Hebrew Vowels Chart: Every Vowel Mark, Its Name, and How to Say It

Hebrew letters are all consonants. The vowels are the small dots and lines written under, above, or inside the letters. Together they are called nikkud (also spelled nekudot, or nekudos in Ashkenazi pronunciation). Every printed siddur and Chumash has them, which is why a beginner can sound out a prayer long before they can read an Israeli newspaper.

This page is a reference you can keep open next to your siddur. It has every vowel mark with its name and sound, a column for the traditional Ashkenazi pronunciation you hear in many shuls, the two rules that trip up beginners (shva and kamatz), and the dots that are not vowels at all.

The short version

• Five sounds: Israeli Hebrew has only five vowel sounds: a, e, i, o, u. There are more signs than sounds because several signs now sound the same.
• About a dozen signs: learn them in sound groups, not one by one.
• Read the letter and its vowel together: מָis "ma", not "m" then "a".
• Two dialects in the siddur: Israeli and Sephardi reading says Shabbat; traditional Ashkenazi reading says Shabbos. Both read the same printed marks.

The Hebrew vowels chart

Each sign is shown on the letter mem, which on its own just says "m", so you can see where the mark sits. The three "chataf" vowels are shown on alef, because they almost always appear under the throat letters alef, hei, chet, and ayin.

Chirik and cholam each have two spellings. Chirik can stand alone or be followed by a yod (מִי). Cholam can be a dot above the letter or a vav with a dot on top (מוֹ). The sound is the same either way. Shuruk is the vav with a dot in its middle, and it makes the same "oo" as kubutz.

Learn them in five sound groups

Instead of memorizing twelve names, learn five sounds and the signs that make each one:

• a: patach מַ, kamatz מָ, and the quick chataf patach אֲ
• e: tzere מֵ, segol מֶ, and the quick chataf segol אֱ
• i: chirik מִ
• o: cholam מֹ or מוֹ, and the quick chataf kamatz אֳ
• u: kubutz מֻ and shuruk מוּ

Then add the shva מְ, which is either silent or a very short "e". That is the whole system. Ten minutes a day on these groups, reading real words from the siddur, is enough for many adults to recognize every sign within a couple of weeks.

Ashkenazi or Israeli pronunciation?

The marks on the page are the same in every siddur. What changes is how communities say a few of them. Israeli Hebrew and most Sephardi communities read kamatz as "a", so שַׁבָּתis "Shabbat" and בָּרוּךְis "baruch". Traditional Ashkenazi reading says kamatz closer to "aw" or "o", and reads a tav with no dot inside it as "s". That is why the same word is "Shabbos" and the blessing begins "boruch".

Ashkenazi cholam also varies by family and region, from a plain "o" to "oy" or "ow". None of these is a mistake. If you daven in a particular shul, read the way the people around you read. If you are learning alone, pick one system and stay with it so your ear has one pattern to learn.

The shva: silent or spoken?

The shva מְis the sign that confuses everyone, because the same two dots are sometimes silent (shva nach) and sometimes a quick "e" (shva na). For reading prayers, a few rules cover almost every case:

• At the start of a word, say it. שְׁמַע is "sh'ma", not "shma" with no vowel at all.
• At the end of a word, it is silent. The final letter of בָּרוּךְcarries a shva and you simply stop on the "ch".
• Closing a syllable in the middle, it is silent. In יִשְׂרָאֵלthe shva under the sin closes "yis", so the word is "Yis-ra-el".
• Two in a row in the middle of a word: the first is silent and the second is spoken.

Some siddurim for beginners mark the spoken shva in some way, often with a slightly different or bolder print. If yours does, its introduction usually explains the system on the first pages.

When kamatz says "o"

Even in Israeli pronunciation, kamatz sometimes reads "o". This is called kamatz katan, the small kamatz. It happens in a closed, unstressed syllable. The two words you will meet most often in prayer are כָּל, "kol" (all), and חָכְמָה, "chochmah" (wisdom). Some siddurim print kamatz katan with a slightly longer stem so you can tell them apart. In Ashkenazi reading the question mostly disappears, since kamatz already leans toward "o".

Dots that are not vowels

A few dots look like nikkud but change the letter, not the vowel:

• Dagesh, a dot inside the letter. In three letters it changes the sound: בּ is b and ב is v, כּ is k and כ is ch, פּ is p and פ is f. In Ashkenazi reading a fourth letter joins them: תּ is t and ת is s. In other letters the dagesh does not change how modern readers say it.
• Shin and sin dots. A dot over the right arm makes שׁ "sh". A dot over the left arm makes שׂ"s".
• The sneaky patach. A patach under a final chet or ayin (and a final hei with a dot in it) is said before the letter, not after. רוּחַis "ruach", not "rucha".

Practice on words you already know

The fastest way to make the chart stick is to read prayers you already know by ear. Your memory fills in the sound, and your eyes learn which mark made it. Try these, sign by sign:

• שְׁמַע יִשְׂרָאֵל: sh'ma Yis-ra-el, the opening of the Shema.
• בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה: baruch atah (or boruch atoh), the start of every blessing.
• שַׁבָּת שָׁלוֹם: Shabbat shalom (or Shabbos sholom).

If the letters themselves are still new, start with our Hebrew alphabet chart. Once the marks feel familiar, our guide to learning to read Hebrew as an adult has a four-week plan for the letters, the lookalike pairs, and reading speed. If you want a siddur with clear vowels and a good English translation, see the best siddurim for beginners, and for apps that drill the alphabet and nikkud, our best apps to learn Hebrew comparison.

Where you will and will not see vowels

Siddurim, Chumashim, Tanakh editions for study, children's books, poetry, and dictionaries print the vowels. Most Israeli newspapers, signs, and novels do not, because fluent readers know the words. The Torah scroll read in shul has no vowels either, which is why the person reading it prepares in advance from a printed Chumash. For a beginner, that makes the siddur the friendliest Hebrew book there is.

Bayit is a small Daily Plan for Jewish life: the weekly parsha one aliyah a day, Tanakh in Hebrew and English side by side, a little tefilah, and your Shabbos times. Five quiet minutes of real Hebrew text every day is how the vowels become second nature. Get Bayit on the App Store.