![Tsadi](/images/tsadi-bookstyle.gif)
Tsadi
The letter (Tsadi) is special, because although its
sound technically exists in English, unlike
in Hebrew, it's never at the beginning of English words but in the middle or at the end.
has the sound of TS put together, like in the following English
words: it's, cats, lots, rats, and matzah. Ok, that last
one is actually Hebrew. Rats!
Speaking of rats, we'll imagine a bunch of rats to remind
ourselves of how to pronounce
!
If you have trouble pronouncing this letter at the beginning
of words, just start off by saying "rats" to get that TS
sound, and then finish off the rest of the word. With
some practice you won't even need to anymore.
![](/images/tsadi-mnemonic.jpg)
Now let's try some reading practice again.
(tsel)
- Means
shadow
(beitsah) - Means
egg!
(tsom) - Means a
fast in the sense of
not eating for a long time.
(matzah)
- The famously dry, crunchy cracker-like bread
that Jews eat each year for eight days!
(pesach)
- Passover, the holiday where Jews eat matzah!
(kee say) - Means
chair.
(na-vii) - Means
prophet,
as in Eliyahu hanavi,
Elijah the prophet.
(chut) - Speaking of fabric, it means
thread.
(mah) - Means
what?
(gaga)
—
The sound that babies make, and also the name of a fun Israeli sport.
(lah) - Means
her as in "her car," or
to her.
(lecha) - to you (to a guy)
(yaFEH) - Means
handsome, referring to a boy or man.
(yaFAH) - Means
beautiful, referring to a girl or woman.
Now let's look at the other version of the same letter...