Syllable Structures in Biblical Hebrew

In Biblical Hebrew, syllables can be classified into two main types: the open syllable (CV) and the closed syllable (CVC).
An open syllable is a syllable that ends in a vowel (Consonant-Vowel or CV). It’s called “open” because of the absence of a closing consonant at the end.
A closed syllable is a syllable that ends in a consonant (Consonant-Vowel-Consonant or CVC). The final consonant “closes” the syllable.
Although Biblical Hebrew primarily utilises the CV and CVC syllable types, there are some words that may exhibit other syllable types, such as V (vowel alone) and VC (vowel-consonant).

Rules of Syllabification in Biblical Hebrew

Syllabification rules in Biblical Hebrew are important for understanding where to split words into syllables.
Generally, a single consonant goes to the following syllable, this yields an open syllable (CV). Example: דָּ֫וִד would be syllabified as /dā·wid/.
When there are two similar or identical consonants next to each other, they are split into two separate syllables. Example: כַּל־לֵּב /kal·lēb/.
If a word ends in a consonant, the last syllable is always a closed syllable (CVC). Example: קָטַ֫ל /qā·ṭal/.
Long vowels in a closed, unaccented syllable usually gets shortened. Example: קֶ֫טֶל /qe·ṭel/.

As part of your revision, continually practice the syllabification of different words to better understand word stress, vowel quality changes and permitting consonant clusters.