Vowels1

U

O

Ee

Eh

A

1) Similar to English, Hebrew vowels compose five basic sounds:
A, E, I, O, U.
2) Different from English, vowels make no sound unless they are related to a consonant.
To make the sounds A, E, I, O, U in Hebrew, there is a need to use the consonant Alef with each of those vowels.
3) Most vowel characters are positioned underneath the consonants.
4) There are more than five characters but for basic communication, however, remembering five of them is sufficient for now.
5) Like in English, not each consonant has a vowel. Many times the last consonant in a word does not have one. Not only at an end or beginning of a word, that is also true sometime for letters at the end or beginning of syllables.

Note! there is no direct correlation between Hebrew and English vowels.

Hebrew characters with a horizontal line, make consonants sound as if they are vowled with "a" (Car, Bar).

Hebrew characters with dots that compose an imaginary horizontal line, make consanents sound as if they are vowled with "a" (Ben, Pen).

Hebrew characters with a single dot underneath (many times followed by a Yod), make consanents sound as if they are vowled with "Ee" (Meet, Week).

When the letter Vav has a dot at the top or on the side. it is most likely a vowel.
__ If the dot at the top it applies an "O" sound to the consonant that precedes it (Bob, Rod).
__ If the dot at the side it applies an "Oo" sound to the consonant that precedes it(Moon, Balloon).

Rarely the "T" shaped Kamatz makes an "O" sound. Most of the time it happens with the word "Kol".

A number of examples for the fact that this is approximation of sounds and not direct correlation:

There is no way in Hebrew to vowel the sound of "Man" different than the sound of "Men". For both you use a combination of dots from the "yellow" column.

There is no way in Hebrew to vowel the sound of "Bit" different than the sound of "Beat". For both you use a dot (with or without a Yod) from the "green" column.The difference between "Bit" and "Beat" in English involves two factors. Sound, and length. In Hebrew there is no length dimension to vowels. Since there is no length dimension and since the sound of Bit is not "too far" from the sound of Beat, you must apply the same Hebrew vowel.Also if you want to write "Come" in Hebrew you would vowel the Caf with a character from the "red" column.The same is true when you want to write Monday (you would vowel the Mem with a "red" character).That is also true for the Samech in Sunday.
Another important note!....Vav's and Yods, can be used both as vowels and as consonants. To determin if any of the two is a vowel for a previous consonant or a consonant itself, one has to look at two things:1) Any vowel for the preceding consonant.2) Any vowel to the Vav or the Yod.If the preceding consonant has no other vowel and the Vav or the Yod has no vowel, that means they serve as a vowel for the preceding consonant!

Following is a reference chart of the Hebrew Alef Beit with all of the vowels.To practice, please read out loud each row. Start with A, E, EE, O, OO. BA, BEH, BEE, BO, BOO and so forth.

OO	O	EE	EH	A
BOO	BO	BEE	BEH	BA
GOO	GO	GEE	GEH	GA
DOO	DO	DEE	DEH	DA
HOO	HO	HEE	HEH	HA
VOO	VO	VEE	VEH	VA
ZOO	ZO	ZEE	ZEH	ZA
CHOO	CHO	CHEE	CHEH	CHA
TOO	TO	TEE	TEH	TA
YOO	YO	YEE	YEH	YA
COO	CO	KEE	KEH	CA
LOO	LO	LEE	LEH	LA
MOO	MO	MEE	MEH	MA
NOO	NO	NEE	NEH	NA
SOO	SO	SEE	SEH	SA
OO	O	EE	EH	A
POO	PO	PEE	PEH	PA
TZOO	TZO	TZEE	TZEH	TZA
KOO	KO	KEE	KEH	KA
ROO	RO	REE	REH	RA
SHOO	SHO	SHEE	SHEH	SHA
TOO	TO	TEE	TEH	TA