ת

Hello, you have come here looking for the meaning of the word ת. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word ת, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say ת in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word ת you have here. The definition of the word ת will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition ofת, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.

ת U+05EA, ת
HEBREW LETTER TAV
ש
Hebrew ׯ
U+FB28, ﬨ
HEBREW LETTER WIDE TAV

Alphabetic Presentation Forms

Hebrew

Pronunciation

  • (file)

After: ב

Letter

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

  • The letter ת represents the phoneme /t/. In Modern Israeli Hebrew, this phoneme is pronounced (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 when it has a dagesh, and (like the <s> in English see) in other cases. In Yemenite Hebrew, it is pronounced when it has a dagesh, and (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

Yiddish

Letter

ת (sof)

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

Related terms

See also