Quote Originally Posted by Rtyom
Cool, thanks for the explanation, TATY.

When vowels are written, they always come underneath?
Most are, but not all. In שָלוֹם there is an "O" dot above the [size]ו[/size]

But I mean, a certain vowel mark must stay in it's position. You can't go putting a ָ above a letter. (People will just think it's underneath a letter in the line above )

Below are all the vowel markings (nikkud). In Ancient Hebrew they all had different sounds and lengths. In modern Hebrew (which was revived just over a hundred years ago, by a man from Belarus [then Russian Empire]) you will see there are only about 5 vowel sound with mulitple symbols for each.

The letter א has no sound of it's own, and simply is like a place-holder for a vowel to be attached to.

אָ = Russian А
אֳ = O in Corn
אַ = Russian А
אֲ = Russian A, or Schwa
אֵ = E in bed
אֶ = E in bed
אֱ = E in bed
אִ = Russian И
אֹ = O in Corn
וֹ = O in Corn (the whole thing is the vowel)
אָ = O in Corn (note this is usually an A)
וּ = U in Put (whole thing is the vowel)
אֻ = U in Put
אְ = Schwa, or E in Bed

The letter Vav ו is usually a consonant, pronounced V. But it also functions as a vowel, when it has a dot over it (then it is an O sound), or if it has the dot to the right of it it has a U sound.

E.g. in שָלוֹם , (Shalom) the Vav functions as an O sound.

Text it read RIGHT to LEFT. There are no capital letters.