Hebrew Nikud (ניקוד) Reference

A reference guide for adding selective nikud to Hebrew text. Designed for AI agents that need accurate pronunciation hints (e.g., for TTS).

Golden Rule

Only add nikud when you're 100% certain it's correct. Wrong nikud is worse than no nikud — the TTS model will read your mistake literally instead of guessing correctly from context.

When to Add Nikud

1. Ambiguous consonants (dagesh in בכ"פ)
2. Gender-specific suffixes
3. Homographs (same spelling, different pronunciation)
4. Foreign names and loanwords
5. Stress placement that changes meaning

When in doubt — don't nikud. Let the TTS model guess from context.