what is Hebrew “nikud”?

We enable our customers the option of including the HebrewTattoo translation nikud no extra charge.
Nikud (or Niqqud), basically, are the dots and dashes around Hebrew Tattoo letters that tell the reader how each consonant should be pronounced, since Hebrew doesn’t have vowels the way English does.
However, nikud is not necessary in Hebrew text and is most commonly written without it in modern days. The only places where nikud is still widely used is in biblical texts, poetry, and children’s books.
So the decision on whether or not to have it is often purely aesthetic, and many people choose to have it simply because they think it looks nice.
You can see examples of texts with and without nikud here and in our gallery.
Occasionally, it may be more appropriate to have nikud applied to a word, for example
if the word can have different meaning depending on pronunciation. We will be happy to advise you if this is the case.
In Hebrew orthography, niqqud or nikkud (Hebrew: נִקּוּד, Modern nikud, Tiberian niqqûḏ; “dotting, pointing” or Hebrew: נְקֻדּוֹת, Modern nekudot, Tiberian nəquddôṯ; “dots”) is a system of diacritical signs used to represent vowels or distinguish between alternative pronunciations of letters of the Hebrew alphabet. Several such diacritical systems were developed in the Early Middle Ages. The most widespread system, and the only one still used to a significant degree today, was created by the Masoretes of Tiberias in the second half of the first millennium AD in the Land of Israel (see Masoretic Text, Tiberian Hebrew). Text written with niqqud is called ktiv menuqad.

Niqqud marks are small compared to consonants, so they can be added without retranscribing texts whose writers did not anticipate them.

In modern Israeli orthography niqqud is seldom used, except in specialised texts such as dictionaries, poetry, or texts for children or for new immigrants. For purposes of disambiguation, a system of spelling without niqqud, known in Hebrew as ktiv maleh (כתיב מלא‎, literally “full spelling”) has developed. This was formally standardised in the Rules for Spelling without Niqqud (כללי הכתיב חסר הניקוד‎) enacted by the Academy of the Hebrew Language in 1996.

One reason for the lesser use of niqqud is that it no longer reflects the current pronunciation. In modern Hebrew, tzere is pronounced the same as segol, although they were distinct in Tiberian Hebrew, and also pataḥ makes the same sound as a qamatz. To the younger generation of native Hebrew speakers, these distinctions seem arbitrary and meaningless; on the other hand, Hebrew language purists have rejected out of hand the idea of changing the basics of niqqud and fitting them to the current pronunciation – with the result that in practice niqqud is increasingly going out of use.

Among those who do not speak Hebrew, niqqud are the sometimes unnamed focus of controversy regarding the interpretation of the name written with the Tetragrammaton—written as יְהֹוָה‎ in Hebrew. The interpretation affects discussion of the authentic ancient pronunciation of the name whose other conventional English forms are “Jehovah” and “Yahweh“.

Please contact us through the website or by mail before making any payment on this site.

Tell us the words or phrase you want translated and we will tell you if they would actually translate into Hebrew correctly.

We will then discuss your requirements with you, agree on the price and you will make a payment via PayPal, based on the tariff below.

When you purchase our service, we offer you the following:

Direct e-mail contact with us, where we will clarify your exact requirements.
Advice from a native Hebrew speaker on how well your chosen words / phrase translates into Hebrew (we have seen many unsuccesful attempts at turning a well known English phrase into Hebrew).
A PDF file showing your translation in over 65 different fonts, in printed and written forms, as well as Rashi script and Te’amim (where applicable). You can then inform us which ones you want your word / phrase in.
There is no limit to the number of fonts you can choose.

An example of different Hebrew script styles.

Clear instructions on which direction the wording should run in, horizontally and vertically. If you need your tattoo to run in a circle or waves or any other special direction, let us know and we will arrange this for you free of charge.
A PDF file with the final version of your chosen word / phrase, in your chosen font, including an outline version that will be used by your tattoo artist as a stencil.

Please note, when translated, the number of words in an English phrase may change. Often, the number of words
may reduce when changed to Hebrew, so a phrase may be cheaper than you initially think.

We charge:

$5.00 per word in Hebrew, without nikud.
Nikud are the dots and dashes around Hebrew letters that indicate how a word is pronounced. They are not necessary, however they can make words and phrases appear more poetic or biblical to a native reader.
$7.00 per word in Hebrew, with nikud.
We charge a bit extra for nikud because it really is extra work for us.
Nikud is not intuitional. In order to get it right we must check dictionaries and other books so you get the most accurate translation possible.
Max Price – $50.00.
No matter how long the sentence you want translated is, with or without nikud, you won’t pay more than $50 per phrases.
Note that this only applies to long phrases and not to several separate requests done by one person.
$3.00 for an MP3 Recording of your translation.
For those of you who want to know how to pronounce the text on your tattoo accurately, we now offer an MP3 file with a recording of your text said out loud for you to hear.
For people who did not purchase their translation from us this service costs $5.00.
You can be assured of a prompt and friendly service.
Please check out our FAQ page should you have any queries.

Once you know how many words your translation will be, you can proceed to the Order page for checkout.