Guide to the Vowelization of the Prefix-Vav

In Hebrew, the prefix-vav serves a number of purposes, and is nearly ubiquitous in Biblical Hebrew. Its specific vowelization varies greatly, so for the benefit of our wider readership, I have compiled this handy guide.

Before beginning, I would like to restate that I am convinced that the vav should never be pronounced like a V. Its consonantal form should sound like a W.

Vav hahibbur: 

1. The default case has the vav vowelized with a sh’wa: וְ

2. Before a yud that already has a sh’wa, the vav receives a hiriq: וִ. The yud then becomes silent. (ִוִיהוּדָה)

3. Before a word that begins with any other letter with a sh’wa, the vav is marked as a shuruq, וּ, and makes a combined syllable with that sh’wa, which becomes nach. The vav in this case is pronounced as a small vowel, similar to the qubbutz. I.e., “oo” as “good” and “could,” and not “food.” (וֹּשְמוֹ)

4. Before words that start with the letters mem, bet, pei, or vav, the vav hahibbur is vowelized with a shuruq, וּ, and the bet and pei are weak. (וּבֹקֶר, וּמַעֲרִיצִים)

5. Before guttural letters marked with some sort of hataf vowel, the vav hahibbur receives the full form of that vowel, i.e., before hataf-patah, the vav is vowelized with a full patah, (וַאֲבָנִים) before hataf-segol, a full segol, (וֶאֱמֶת) and before hataf-qamatz, a full qamatz. (וָאֳנִיָּה)

6. Before a word that is both accented on its first syllable and marked with emphatic trop, the vav is vowelized with a qamatz, and this overrides rule 4 when applicable. (וָבֹקֶר, וָנֶגבָּה)

 

Vav hahippuch (that only prefixes verbs):

7. For past-tense forms converted to future-tense, follow all of the rules above for vav hahibbur. In this case, whether the vav before a verb is hahibbur or hahippuch can be discerned from other grammatical cues as I describe in this Seforim Blog post. 

8. For future-tense forms converted to past-tense, the vav is vowelized with a patah and the next letter with a dagesh forte (וַיֹּאמֶר, וַתֹּאמֶר), or before a first-person verb, with a qamatz, because the following alef cannot receive a dagesh forte (וָאֹמַר). 

9. An exception to rule 8: If the prefix yud is vowelized with a sh’wa, then the yud will not receive a dagesh forte even though the vav-hahippuch is vowelized with a patah (וַיְהִי). 

וְזֶהוּ.