Lesson 3: The SHVA Vowel - Vocal vs Silent SHVA | Crash Course in Hebrew Reading & Pronunciation

How do we know when a SHVA vowel is vocal or silent? In this 3rd lesson, you will learn some great rules and tips to understand the way the SHVA vowel works (It is important that you watch the first two lessons first!)
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SKIP AHEAD LINKS:
0:00 Introduction
0:52 SHVA at START
1:38 The Hebrew Syllable
2:12 SHVA at START (Cont.)
2:55 SHVA at END
3:58 TWO SHVAs in the MIDDLE
5:49 TWO SHVAs in the END
7:17 SINGLE SHVA in the MIDDLE
7:43 "Big" vs "Small" Vowels
9:51 Exceptions to the Rules (Dagesh)
12:11 Closing Notes, Like, Subscribe & Share

[@Jtve]

May HaShem bless ya. You have solved my problems

[@loveadonai8060]

Tnx so much indeed. The lesson about shva vowel is basic for beginners like me

[@johngeevarghese1354]

May God bless you! As the deer pants for water so is my finding you teacher. You are an oasis .

[@Lordjesuschristfeb]

God Lord Jesus Christ is really blessed sister ji Amen Hallelujah glory to God Lord Jesus Christ always Amen Hallelujah

[@michaelg1060]

Toda Raba--- I am teaching my Granddaughter her alef-bet until she gets to cheder. Though I have kept up on my Hebrew reading, I found I had gotten sloppy on the finer points of Shva. This helped me immensely and it all came back to me. I would not wish to transmit error to my Granddaughter when instructing her on the Lashon Hakodesh. I subscribed, so that I can go over your lessons with her. Shalom Aleichem!!

[@TheWORDinHEBREW]

That’s awesome 👏 Thank you for sharing and for subscribing 🙏

[@michaelg1060]

@@TheWORDinHEBREW B'vakasha.

[@anapaula9299]

Thank you

[@dosgatosnegros]

I've been interested in learning Hebrew for decades. I'm now 63. I think this will be a driving force to my learning. And yes your voice is very pleasant and easy on the ears ❤

[@TheWORDinHEBREW]

That's great! And thank you 😇

[@chandusantosh8830]

Thank you so much madam... Your teaching is Invaluable😊

[@melinteemil7434]

Multumesc pentru tot ce faci

[@bholayadav6994]

Very very nice teacher and teaching ❤

[@majbrittpauladottir1519]

Fantastic‼️ Thank you so much 😊

[@maryhernandez3117]

So helpful! Corrects so much what I have been taught or others do not really know. I appreciate your lessons. Thank you! Toda!

[@TheWORDinHEBREW]

That’s great to know! Thank you for watching 🙏

[@santiagocruz2754]

Thank you for clearing up these rules

[@debbyantoine]

Thanks , reasons why I'm asking ,in my English and Hebrew tanakh. Gods name in Hebrew sometimes has one shva above the letter oh long vowel ,sometimes 2 , other times none . I have 2 translation s ,they both are the same .

[@TheWORDinHEBREW]

That’s not a shva, it’s a cantillation mark 😉

[@debbyantoine]

Ah I see 😊

[@Loriag888]

Bless You!!! I LOVE these Lessons!

[@dailyoneenglish2176]

#2:23 #2:24 #2:25 #3:35 #3:36 #3:37

[@user-vi9li8tf4i]

Thankyou 🙏. Greetings from Australia

[@kenwuest]

The voice is welcoming and enhances learning. This is in contrast with other teachers of Hebrew where the voice may not be as welcoming.

[@rinaamaya7382]

Shalom todah rabah

[@harisn6593]

Thank you very much, this lesson helps me a lot in understanding how to devide syllables in hebrew word... 🙏

[@melinteemil7434]

Am ajuns la lectia 3

[@melinteemil7434]

Multumim pentru aceste cursuri care avem sansa sa invatam limba ebraica

[@tonymoore566]

You are awesome!!

[@chinady1827]

Thank you!

[@betty8226]

I am thankful ❤

[@Simon483]

Thank you Ayelet :-)

[@josemiguel20delcarme]

תודה רבה, muchas gracias

[@TheWORDinHEBREW]

בבקשה 🙏

[@rageofaquariusofficial]

Beautiful

[@rickyt3961]

thank you and Happy Purim!🎭

[@wendyque4474]

Thank you! You made it do much clearer and easy

[@321ssteeeeeve]

Thanks

[@janusun2887]

Love you teacher....m your students

[@MoGi49]

Thank you so much!

