Question about my Modern Israeli Hebrew dictionary?

Question

There is a section for "FEI" but not one for "PEI". Is it pronounced the same in Israeli Hebrew or what? So I just pronounce it FEI because they wrote it FEI?

Answer 1

The section פ implies both Peh and Feh (that are actually the same letter, only with or without a Dagesh).

There are six Hebrew letters that when appeared at the beginning of a word are ALWAYS marked with a Dagesh: Bet, Gimmel, Dalet, Kaf, Peh, Thav ("BeGeD- KeFeT").

Therefore, although the entries for the letter Peh/ Feh may not be vowelized, you can be sure that פ is pronounced "P" at the beginning of a word.

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Edit:

Both פ as "P" and פ as "F" are common and widely used in Hebrew.

Although you can't always predict what sound it makes (for this you need a rich vocabulary and a good understanding of the structure of Hebrew)- there are two rules that you can always rely on:

* At the beginning of a word, or after the punctuation mark Shva Nach (ְ), the letters בגד כפת (Bet, Gimel, Dalet, Kaf, Peh, Thav) always have a Dagesh (פּ= P; כּ= K; בּ= B…).

* At the end of a word, פ becomes ף and is always pronounced "F" (כ becomes ך and is pronounced "KH"). ב at the end of a word is pronounced "V".

The letters פ, כ, ב change their sounds according to their position and other factors; the neutral form is the weak one (F, KH, V). One of the factors that requires a Dagesh (that gives the letter the strong sounds P, K, B) is the "mold" in which you cast the root letters ("binyanim" for verbs; "mishkalim" for nouns and adjectives):

Let's take the root פרם (p.r.m- unstitch, unravel) for example-

1) In "Binyan Pa'al" (pa'al conjugation) you cast the root letters into the mold [_a_a_]- param, "unravel" (פ is pronounced P because it is the first letter).

2) In "Binyan Nif'al" (Nif'al conjugation) you cast the root into the mold [ni_ _a_]- nifram (and not "nipram"- we don't need a Dagesh here), "[was] unraveled".

However, in the future tense of "Binyan Nif'al" the prefix n is merged into the root, and the first root letter gets a Dagesh  as compensation [yi_Ö¼a_e_]: yiparem, "will be unraveled".

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I hope it helps and that you didn't get too confused…