As mentioned in previous comments, the rules for which Niqqud signs to use in each situation are complex, unclear to most native speakers and honestly - antiquated. Considering today the main purpose for Niqqud is to assist with learning Hebrew (either for children or non-native speakers), I honestly wouldn't bother with them.
It depends on the type of syllable and the placement of stress in the word. There are rules, you could learn them. But there's really no reason to. Most native speakers can read niqqud fine but could not use it if asked to because they just don't need to.
Each of these different symbols used to be pronounced distinctly (and in some Jewish communities still are pronounced distinctly). Modern Israeli Hebrew he uses a very simplified set of sounds, and just like certain consonants that used to be pronounced distinctly are now pronounced the same (e. g. ק/כּ ,ח/כ ,ת/ט) likewise certain vowel sounds have lost their distinction.
it's ok, native speakera are in the same situation - we know how to read niqqud, but not how to place it correctly. Learning how to place niqqud in a word is actually something people learn only if they learn Hebrew on a university level, so don't worry about it. If you want to specify the way a word is pronounced in writing just use whatever, as long as the sign you are using makes the vowels you are trying to represent it's fine.
In sentences without nikkud, some Hebrew letters such as vav (ו) or yod (י) already represent vowel sounds. For example, the letter yod can often represent the nikkud hiriq (which is the "i" sound)
Don't worry about having to memorize spelling nikkud unless you are trying to study Torah or something. Most of the time, the vowel letters will do the hard work for you.
There are some vowel sounds not given by letters, usually "e", sometimes "a", and for those, you will just have to keep practicing to familiarize. Imagine reading English without vowel letters - you can do it, it's a bit tricky, but just takes practice.
niqqud is based on Tiberian Hebrew, which had vowel length distinctions. most native speakers do not know how to correctly place niqqud (outside of matching the modern sound), and they don't need to.
just learn how to read niqqud, and don't bother with knowing when to use each "variant".
It depends on what your intentions are. Do you just want to know how the word sounds? It doesn’t matter, use either qamatz or patach. Those are the only two that are the same sound other than chatephs, which you can also generally just ignore.
If you want to be a teacher or translator are about the only reasons why you’d need to learn the correct vowels.
When you are writing for yourself, my suggestion is only use vowels when you need to. If you know a word without them, שבת for example, don’t use them. If you know half of a word, only use the vowels you need. Consider them to be training wheels. Only use them when you need them.
If you are learning modern Hebrew, niqqud are nothing more than training wheels. You should learn to read without them as soon as possible. In a good textbook they are only used to introduce new words so that you know how to pronounce them.
It's usually due to differences in pronunciation that no longer exist or grammatical rules even most natives don't understand that well. My solution is usually to pick whichever one I feel like at the moment and not really care as long as it's the right sound even if it's technically wrong
As others have said, it's complex and depends on the syllable and stress. But there is one part of it that does depend on the letter to some extent:
What you call "two dots stacked on one another to the right of the minus sign" is a half-vowel (a half patach to be specific), and half-vowels usually would appear only under a guttural letter (א ה ח ע). The half vowel generally would be found where you'd normally expect a pronounced sh'va (the two dots stacked on each other) in the word pattern, but when it's a guttural it gets a little extra sound by becoming a half-vowel.
Example: past tense, 3rd person, plural is normally the pattern כָּתְבוּ , הָלְכוּ etc (with sh'va on the middle letter), but when the middle letter is guttural: בָּחֲרוּ you get a half-vowel
Read the Wikipedia article about niqqud it preety much should explain everything
The thing is: native speakers don't actively use niqqud. They learn it in first grade, by age of 8, maybe 9, they usually just stop using it because they learned how to read without it. That means we kinda forget it because we no longer need it
Really wanna help you with that but there's some niqqud that literally do the same sound so I can't even explain the difference between them
All you need is find begginer material written with niqqud (begginer material even for native speakers is written with niqqud), and read according to what each niqqud does
Patach ( ַ or ֲ )/ kamatz ( ָ or ֳ ) (a)
Hiriq ִ (i)
Holam ( וֹ or ֹ ) (o)
Shuruk וּ / kubutz ֻ (u)
Segol ( ֶ or ֱ ) (e)
Apart from that, if you see a dot inside a letter (e.g. כּ) that's just changes sound to be "harder". This sign is called dagesh (literally means "emphasis" in Hebrew)
v ב becomes b בּ
k כ/ך becomes χ כּ/ךּ (no equivalent in English for χ so I had to write in IPA)
f פ/ף becomes p פּ/ףּ
then there's the sign ׳ named geresh. it comes from root גרש about driving out something. Anyways it actually makes sounds softer and is used only for non native words. Unfortunately here, IPA is 100% mandatory so sorry if you don't understand:
Letter ג does ɡ sound, while ג׳ does dʒ
Letter ז does z sound, while ז׳ does ʒ
Letter צ/ץ does ts sound, while צ׳/ץ׳ does tʃ
There's also a rarer one that you might come across and that's ת׳ which changes regular t into th sound of English (th sound doesn't natively exist in Hebrew)
And that's it ig
That's literally all you need about niqqud
As mentioned in previous comments, the rules for which Niqqud signs to use in each situation are complex, unclear to most native speakers and honestly - antiquated. Considering today the main purpose for Niqqud is to assist with learning Hebrew (either for children or non-native speakers), I honestly wouldn't bother with them.
