Nikkudot

The nikkudot (plural of nikkud) are vowel marks which the Masoretes placed into the Hebrew text of the Bible.  Before that time, the Hebrew text consisted entirely of consonants.  This occasionally created confusion between similar words and the Masoretes were attempting to alleviate the problem.

Modern Hebrew has returned to using only consonants in the written form of the language.  In the spoken form, vowel sounds occur between consonants, with very rare exceptions.

Below is “bereshith,” the first word of Genesis, written with and without its accompanying nikkudot.

בראשית    בְּרֵאשִׁית