י, the letter yod
י
Printedי
Sounds likey in "yes"
טכ

In words

י, the letter yod

י
Printedי
Sounds likey in "yes"
טכ

In words

י — the Hebrew cursive letter יוד

י (yod) is the 10th letter of the Hebrew alphabet, representing the palatal approximant /j/ and acts as a mater lectionis for close front vowels like /i/.

handwritten lowercase yod in Hebrew cursive
lowercase

Nothing to confuse it with.

Printed
י
Name
יוד (yod)
Transliteration
y
IPA
/j/
Position
10 of 22

History

י, yod, is the tenth letter of the Hebrew alphabet. It stands for the y of English yes,[1] and it also serves as a vowel letter for the vowels hireq, sere and segol.[2] Ashkenazi Jews often call it yud, the name the letter has in Yiddish.[3] The name goes back to an Egyptian hieroglyph of a hand; compare the Hebrew word yad, hand.[4]

In gematria yod is ten,[5] and two yods in a row stand for the name of God.[6] Its small size is proverbial. In Modern Hebrew the tip of the yod is something small and insignificant,[7] and someone who worries about it is picky about minor details.[8] It is also the jod of Matthew's Gospel, one jod or one tittle, and scribes often overlooked it because of its size.[9]

In grammar, yod at the front of a verb marks the third person masculine singular of the future tense: from m-l-k, king, comes yimlokh, he will reign.[10] At the end of a noun it means my: av, father, becomes avi, my father.[11]

In Yiddish, a single yud can be the vowel /i/ or the consonant /j/, and where the two meet a dot below marks the vowel, so the word Yidish is spelled ייִדיש.[12] Two yuds together, יי, spell the diphthong /ej/.[13]

The Phoenician letter behind yod also gave rise to the Greek iota,[14] and through it to Latin I and J and to Cyrillic І,[15] the dotted і that the Soviet spelling reform removed from Russian.[16]

Sources

  1. [1] Yodh — Wikipedia — /j/, like the y in English yes (accessed 2026-09-28)
  2. [2] Yodh — Wikipedia — mater lectionis for hireq, sere and segol (accessed 2026-09-28)
  3. [3] Yodh — Wikipedia — the name Yud, from Yiddish, used especially by Ashkenazi Jews (accessed 2026-09-28)
  4. [4] Yodh — Wikipedia — derived from an Egyptian hieroglyph of a hand; compare yad, hand (accessed 2026-09-28)
  5. [5] Yodh — Wikipedia — gematria value ten (accessed 2026-09-28)
  6. [6] Yodh — Wikipedia — two yods in a row designate the name of God (accessed 2026-09-28)
  7. [7] Yodh — Wikipedia — the Modern Hebrew idiom tip of the yod (accessed 2026-09-28)
  8. [8] Yodh — Wikipedia — worrying about the tip of a yod: picky about details (accessed 2026-09-28)
  9. [9] Yodh — Wikipedia — one jod or one tittle (Matthew); overlooked for its size (accessed 2026-09-28)
  10. [10] Yodh — Wikipedia — as a prefix, third person masculine singular future: yimlokh (accessed 2026-09-28)
  11. [11] Yodh — Wikipedia — as a suffix, first person singular possessive: av > avi (accessed 2026-09-28)
  12. [12] Yodh — Wikipedia — Yiddish: a dot below separates /i/ from /j/, as in ייִדיש (accessed 2026-09-28)
  13. [13] Yodh — Wikipedia — Yiddish: the digraph יי represents /ej/ (accessed 2026-09-28)
  14. [14] Yodh — Wikipedia — the Phoenician letter is the source of Greek iota (accessed 2026-09-28)
  15. [15] Yodh — Wikipedia — through Greek: Latin I and J, Cyrillic І (accessed 2026-09-28)
  16. [16] Reforms of Russian orthography — Wikipedia — the reform removed homophonous letters, including І (accessed 2026-09-28)

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