Formative Letters

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.

Technical Details Below

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