HEBREW · STEP 13
Read zahav
One new letter, a familiar vowel, and a word for gold.
Notice the closing consonant
Keep the modern Israeli pronunciation used in the earlier lessons. Read these two words and identify their last sounds.
Read דָּג and טוֹב. What closes each word?
dag, fish, ends with g from gimel. tov, good, ends with v from bet without an inside dot. Both are one syllable; neither needs an added final vowel.
That final v returns today. You will also put he to work as a sounded consonant inside a word.
Meet zayin
Zayin
z as in zebra
Zayin gives z. Compare it with the familiar vav shape from holam-vav. Their top strokes help distinguish them.
- זZayin
- Notice the head across the upright stroke. This is today's new letter.
- וVav
- Compare its simpler top and descending stroke. You know it in וֹ.
Which is zayin: ו or ז? What sound does it give?
ז is zayin. It gives z. Identify its shape rather than treating every narrow letter as vav or yod.
Read these practice syllables: זָ, זֵ, זִ
za, ze, zi. Qamats gives a here, tsere gives e as in ten, and hiriq gives i as in machine. These are sound combinations, not new vocabulary words.
Build za, then hav
za + hav = za-HAV
Gold
- Zayin with qamats gives za.
- He with its own qamats gives ha.
- The final bet has no inside dot, so finish that second part with v: hav.
Join two syllables, za-HAV. Give the stronger beat to the second, hav. Both vowel signs are qamats, and both give our familiar a sound in this word.
Cover the reading aid. Read זָהָב, give its meaning, and count the syllables.
za-HAV, gold. Two syllables, with the stronger beat on hav. The last letter supplies v, not another vowel.
He has more than one job
In zahav, he gives the h that begins the second syllable. That is different from the final he in Torah, which helps write its final a vowel without adding h.
- זָהָבza-HAV
- He is sounded: h begins hav.
- תּוֹרָהto-RA
- The final he supports a; it adds no h.
Point to he in both words. Should you leave out the h in zahav because Torah's he adds no h?
No. Read za-HAV with h, and to-RA without an extra final h. Identify the letter's work in the actual word rather than turning one example into a rule for every he.
Repair these readings of gold: “zahab” and “ZA-hav.”
For “zahab,” look inside the final bet: no dagesh, so finish with v. For “ZA-hav,” move the stronger beat to the second syllable: za-HAV.
You can have the right letters and still need to repair a consonant or the word's rhythm. Check those separately.
Gold among the gifts
In Exodus 25, Hashem tells Moshe to receive gifts from willing hearts. The chapter names materials for making a sanctuary, a holy place for our people to serve Hashem. Gold appears at the start of the material list.
זָהָב
Gold.
Read the excerpt. Does the word alone tell you what the gold will be used for?
za-HAV names the material, gold. The surrounding instructions explain the gifts and the sanctuary. The single word is not a whole instruction.
The rest of the material list includes words and patterns still to learn. If you open the source, locate zahav and use the translation for the surrounding passage.
Recognize the gold
Zahav also fits the article pattern you have learned. Attach he with patah and put the article-related dagesh inside zayin. In our modern reading, zayin still gives z; the dot adds no syllable.
ha + za + hav = ha-za-HAV
The gold
The noun keeps its two qamats signs. Adding ha gives three spoken syllables, while the stronger beat remains on hav. This exact pointed form appears in Genesis 2:11.
Read הַזָּהָב. Which he belongs to the article, and which belongs to the noun?
ha-za-HAV, the gold. The he at the right-hand beginning, with patah, is the article. The he farther inside the word, with qamats, belongs to zahav. Both are sounded h here, but their jobs differ.
Read in a different order
Read these as separate words and give their meanings. Pay special attention to the stronger beat in the two-syllable words.
- לֶחֶם
- זָהָב
- דָּג
- טוֹב
Check the readings and compare lechem with zahav
LE-chem, bread; za-HAV, gold; dag, fish; tov, good.
Lechem and zahav each have two syllables, but lechem's stronger beat comes first and zahav's comes second. Dag and tov each have one syllable. Zahav and tov both end with v from undotted bet.
Remember the whole spelling
Look away. Say the Hebrew for gold, then write it if you can. Name its three letters and describe the marks before reopening the answer.
Check your remembered word and choose one repair
זָהָב, za-HAV: zayin, he, and bet without dagesh. Qamats appears under zayin and he. The final sound is v.
Repair the particular feature you missed: zayin's shape, the sounded h, final vet, the vowel signs, or final stress. Then cover the model and try again.
Tomorrow, recall gold before looking here. Compare its he with Torah's final he, then add the article to gold from memory. Read both forms smoothly after explaining their parts.
Explore the sources
Zayin and consonant sounds, University of Texas at Austin (PDF) · Zahav: form and meaning · Zahav pronunciation, Avnion dictionary · Exodus 25 in context