4.13 Rule of Sheva I: Introduction

Hebrew does not allow two consecutive reduced vowels in a word to remain (or “stand”)

• If you see two Sheva in a row in the text, the second one must be Silent
  • We remember the reduced vowels are Vocal Sheva, Hateph Patach, Hateph Seghol, and Hateph Qamets Hatuf
  • Silent Sheva is not a reduced vowel; it’s not a vowel at all
• Sometimes, according to grammar rules, we end up with a scenario where we would have two reduced vowels such as two Vocal Sheva, back to back - this is another conflict that must be resolved
  • Grammar rules sometimes REQUIRE two reduced vowels next to each other
  • Grammar rules also PROHIBIT two reduced vowels next to each other
  • The “prohibit” rule wins!
• The “Rule of Sheva” defines what happens to resolve: the first reduced vowel lengthens to become a short vowel
• We must learn to recognize when a word has vowels modified because of the Rule of Sheva

If a word BEGINS with a short vowel followed by a reduced vowel, it may originally have been two reduced vowels

We’ll explain more in Rule of Sheva, part II.