Gimmel

Gimmel is the third letter of the Alephbet and is pronounced with a 'hard' 'g' sound as you would hear in an English word such as 'girl' or 'gate'. Note however that because pronunciation in Hebrew is always the same, it is never pronounced 'softly' as in 'giant'.

You may sometimes see Gimmel with a dagesh mark but in this case, the mark does not alter the pronunciation in modern Hebrew.

Historically, the addition of the dagesh changed the 'g' to 'gh', but nowadays, there is no difference.

You will see that the character is topped with a three-pronged crown (called a 'tagin'). There are eight such characters in the Alephbet and whilst there is some doubt as to why these characters are crowned, it is sometimes suggested that it is to do with the giving of the Torah to Moses at Sinai.

Also note that technically speaking, as with all characters in the Hebrew Alephbet, Gimmel needs a vowel adding before it becomes 'pronounced'.

Another thing to be aware of is that the English spelling of the names of Hebrew characters can vary. For example, you may see Gimel instead of Gimmel so be aware of this in your reading.

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