Hebrew Point Patah

Type the Hebrew consonant first, then enter patah. As a nonspacing vowel mark, it attaches to the letter before it instead of acting like an independent letter. For repeated pointed Hebrew, use a keyboard layout with niqqud support; standard Israeli SI-1452 lacks access to some Unicode Hebrew marks.

When both marks are needed, type the consonant, dagesh, then patah. In right-to-left text, a direction setting helps surrounding punctuation but does not change attachment order. A font controls the point’s position; separated from its letter, patah may float, disappear, or sit on a dotted circle. Keep the letter and its marks together when editing.

What sound does patah make?

In the Tiberian reading tradition, patah marks an “a” vowel. Niqqud is the set of vowel points that guides readers through Hebrew text written without vowel points.

The Tiberian vowel-pointing system developed at Tiberias during the early Islamic period. Written vowel and accent signs are attested no earlier than the sixth century; by the ninth century, their inventors were already unknown. The system survives in early Bible codices—handwritten books. Palestinian and Babylonian systems were regional alternatives, mostly placing signs above letters; scribes sometimes mixed their marks with Tiberian ones.

Why does patah sound like qamats?

Modern Hebrew commonly gives patah and qamats the same “a” sound.

That merger does not make their spellings interchangeable. In Ashkenazi liturgical reading, patah commonly sounds like “a” and qamats like “o”; Sephardi readings commonly give both an “a” sound.