Patach

Pataḥ is a special sign used in Hebrew writing to show a vowel sound. It looks like a small horizontal line placed under a letter, like this: ⟨ אַ‎ ⟩. In modern Hebrew, this sign tells us to say the sound “a,” like the “a” in the English word far. We often write this sound simply as the letter a when we translate Hebrew words into English.

In modern Hebrew, the pataḥ makes the same sound as another vowel sign called a qamatz. There is also a special reduced version called “ḥaṭaf pataḥ,” which also makes the “a” sound but is used in certain shorter forms of words.

In Yiddish, a language used by some Jewish communities, the pataḥ is called pasekh. It can show the “a” sound when placed with the letter aleph, אַ, or it can help make the “ay” sound when used with two yod letters, ײַ. This helps Yiddish writers show the exact sounds they want in their words.

Etymology

The name pataḥ comes from the Hebrew verb פָּתַח (pataḥ), which means "to open." This is because when we make the "a" sound, like in the English word "far," our mouth opens wide.

Pronunciation

This section shows how the pataḥ sounds in different old forms and dialects using special symbols to show exact sounds.

The letters Bet ⟨ב‎⟩ and Het ⟨ח‎⟩ are used here just to show examples — any letter can be used.

When a pataḥ appears on the letters ח‎, ע‎, or הּ‎ (which is ה‎ with a dot) at the end of a word, the sound comes before the letter. For example, נֹחַ (Noah) is said as /no.aχ/ in today’s Hebrew and /no.aħ/ or /no.ʔaħ/ in ancient Hebrew. This special case only happens at the end of words, only with a pataḥ, and only with these three letters. It’s sometimes called a pataḥ gnuva, meaning a “stolen” pataḥ, because the sound adds an extra syllable in a special way.

Vowel length comparison

In Hebrew, adding two vertical dots, called a shva, makes a vowel very short. But in today's Hebrew, these different vowel lengths do not change how the words sound.

Unicode encoding