Ayin

Ayin is one of the more difficult characters for non-native Hebrew speakers to deal with because most Hebrew teaching resources highlight that it is a silent letter, others suggest differently:

The major difficulty with Ayin is that when it is sounded, the sound itself is one that is not familiar to anyone who has little experience of Semitic languages like Syriac or Arabic.

In a situation where Ayin is 'sounded', it is something like the 'ng' at the end of 'wrong' or the 'nk' in 'wink'. As this sound essentially comes from the back of the throat, this is another guttural letter like Hey, Chet and Aleph.

Because of the difficulty of getting the pronunciation right, most non-native Hebrew speakers (and many natives) treat Ayin like Aleph by leaving it completely silent. As it is perfectly normal and acceptable to do so, it is probably best to follow this practice.

Introduction to Reading Hebrew
The first basics
The Hebrew AlephBet
The Letters of the AlephBet
Aleph
Bet (Beyt)
Gimmel
Dalet
Hey
Vav
Zayin
Chet
Tet
Yod
Kaf
Lamed
Mem
Nun
Samekh
Ayin
Pey (Fey)
Tsade (Tsadik)
Qof
Resh
Shin
Tav
The Significance of the Alephbet
The Basics of Hebrew Verbs
The Hebrew Verb Subject
The Hebrew Verb Object
Hebrew Verb Tenses
Hebrew Verb Voices and Moods
Hebrew Verb Participles
The Infinite Verb Version
Hebrew Nouns
Hebrew Noun Constructs
Using Prefixes With Nouns
Hebrew Pronouns
Hebrew Plural Nouns
Hebrew Adjectives
Identifying Hebrew Questions
Adverbs, Prepositions and Conjunctions
Hebrew Reading Conclusion