ת

See also: ת׳, תּ, ת., and Appendix:Variations of "t"

Hebrew

Pronunciation

After: ב

• Homophone: ט

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 [t] (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 [t] when it has a dagesh, and [s] (like the <s> in English see) in other cases. In Yemenite Hebrew, it is pronounced [t] when it has a dagesh, and [θ] (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-Afro-Asiatic.
• 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

• (Hebrew script letters) א,‏ ב,‏ ג,‏ ד,‏ ה,‏ ו,‏ ז,‏ ח,‏ ט,‏ י,‏ כך,‏ ל,‏ מם,‏ נן,‏ ס,‏ ע,‏ פף,‏ צץ,‏ ק,‏ ר,‏ ש,‏ ת

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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

• תּ (tof)

See also

• א (∅), אַ (a), אָ (o), ב (b), בּ (b), בֿ (v), ג (g), ד (d), דזש (dzh), ה (h), ו (u), וּ (u), וֹ (o), װ (v), ױ (oy), ז (z), זש (zh), ח (kh), ט (t), טש (tsh), י (y), יִ (i), ײ (ey), ײַ (ay), כּ (k), כ (kh), (ך (kh)), ל (l), מ (m), (ם (m)), נ (n), (ן (n)), ס (s), ע (e), פּ (p), פֿ (f), פ (f), (ף (f)), צ (ts), (ץ (ts)), ק (k), ר (r), ש (sh), שׂ (s), תּ (t), ת (s)