Hebrew Letters: Yod

This series of web pages provides free lessons on the Hebrew Alphabet. If you want to learn Hebrew quickly, why not download our Hebrew Alphabet Flashcards and get started within minutes?


Home  |  Learning Hebrew  |  Hebrew Alphabet  |  Hebrew Letters: Yod

The next letter of the Hebrew Alphabet is called Yod, pronounced yod or yood.

Hebrew audio  Hebrew audio: Listen to the sound of Yod.

Here is what the Hebrew letter Yod looks like: Hebrew letter of the Hebrew alphabet - Yod

Here is how to write Yod:

Animation showing how to write the Hebrew letter Yod

When Yod is used as a consonant, it is pronounced with a y sound, like the words yonder, yoke or yellow.

Yod has the Gematria (numerical value) of 10, since it is the tenth letter of the Hebrew Alphabet.

Practise writing Yod in the grid lines below:

Grid showing how to write the Hebrew letter Yod

Grid showing how to write the Hebrew letter Yod

Grid showing how to write the Hebrew letter Yod

Grid showing how to write the Hebrew letter Yod

 
Yod is one of the most important letters of the Hebrew Alphabet, since the common Biblical words Yahweh, Israel and Judah all start with this letter. Here is what these words look like:

Hebrew word Yahweh        Yahweh
Hebrew word Israel  Israel
Hebrew word David   Judah

Incidentally, names of people and places in the Hebrew Bible which start with the letter j, such as Judah, Jerusalem or Jehovah, generally start with the letter Yod in Hebrew. The letter j is used in the English translation rather than y because Latin had no letter y, so j was used instead. The use of Latin as the standard ‘holy language’ for centuries in Christian churches led to j being used throughout later centuries, even in English translations.

 
We have seen, then, that Yod is pronounced with a y sound when it is used as a consonant. In some books of the Hebrew Bible, however, Yod is used as the vowel i (pronounced ee as in the words feel or reel) if there is a dot below the previous letter. A good example of this is in the different spellings of the name David that occur in Scripture. In books such as Samuel or Kings, David is spelt like this:

Hebrew word David - short spelling   David, pronounced Da-veed

whereas in books such as Chronicles and Nehemiah, David is spelt with the addition of the letter Yod acting as a vowel to make the i sound:

Hebrew word David - long spelling   David, pronounced Da-veed

 
In both cases, the actual pronunciation of David remains the same - but, as we will see in the lessons about the Hebrew vowels, the Yod is often used as a vowel to make the Hebrew easier to read.
 
Hebrew Well done! You now know the first 10 letters of the Hebrew Alphabet. You should now be able to read the tablets of stone shown opposite. Tablets like this are a common sight in Jewish houses. They are a reminder of the Ten Commandments given in Exodus 20, but show the first ten letters of the Hebrew Alphabet to represent each of the commandments.

Home  |  Learning Hebrew  |  Hebrew Alphabet  |  Hebrew Letters: Yod