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Formative Letters

Eleven of the letters in the Alef-Bet are considered “formative” because they serve grammatical functions in the language.

א ב ה ו ט כך ל מם נן ש ת

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 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 construct marker
	tav	marker suffix	(vav+tav, “-ot”) feminine plural marker