א ב ה ו ט
כך ל מם
נן ש ת
Eleven of the letters in the Alef-Bet are considered “formative” because they serve grammatical functions in the language.
This list is the opposite of the radical only letters.
The various uses of the formative letters are summarized in the table below:
This is not a great table to memorize from. There are separate tables in the sidebar which contain all of this information organized in a better way. However, this is a good list to look up just about every function of any particular letter.
| Letter | Letter | Type | Function |
|---|---|---|---|
| א | alef | verb conjugation | first person: I will do (cohortive) second person: Do! (imperative) |
| ב | bet | inseparable preposition | (in/on/with/by) |
| ה | heh | prefix | (the) definite article |
| heh | marker suffix | (“-ah”) feminine singular marker | |
| heh | prefix | interrogative prefix | |
| heh | pronomial suffix | third person singular feminine possessive | |
| ו | vav | prefix | (and/but) (always first, bump) conjunction |
| vav | verb conjugation | consecutive | |
| vav | marker suffix | (vav+tav, “-ot”) feminine plural marker | |
| vav | pronomial suffix | third person singular masculine possessive | |
| vav | pronomial suffix | (nun+vav “-nu”) first person plural possessive | |
| י | yod | verb conjugation | He/they will |
| yod | marker suffix | masculine plural construct marker | |
| yod | pronomial suffix | first person singular possessive | |
| yod | marker suffix | (yod+mem, “-im”) masculine plural marker | |
| כ | kaf | inseparable preposition | (as/like) |
| כך | kaf | pronomial suffix | second person singular possessive |
| ל | lamed | inseparable preposition | (to/for/onto) |
| מ | mem | prefix | (from/of/out of) |
| ם | mem sofit | marker suffix | (yod+mem, “-im”) masculine plural marker |
| mem sofit | pronomial suffix | second/third person masculine plural possessive | |
| נ | nun | verb conjugation | We will |
| nun | pronomial suffix | (nun+vav, “-nu”) first person plural possessive | |
| ן | nun sofit | pronomial suffix | second/third person feminine plural possessive |
| ש | shin | prefix | (that/which/who/whom) asher |
| ת | tav | verb conjugation | She/you will |
| tav | marker suffix | feminine singular construct marker | |
| tav | marker suffix | (vav+tav, “-ot”) feminine plural marker |