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 |