Hebrew course 8

Learn the Hebrew Alphabet ~ Lesson 7
By Jeff A. Benner

The "Tav" is pronounced "t" as in tune. A dagesh may appear in the letter but will not change the sound of the letter.

The "dalet" is pronounced "d" as in dig.

A combination of the Segol and Sheva vowels. This vowel is pronounced "eh" as in elephant, but it is pronounced very softly.

The Hholam. This vowel is a dot which appears at the top and just to the left of the letter instead of beneath it and is pronounced "o" as in open.

The Hebrew word for Moses (Vocabulary word #1) appears to be missing a vowel after the "mem". Since Hebrew requires a vowel after each consonant, the vowel is the "o" placed above the letter "Shin". The dot over the right leg of the letter "Shin" and the vowel "o" are in the same place.
The "et" (Vocabulary word #3) precedes a direct object of the verb and is rarely translated into English. For example, if I said "I made the dinner", the direct object is "the dinner" because "the" comes before "dinner". In this case the Hebrew word "et" would precede "the dinner" in Hebrew. If I said "I made a dinner", the "et" would not precede it since "dinner" in this sentence is not a direct object.
An exception to the rule requiring the C-V-C-V pattern is the word "reshiyt" (Vocabulary word #8). The aleph does not always require a vowel after it.
The dagesh will commonly be found in some letters such as the shin (see sentence #2) and the tav (see sentence #5). In the Sephardic pronunciation these dagesh have no impact on the pronunciation and can be ignored.