י — yod
«yod» is a consonant of the Hebrew script, read as “y / i”. A consonant y that often works as the vowel i. For example, in the word “יום טוב” — good day. The Hebrew alphabet has 22 letters in total. The busiest letter of the script: in אני (ani) it is i, in יום (yom) it is y. Tiny, but it does a lot of the work. It appears, for example, in the word “יום טוב” — good afternoon.
In short
| Character | י |
| Name | yod |
| Sound | y / i |
| What it is | a consonant |
In our course the character comes 10th of 22, its neighbours in the course are ט and כ, appears in roughly every other word on this site.
How to type י
- On a phone: add the Hebrew keyboard in the keyboard settings (Gboard on Android; Keyboards in the iPhone settings).
- In Word on Windows: type U+05D9 and press Alt+X right after it — the code turns into the character.
- On a Mac: switch to the Unicode Hex Input source, hold Option and type 05D9.
- Unicode code point: U+05D9. With it, the character can be found in the character map of any system.
How it sounds
A consonant y that often works as the vowel i
The character in a word
A lone character is hard to remember: memory holds on to meaning, and a letter has none. The word it stands in provides that anchor.
- יום טובйом товgood day
The character in the “nine letters that read much as you expect” group
g, d, v, y, l, m, n take their most common English values. ר is the throaty r, and ת is a plain t. Together with the sibilant group these nine letters cover almost every transcribed word from the first lessons.
Words with this character
- יום טובйом товgood afternoon
- בייбайbye
- אניаниI
- היאхиshe
- אנחנו שנינוанахну шнейнуthe two of us
- קוראים ליкорим лиmy name is
- איך קוראים לך?эйх корим леха?what is your name?
- נעים מאודнаим меодnice to meet you
- מאיפה אתה?ме-эйфо ата?where are you from?
- אני רוסיани росиI am Russian
- סליחהслихаexcuse me
- אני לא מביןани ло мэвинI don't understand
How to remember this character
A single letter is the hardest thing to remember: memory has nothing to hold on to — a character has no meaning. A three-step loop works: see the character, try to recall the sound (for «yod» it is “y / i”, as in the word “יום טוב”), see the right answer.
And come back to it the next day, not in an hour: a check a day or two later beats a check the same day. Nobody holds the whole alphabet — 22 letters — at once.
- It is better to test yourself the next day than at the end of the same session. That is why a word comes back to you tomorrow.checked many timesAdesope, Trevisan & Sundararajan, 2017, Review of Educational Research 87(3) · g = 0.82 when tested a day or two later, against 0.56 on the same day.
- Studying a little every day gets more into your head than spending the same total time in one sitting.checked many timesDonovan & Radosevich, 1999, Journal of Applied Psychology 84(5) · 63 studies compared, difference d = 0.46 — a sizeable figure for a learning effect.
Frequently asked
How does the Hebrew character י read?
As “y / i” — it is a consonant of the Hebrew script. A consonant y that often works as the vowel i. For example, in the word “יום טוב” — good day.
What is the letter י called?
Yod. A character's name and its sound are different things in the Hebrew script: it is called “yod” and reads as “y / i”. Learn the second one: the name only helps when the alphabet is recited aloud.