Hebrew Vowels: Shurek

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The next Hebrew vowel is one we have already met when we looked at the Hebrew letter Vav. It is called Shurek, pronounced shoo-rek. (Not shoe-rack!)

Shurek is represented by a single dot inside the letter Vav. It is pronounced with a fairly long oo sound, as in the English words fool or pool. It is neither the very short oo sound of words like put or soot, nor the very long oo sound of words like true or blue.

Here are a few common words from the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible) with the vowel Shurek:

Hebrew word kum  arise, get up, 46 times
Hebrew word shuv  return, 33 times

Occasionally, what looks like the Hebrew vowel Shurek is actually a Dagesh (dot) inside the Hebrew letter Vav. However, if there is a Dagesh, the Vav is pronounced v, not oo. For example, the Hebrew name Hava (Eve) is written like this:

Hebrew word chava  Hava (Eve)

Although this looks like it should be pronounced Ha-oo-a, the dot inside the letter Vav is a Dagesh, not Shurek, and the Vav is therefore pronounced v.

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