[@TheWORDinHEBREW]

Thank you & God bless!

[@r6gaming127]

Thanks!

[@TheWORDinHEBREW]

Thank you again 😇 God bless you 🙏

[@erichaggen1842]

I lovey

[@VictorFianko]

Could you please throw light on what you meant by a "small vowel".

[@VictorFianko]

Rabbi, could you please throw light on what you meant by " small vowels" . Thank you.

[@TheWORDinHEBREW]

Shalom, you should watch the video again and pay attention to the table dividing between the “small” and “big” vowels (other might call them “short” and “long” respectively.

[@othnieltv]

before and after meals prayer please by the way subbed to you 👑

[@judysbakeryandtestkitchen1654]

Thanks for explaining Shva. It can be really confusing. I see I’ve been pronouncing “lomdeem” wrong. Also, other ones. Thanks for the rules. I will have to watch the video again and again to really get it.

[@TheWORDinHEBREW]

Glad I can help :-) Thank you for watching!

[@judysbakeryandtestkitchen1654]

This really helped understand a problem I’ve been having in learning my Torah portion. I am doing Parshat Noah. My portion includes Genesis 10. I’m having a problem with verse 19. This is a genealogy. All of the names listed are proceeded by “VE”. Except for one-peceeded by “VA.” I spoke to the rabbi today. He started off by saying its some tricky grammar. To which I said “is this about the SHVA?” And he said that it was. Apparently a SHVA can’t go before a silent letter like an Iyan. He said it probably wasn’t this way at the beginning, but it morphed over time. So thank you. Strange rules but now I understand the situation thanks to you, I had a introduction to this tricky vowel

[@TheWORDinHEBREW]

Glad I can help, although I’m not sure which specific Hebrew word or name in Gen. 10:19 you had trouble with? Not seeing what you are describing in that verse. 😳

[@judysbakeryandtestkitchen1654]

@@TheWORDinHEBREW VaEmoree. All the other names are. Ve

[@TheWORDinHEBREW]

There is no shva in that word. There is an "AH" vowel under the ֲע (Khataf-Patakh).

[@judysbakeryandtestkitchen1654]

@@TheWORDinHEBREW Thank you for your reply. I’m going to have to check that again. Confusing.

[@TruthCeeker333]

🙏

[@jasonmenegio116]

Boker Tov! Can you help me understand why the shva is sometimes pronounced with an eh, like in ‘bet’ but other times like an a, as in ‘they?’ Thank you for all the work you do; very helpful!

[@TheWORDinHEBREW]

Hmmm, both cases you mentioned sound the same to me 😳 The bottom line is, when the shva is vocal, it is pronounced as an “eh”. When it is silent, it is not pronounced at all.

[@lalhmachhuana-fj4rr]

🎉Cood

[@sixtwoinak]

👍💪🙏

[@Manny-hu5rz]

In Biblical Hebrew cholam chaser and cholam male are Big Vowels, references “ Learning Biblical Hebrew “ by Karl V. Kutz. Page 15. Thanks

[@TheWORDinHEBREW]

That is technically correct, BUT in the very rare case that a shva will appear after a Kholam Khaser, that shva will most likely be a silent shva, because the letter with the kholam will most likely have a dagesh in it. So, this is why I call it “BIG vs SMALL” and not “Long vs Short”, and why I separated the too kholams. I hope that helps. 😉 Btw, if you can find a word with that scenario of a shva following a kholam khaser, and you think that shva is vocal, please send it to me and I will be happy to re-consider the way I teach it 😉

[@Manny-hu5rz]

@@TheWORDinHEBREW thanks for answering, that shows you are serious about teaching Hebrew, and I was surprised because I never expected an answer, and I would agree with you as you said very rare case, the reason I made the comment was because the book that I mentioned it had many good reviews from very serious scholars, and when I read yours I said to myself what is it that always find different scholars saying or teaching different ways how to pronounce words and I know Biblical Hebrew is different than modern Hebrew and in my personal case I want to make sure I pronounce correctly when praying. As an example when I’ve been in different synagogue some of them they said the word “הודו” wrong depending where the accent is and if they read with aleph or ayim. I didn’t mean this to be long, and I thank you for your time.

