Vowels1

U

O

Ee

Eh

A

1) Similar to English, Hebrew vowels compose five basic sounds:
A, E, I, O, U.
2) Most vowel character are positioned underneath the consanents.
3) There are more then five characters but for basic communication, remember five of them is sufficient.
4) Like in English, not each consanent has a vowel. Many times the last consanent in a word does not have one. Also last letter in a syllable, or even first letter.

Note! there is no direct correlation between Hebrew and English vowels.

Hebrew characters with a horisontal line, make consanents sound as if they are vowled with "a" (Car, Bar).

Hebrew characters with a dots that compose and imagenery horisontal line, make consanents sound as if they are vowled with "a" (Ben, Pen).

Hebrew characters with a single dot underneath (many times followed by a Yod), make consanents sound as if they are vowled with "Ee" (Meet, Week).

The Hebrew letter Vav followed by a dot on its left hand side in the middle, make consanents that precede the Vav sound as if they are vowled with "Oo" (Moon, Baloon).

A nomber of examples for the fact that this is aproximation of sounds and not direct correlation:

There is no way in Hebrew to vowel the sound of "Man" differnt than the sound of "Men". For both you use a combination of dots from the "yellow" column.

There is no way in Hebrew to vowel the sound of "Bit" differnt than the sound of "Beat". For both you use a dot (with or without a Yod) from the "green" column. The differnce between "Bit" and "Beat" in English involves two factor. Sound, and length. In Hebrew there is no length dimention to vowels. Since there is no length dimention and since the sound of Bit is not "too far" from the sound of Beat, you must apply the same Hebrew vowel. Also if you want to write "Come" in Hebrew you would vowel the Caf with a character from the "red" column. The same is true when you want to write Monday (you would vowel the Mem with a "red" character). That is also true for the Samech in Sunday.

Following is a reference chart of the Hebrew Alef Beit with all of the vowels. To practice, please read out loud each row. Start with A, E, EE, O, OO. BA, BEH, BEE, BO, BOO and so forth.

OO	O	EE	EH	A
BOO	BO	BEE	BEH	BA
GOO	GO	GEE	GEH	GA
DOO	DO	DEE	DEH	DA
HOO	HO	HEE	HEH	HA
VOO	VO	VEE	VEH	VA
ZOO	ZO	ZEE	ZEH	ZA
CHOO	CHO	CHEE	CHEH	CHA
TOO	TO	TEE	TEH	TA
YOO	YO	YEE	YEH	YA
COO	CO	KEE	KEH	CA
LOO	LO	LEE	LEH	LA
MOO	MO	MEE	MEH	MA
NOO	NO	NEE	NEH	NA
SOO	SO	SEE	SEH	SA
OO	O	EE	EH	A
POO	PO	PEE	PEH	PA
TZOO	TZO	TZEE	TZEH	TZA
KOO	KO	KEE	KEH	KA
ROO	RO	REE	REH	RA
SHOO	SHO	SHEE	SHEH	SHA
TOO	TO	TEE	TEH	TA