Bit at a Time Bible Hebrew -- Dagesh

There, I did it again.  Man, these Monday holidays really throw me off track.

All right.  I’m going to put you out of your misery.

 

One thing you need to know is that although the vowel sounds are the same, some vowels are thought of as short and some as long:  qamats, chiriq gadol, zeire, shuruq, and cholem are long;

 patach, chiriq qatan, segol, and kubuts are short.

 

Genesis 1:1	B’reshit bara	B’reshit starts a new sentence.  It ends in a consonant so the bet of bara takes dagesh.
	hashamaim	the patach under the heh is short so the shin takes dagesh
Genesis 1:2	tohu va-vohu	the qamats under the vav is long so the bet does NOT use dagesh
	al-p’ney	Al ends in a consonant, so peh takes dagesh.
	ha-maim	the patach under the heh is short so the mem takes dagesh
Genesis 1:4	va-yar	the patach under the vav is short
	ha-or ki-tov	Or ends in a consonant so ki with dagesh, not khi
	elohim ben	Elohim ends with a consonant so ben not ven
Genesis 1:5	y’hi voqer	Y’hi ends with a long vowel, chiriq gadol so voqer, not boqer
Genesis 1:6	raqia b’tokh	Raqia ends in a vowel, not a consonant, and it’s a short vowel
	mavdil	the bet ends a syllable, plus it has shva under it, which is NOT pronounced.  So dalet takes dagesh
	mavdil ben	mavdil ends in a consonant so ben takes dagesh
	lamaim	the lamed has qamats, a long vowel, so mem does NOT take dagesh
Genesis 1:7	va-yavdel ben	yavdel ends in a consonant and ben is a new word.
	ben ha-maim	ha has patach so mem has dagesh
	mitachat	the mem has chiriq qatan, a short vowel, so the tav takes dagesh

 

And you were about to knock your brains out!  There are rules!

Also when we conjugate verbs it sometimes happens that the prefixes and suffixes create double letters; these are replaced by a single letter with a dagesh, EXCEPT for alef, heh, chet, ayin, and resh.  These five letters NEVER take dagesh.

© Patricia Jo Heil, 2013-2018 All Rights Reserved