[@TheWORDinHEBREW]

@@Manny-hu5rzYou’re very welcome. Yes, accents and punctuation will vary depending if it Ashkenazi or Sephardic for example. My goal is to simplify it so people can learn quicker and with less to worry about, so they can read and pronounce the Biblical Hebrew text as close as possible to the way any native Hebrew speaker would read it. I’m sure that Moses and Yeshua had different accents, but they would have understood each other just fine . And neither of them had any vowels to help them, lol 😏

[@uiticus]

On timeline 12:11 where you showed 2 tables of small and big vowels, the vowel Tsere appears on both tables. So is the vowel Tsere a small or big vowel?

[@uiticus]

@@TheWORDinHEBREW Oh yes, you are right. My fault. Sorry about that.

[@melinteemil7434]

Vreau sa fac aceste cursuri de limba ebraica

[@ronietabada5191]

Shalom. I'd like to ask, I've read in Isaiah 24:16 the word מִכְּנַ֨ף mik keh naph. In one Bible page the word is transliterated as mik'naph (silent shva). As you said if there's a dagesh in a letter it should be voiced shva and not silent shva. Are they both correct mikenaph and miknaph My last question why the word kanaph in the said verse came mikenaph and not mikanaph? I hope you can help me to learn more about this shva vowel sound.

[@TheWORDinHEBREW]

Shalom, Yes, it will read “mee/keh/NA-F” because of the dagesh on the כ. The reason it becomes “mee/keh/NA-f”, is because the מ before the כ, is actually a Prefix (“from”) and not a part of the word itself, so in that case, the kha-f must receive a dagesh and therefore, the vowel kamatz must change to a vocal shva. Just some of the rules that are beyond those I can cover in my course (there are MANY complicated rules like that 😳) And yes, MOST of the time, if a shva is under or after a letter with a dagesh, it is a vocal shva, regardless of the vowel before it, but not always 😳 I hope that helps & God bless!

[@destructo3915]

The shewa on the kaf is doubled. This means there are essentially two shewas. The first is silent, the second is vocal. You would read it like מכְּכְּנף mik-ke-naf as you transliterated it the first time.

[@Loco_Epic]

Can letters at the end of a word also be silent?(other then the silent letters like alef and the rest ) So no base sound and if so how do u find out? Letters with base sound?

[@TheWORDinHEBREW]

Nope. The only time a letter at the end of a word is silent, is when it is א, ע or ה AND it has no vowel. If א is at the end, it will never have a vowel, but ה or ע could receive a patach at the end and will then make the sound “ah” for ע or “ha” for ה with a patach. I hope that helps 😉

[@Loco_Epic]

Thx

[@uiticus]

Is the shuruk vowel of the letter Vav considered to be a dagesh? Can all Hebrew letters accept a dagesh?

[@uiticus]

@@TheWORDinHEBREW Yes! Thank you much.

[@NikhylBurnett]

In lomehdeem, why isnt the pronounciation for yod made?

[@TheWORDinHEBREW]

When a Yod comes after a kheerik (the little dot under a letter for the vowel “ee”), it becomes a part of that vowel and therefor is not pronounced on its own. See my video on the vowels here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/hqfXXnlohr-raacsi=db8UUBxlNZkLpHzf

[@debbyantoine]

What if shva is above a letter in Hebrew? Meaning 2 dots

[@TheWORDinHEBREW]

This can never happen. A shva can only be below a letter.

[@debbyantoine]

​@@TheWORDinHEBREWi have 2 translation s they both are the same . It's the v vowel , with 2 sometimes 1 shva sometimes none . Just the v vowel

[@TheWORDinHEBREW]

Not sure what you mean, but unless it's under the letter, it's not a shva, but a cantillation mark or something else.

[@melinteemil7434]

Vreau sa iau lectie de ebraica

[@enchanted_cow]

Hi! Could you please explain to me why in the word סודר for example ס is pronounced with a silent shva, even though it's at the beginning of the word?

[@TheWORDinHEBREW]

Shalom! Could you send it with the vowels please or verse reference?

[@enchanted_cow]

@@TheWORDinHEBREWyeah, sure: סְווֶדֶר (I'm realizing now that I spelled it wrong in the first comment, sorry)

[@TheWORDinHEBREW]

No worries, Technically, it IS a vocal shva, but in MODERN Hebrew, a lot of times, we don’t emphasize the pronunciation of a shva in the beginning of a word, especially when speaking fluently (and fast 😉) However, if pronounced correctly, it would be seh/VEH/deh-r

[@enchanted_cow]

@@TheWORDinHEBREW ah, I see, thanks! Do instances like this, where the shva should be pronounced but often people don't, happen usually only at the beginning of words?

[@TheWORDinHEBREW]

​@@enchanted_cow In fluent, modern Hebrew, yes, or it becomes more subtle. :-)