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Certain letters are used for the article, conjunction and prepositions. These letters can then be prefixed to a noun. For example, when the letter ה (hey) is prefixed to the noun it means “the.” So, while עץ (eyts) means "tree," העץ (ha'eyts) means “the tree.” Below is a list of all of the prefixes used in the Biblical text and their meanings.
| ה | | The |
| ו | | And |
| ל | | To, For |
| ב | | In, With |
| מ | | From |
| כ | | Like |
| שׁ | | Which |
The prefix כ is not used very often and the שׁ is used only rarely.
Sometimes these prefixes can be used together. For instance, the first word in Genesis 1:2 is וְהָאָרֶץ (veha'arets) meaning “and the land.” In other cases they are combined such as in the following example. The word בְּאֶרֶץ (be'eretz) means “in a land” and you would expect “in the land” to be written as בְּהָאָרֶץ (beha'arets) but, The sh'va vowel (under the beyt) and the letter hey are dropped (בּ ָאָרֶץ) then the qamats vowel is shifted under the letter beyt forming the word בָּאָרֶץ (ba'arets) meaning "in the land."
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