Hebrew acronyms

Abbreviations (Hebrew: ראשי תיבות) are a common part of the Hebrew language, with many organizations, places, people and concepts known by their abbreviations.

Acronyms in Hebrew use a special punctuation mark called gershayim (״). This mark is placed between the last two letters of the non-inflected form of the acronym (e.g. "report" in singular is "דו״ח," hence the plural "דו״חות"). Acronyms can be formed from strings of single initial letters, e.g. "" (for פול, זחל, צפה, טווח, אש), or multiple initial letters, e.g. ארה״ק (for ארץ הקודש, the Holy Land) or ראשל״צ (for ראשון לציון, Rishon LeZion).

If the acronym is read as is, then the spelling should be with a final form letter. If, on the other hand, the acronym is read as the complete phrase or read as the individual letters, then it should be spelled with a medial form letter. In practice, this rule is more often than not ignored, and the acronyms spelled either way.

Abbreviations that are truncations of a single word, consisting of the first letter or first several letters of that word (as opposed to acronyms formed from initials or truncations of more than one word) are denoted using the punctuation mark geresh (׳) by placing the sign after the last letter of the abbreviation (e.g. "Ms.": "׳בג"). However, in practice, single and double quotes are often used instead of the special punctuation marks (for which most keyboards do not have keys), with the single quote used both in acronyms and abbreviations.

Often (and especially when they describe a noun), Hebrew acronyms are pronounced by the insertion of a vowel sound (usually [a]) between the letters. These vowels often appear in transliterations to other scripts. Examples include Shas (ש״ס), Tanakh (תנ״ך) and Shabak (שב״כ). There are exceptions to the use of "a", such as Etzel (אצ״ל).

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