes an O sound as in more
Kamatz Gadol	kah-mahtz	אָ	Makes an Ah sound as in saw
Shuruk	shoo-rook	אוּ	Makes an Oo sound as in mood
Tzere	tzay-reh	אֵ	Makes an A sound as in cape
Vav Cholam	vahv ḥoh-lahm	אוֹ	Makes an O sound as in snow

Note: In this table, I used the letter א (aleph) so you could see how the vowels look when they’re attached to a consanant. (The vowels are the little squiggles and dots around the א.) Unlike in English, Hebrew vowels can never be written alone; they’re always attached to a consonant.

Table 1-7 shows the short vowels.

TABLE 1-7 The Short Vowels

Name of the Vowel	Pronunciation	In Hebrew	The Sound It Makes
Herik Haser	ḥee-reekḥah-sehr	אִ	Makes an Ee sound as in see
Kamatz Katan	kah-mahtz kah-tahn	אׇ	Makes an O sound as in more
Kubutz	koo-bootz	אֻ	Makes an Oo sound as in mood
Patach	pah-tahḥ	אַ	Makes an Ah sound as in saw
Segol	seh-gohl	אֶ	Makes an Eh sound as in end

Note: In this table, I used the letter א (aleph) so you could see how the vowels look when they’re attached to a consanant. (The vowels are the little squiggles and dots around the א.)

Sometimes, the Kamatz Patah, Kamatz Katan, or the Segol is paired with a Shvah. This pairing doesn’t change the pronunciation.

The Kamatz Katan looks identical to the Kamatz. If you see something that looks like a Kamatz at the beginning of a word followed by a Shvah or between two Shvah, it's probably a Kamatz Katan and should be pronounced O.