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Hebrew Helps: 26-29
© 2010, T. Michael W. Halcomb

Help 26: Having familiarized ourselves with the Definite Article (DA) and how it
interacts with gutturals, we are in a position to acknowledge several of the tendencies (or
rules) that take place regarding gutturals. These may not all make sense or even seem
important at this point but rest assured, they will come make sense and come in handy
later (refer back to Help #26 as often as needed!):

1. Gutturals will never take dagesh forte (dot) inside them (see Help #27 for more)
2. Gutturals tend to take “A-Type” vowels (Qamets, Qamets Hey, Patach, Chateph
Patch)
3. Gutturals do not take a vocal shewa but do take a silent shewa
4. Gutturals affect conjugation by weakening the root (shoresh) or the word

Help 27: Put simply, a dagesh is a dot put in the middle of a letter. In Hebrew, there is a
weak dagesh and a strong dagesh. The weak is known as Dagesh Lene and the strong is
known as Dagesh Forte. In this help, we want to look at the strong dagesh, Dagesh Forte
(DF), and several different types of it. First, we just need to know that the DF, when put
into the middle of a letter, doubles that letter. So, a mem that receives the DF becomes a
double-mem, for example. Likewise, a yod that takes the DF becomes a double-yod.
Second, we need to know that if the dagesh shows up in any letter besides a
BeGaDKePhaT letter, it is a DF. Third, the DF NEVER occurs in gutturals! Fourth, It
CAN occur in letters that directly follow a vowel. Fifth, the DF comes in the 3 types:

1. Compensatory: When a consonant assimilates into the next letter and by virtue
of this becomes a DF
2. Characteristic: When some verbal forms (e.g. Piel) include the DF as part of
their stem
3. Euphonic: Sometimes added just to smooth out the pronunciation of a word

Help 28: Having looked at the Dagesh Forte, we can now make better sense of the
Dagesh Lene or weak dagesh. Basically, we can just remember a couple of simple rules:
1) The Lene is placed inside BeGaDKePhaT letters, and 2) The Lene can never follow a
vowel directly.

Help 29: Since a DF cannot go into a guttural or a resh, this will often times to force the
initial vowel to lengthen (as opposed to weaken). With gutturals in biblical Hebrew,
there seems to be a preference or tendency toward the patah. Still, here are two typical
patterns: