Hebrew Letters: Tav

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The last letter of the Hebrew Alphabet is called Tav.

  Hebrew audio: Listen to the sound of Tav.

Here is what the Hebrew letter Tav looks like:

Here is how to write the letter Tav:



Tav had two pronunciations in Biblical times. With a dot, it was pronounced with a hard th sound, as in the words thine, thee, or those. Without the dot, it was pronounced with a soft th sound, like the words throne, thunder or thanks.

Here are the two Biblical versions of Tav:

  with the dot, originally pronounced th as in that

  without the dot, originally pronounced th as in thin

 
In Israel today, however, Tav is always pronounced as t (just like the letter Tet), as in the words Tarshish, time or tell. It is important to know the older pronunciation, however, because it will help you to spell Hebrew words correctly. For example, any time you see the letters th in an English word that has come from Hebrew, you know that the Hebrew word must be spelled with the letter Tav, not Tet. In the words Bethesda or Bethlehem, for instance, the Hebrew uses the letter Tav.

Tav has the Gematria (numerical value) of 400.

Practise writing Tav in the grid lines below:









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