HEBREW · STEP 9
Read yam and yom
One small letter opens two useful words: sea and day.
Bring two vowels with you
Continue using the modern Israeli pronunciation from the earlier lessons. Read these familiar words before opening the answer.
Read שָׁם and שָׁלוֹם. Where do you find a and o?
sham, there; sha-LOM, peace. The T-shaped qamats below shin gives a in both words. In shalom, holam with vav, וֹ, gives o. The final mem gives m without an added vowel.
Those vowel spellings and final mem are enough for today's two words. Only their first letter is new.
Meet yod
Yod
y as in yes
Yod is small, but it is a full letter, not a vowel mark. In today's words it gives the consonant y. Look for its short stroke near the top of the line.
- יYod
- Short stroke. It begins both new words.
- וVav
- Longer stroke. You know it in the vowel spelling וֹ.
Compare their height in the same typeface. A small letter and a small dot are not the same thing: yod occupies a letter position; a vowel mark accompanies a letter.
Which is yod: ו or י? What sound will it give in this lesson?
י is yod, the shorter shape. It gives y in our two words. Do not turn it into an i vowel just because it is small.
Try these sound combinations: יָ, יֵ, יוֹ
ya, ye, yo. Qamats gives a here; tsere gives e as in ten; holam with vav gives o. These are sound combinations, not three vocabulary words.
Build yam: sea
y + a + m = yam
Sea
- Begin at the right with yod: y.
- Read the qamats below it: a, as in the a of sham.
- Close with final mem: m.
Blend one syllable, yam. The English letters are a reading aid, not the English name of a vegetable: keep our familiar a sound.
Cover the reading aid. Read יָם. Why not “ya-ma”?
yam, sea. Final mem closes the syllable. There is no vowel beneath it to make another spoken part.
Change the vowel spelling: day
y + o + m = yom
Day
The first consonant is still y, and the last is still m. Between them, holam with vav supplies o. Read yom, one syllable. Do not give the vowel-helper vav an extra v sound.
The change is more than moving a dot. Yam has qamats below yod; yom has the vowel spelling וֹ. Attend to the whole spelling.
Read יוֹם and יָם, in that order. Which is day?
yom, yam: day, sea. Yom has o; yam has a. Both begin with yod and end with final mem.
A learner reads yom as “yo-vam.” Which two extra sounds have slipped in?
An extra v and an extra a. Here וֹ writes the o vowel, not v plus o, and no a appears in this word. Return to y + o + m.
Find each word in a source
Psalm 72 begins with a prayer that the king judge rightly and care for the poor. Verse 8 pictures his rule reaching from sea to sea. This is the second occurrence of sea in that verse, shown as a single-word excerpt.
יָם
Sea.
In Genesis 1:5, God names the light Day. Read the word used for that name, again shown by itself.
יוֹם
Day.
Read both excerpts. Which names the light in Genesis, and which belongs to the psalm's picture of a king's reach?
Yom, day, names the light in Genesis 1:5. Yam, sea, appears in the psalm's picture. The contexts differ, and so do the vowels. You have decoded these two words, not all the words of either verse.
Reading a word accurately gives you a foothold in a passage. Its surrounding words still matter when you ask what the passage means.
Read without a predictable pair
Read down this list. Each item is a separate word, not part of a sentence. Give its meaning before opening the answer.
- יוֹם
- שֵׁם
- יָם
- טוֹב
- שָׁם
Check the five readings and explain the o spellings
yom, day; shem, name; yam, sea; tov, good; sham, there.
Yom and tov both use holam with vav for o. Tov's final bet gives v; yom has no v consonant in its reading.
Recall it in the other direction
Look away. Say the Hebrew for sea, peace, day. If you have paper, write all three with their vowel marks. Then read what you wrote.
Compare your recalled words
Sea: יָם, yam. Peace: שָׁלוֹם, sha-LOM. Day: יוֹם, yom.
Check yod's short shape, the complete o spelling where needed, and final mem. If sea and day switched places, look at their vowels, cover the answer, and retrieve them once more.
Tomorrow, begin with the mixed list rather than the models. After reading, point to yod in each new word and name the vowel spelling. That tests reading, not just memory of the order.
Explore the sources
Hebrew consonants, University of Texas at Austin (PDF) · Yam: form and meaning · Yom: form and meaning · Psalm 72 · Genesis 1