As we have seen, short vowels are not normally written in Modern Israeli Hebrew, except for some special cases, such as dictionaries, poetry and texts for children. Students of Hebrew must therefore get accustomed to reading without the vowel marking as this is the natural way for Modern Hebrew to be written.
When they are shown, vowels are indicated in Hebrew by small dots or bars written either above or below the Hebrew letter. These marks, called niqqud in Hebrew, are written small compared to the letter itself. A comprehensive review of all of the niqqud is beyond the scope of this book and unnecessary for beginners since as previously mentioned, niqqud are not normally written at all in Modern Hebrew. Several niqqud are pronounced identically in Modern Israeli Hebrew.
Some niqqud that a student may occasionally see in Modern Hebrew are presented below, along with the name and the pronunciation in square brackets. The letters with the niqqud may not show up properly depending on the device used to read this ebook. If the letters below cannot be viewed properly, I encourage the reader to order the print version of this book or study the niqqud online.
בַ Patach [a]
בָ Kamatz gadol [a]
בֲ Hataf patach [a]
בְ Sh’va [e] or [‘]
בֶ Segol [e]
בֵ Zeire [e]
בֱ Hataf segol [e]
בִ Hiriq [i]
בֹ Holam [o]
בֳ Hataf kamatz [o]
בֻ Kubutz [u]