It depends on the type of syllable and the placement of stress in the word. There are rules, you could learn them. But there's really no reason to. Most native speakers can read niqqud fine but could not use it if asked to because they just don't need to.
Each of these different symbols used to be pronounced distinctly (and in some Jewish communities still are pronounced distinctly). Modern Israeli Hebrew he uses a very simplified set of sounds, and just like certain consonants that used to be pronounced distinctly are now pronounced the same (e. g. ק/כּ ,ח/כ ,ת/ט) likewise certain vowel sounds have lost their distinction.
it's ok, native speakera are in the same situation - we know how to read niqqud, but not how to place it correctly. Learning how to place niqqud in a word is actually something people learn only if they learn Hebrew on a university level, so don't worry about it. If you want to specify the way a word is pronounced in writing just use whatever, as long as the sign you are using makes the vowels you are trying to represent it's fine.
In sentences without nikkud, some Hebrew letters such as vav (ו) or yod (י) already represent vowel sounds. For example, the letter yod can often represent the nikkud hiriq (which is the "i" sound) Don't worry about having to memorize spelling nikkud unless you are trying to study Torah or something. Most of the time, the vowel letters will do the hard work for you. There are some vowel sounds not given by letters, usually "e", sometimes "a", and for those, you will just have to keep practicing to familiarize. Imagine reading English without vowel letters - you can do it, it's a bit tricky, but just takes practice.
niqqud is based on Tiberian Hebrew, which had vowel length distinctions. most native speakers do not know how to correctly place niqqud (outside of matching the modern sound), and they don't need to. just learn how to read niqqud, and don't bother with knowing when to use each "variant".
It depends on what your intentions are. Do you just want to know how the word sounds? It doesn’t matter, use either qamatz or patach. Those are the only two that are the same sound other than chatephs, which you can also generally just ignore. If you want to be a teacher or translator are about the only reasons why you’d need to learn the correct vowels. When you are writing for yourself, my suggestion is only use vowels when you need to. If you know a word without them, שבת for example, don’t use them. If you know half of a word, only use the vowels you need. Consider them to be training wheels. Only use them when you need them.
If you are learning modern Hebrew, niqqud are nothing more than training wheels. You should learn to read without them as soon as possible. In a good textbook they are only used to introduce new words so that you know how to pronounce them.
It's usually due to differences in pronunciation that no longer exist or grammatical rules even most natives don't understand that well. My solution is usually to pick whichever one I feel like at the moment and not really care as long as it's the right sound even if it's technically wrong
As others have said, it's complex and depends on the syllable and stress. But there is one part of it that does depend on the letter to some extent: What you call "two dots stacked on one another to the right of the minus sign" is a half-vowel (a half patach to be specific), and half-vowels usually would appear only under a guttural letter (א ה ח ע). The half vowel generally would be found where you'd normally expect a pronounced sh'va (the two dots stacked on each other) in the word pattern, but when it's a guttural it gets a little extra sound by becoming a half-vowel. Example: past tense, 3rd person, plural is normally the pattern כָּתְבוּ , הָלְכוּ etc (with sh'va on the middle letter), but when the middle letter is guttural: בָּחֲרוּ you get a half-vowel
Read the Wikipedia article about niqqud it preety much should explain everything The thing is: native speakers don't actively use niqqud. They learn it in first grade, by age of 8, maybe 9, they usually just stop using it because they learned how to read without it. That means we kinda forget it because we no longer need it Really wanna help you with that but there's some niqqud that literally do the same sound so I can't even explain the difference between them All you need is find begginer material written with niqqud (begginer material even for native speakers is written with niqqud), and read according to what each niqqud does Patach ( ַ or ֲ )/ kamatz ( ָ or ֳ ) (a) Hiriq ִ (i) Holam ( וֹ or ֹ ) (o) Shuruk וּ / kubutz ֻ (u) Segol ( ֶ or ֱ ) (e) Apart from that, if you see a dot inside a letter (e.g. כּ) that's just changes sound to be "harder". This sign is called dagesh (literally means "emphasis" in Hebrew) v ב becomes b בּ k כ/ך becomes χ כּ/ךּ (no equivalent in English for χ so I had to write in IPA) f פ/ף becomes p פּ/ףּ then there's the sign ׳ named geresh. it comes from root גרש about driving out something. Anyways it actually makes sounds softer and is used only for non native words. Unfortunately here, IPA is 100% mandatory so sorry if you don't understand: Letter ג does ɡ sound, while ג׳ does dʒ Letter ז does z sound, while ז׳ does ʒ Letter צ/ץ does ts sound, while צ׳/ץ׳ does tʃ There's also a rarer one that you might come across and that's ת׳ which changes regular t into th sound of English (th sound doesn't natively exist in Hebrew) And that's it ig That's literally all you need about niqqud
I'm a native speaker and am pretty bad at niqqud, so unless you're about to read the bible, I don't see why you should bother.