ת

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ת U+05EA, ת
HEBREW LETTER TAV
[unassigned: U+05EB–U+05EE]
ש
[U+05E9]
Hebrew ׯ
[U+05EF]
U+FB28, ﬨ
HEBREW LETTER WIDE TAV

[U+FB27]
Alphabetic Presentation Forms
[U+FB29]

Hebrew

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Pronunciation

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  • Audio:(file)

After: ב

Letter

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ת (t)

  1. Tav: the twenty-second and final letter of the Hebrew alphabet, after ש.
  2. The numeral 400 in Hebrew numbering.

Usage notes

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  • The letter ת represents the phoneme /t/. In Modern Israeli Hebrew, this phoneme is pronounced [t] (like the <t> in English tap).
  • In the Masoretic Text, the letter ת takes a dagesh (תּ) not only when geminated, but also at the start of a word or after a consonant. In Ashkenazi Hebrew, it is pronounced [t] when it has a dagesh, and [s] (like the <s> in English see) in other cases. In Yemenite Hebrew, it is pronounced [t] when it has a dagesh, and [θ] (like the <th> in English thick) in other cases; it is commonly believed that the same was true in Classical Hebrew.
  • In Modern Israeli Hebrew, the sound /θ/ (like the <th> in English path), which occurs in various foreign phrases and proper nouns, is commonly written ת׳ (th).
  • Nouns ending in ת tend to be feminine, and many adjectives and participles form their feminine singular forms by appending ת to the masculine singular form (plus vowel changes). This is a reflex of Proto-Afroasiatic.
  • In many cases ת alternates with silent ה in different forms of a verb or noun; for example, feminine nouns whose singular indefinite forms end in ה tend to have singular construct forms ending in ת. (In many cases, this results from an original etymological /t/ having been lost in certain word-final contexts.)
  • For information about ת as a sort of prefix in various future-tense (prefix conjugation) forms, see Appendix:Hebrew verbs.
  • For information about ת as a sort of suffix in second-person singular past-tense (suffix conjugation) forms, see Appendix:Hebrew verbs.

Coordinate terms

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Yiddish

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Letter

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ת (sof)

  1. the twenty-sixth and final letter of the Yiddish alefbet (never found at the beginning of a word)
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See also

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