Gershayim

Gershayim most commonly refers to the punctuation mark ⟨״⟩. It is always written before the last letter of the non-inflected form of a word or numeral. It is used in the following ways:

• To indicate an acronym.[2] For example: דּוּ״חַ‎ (singular), דּוּ״חוֹת‎ (plural), "report" represents דין וחשבון‎; and מ״כ‎ (masculine), מַ״כִּית‎ (feminine), "squad commander" represents מפקד כיתה‎.
• To indicate a multi-digit Hebrew numeral. For example: י״ח‎ represents 18.[3]
• To indicate the names of Hebrew letters, differentiating them from any homographs.[2] Compare הוּא שִׂרְטֵט עַיִן‎ "he sketched an eye" with הוּא שִׂרְטֵט עַיִ״ן‎ "he sketched an ayin".
• To indicate Hebrew word roots.[2] For example: the root of תַּשְׁבֵּצִים‎/taʃbeˈtsim/ "crossword puzzles" is שב״צ‎ (š—b—ṣ); the root of לְהַטּוֹת‎ /lehaˈtot/ "to tilt, to conjugate" is נט״ה‎ (n—ṭ—h); and the root of הִסְתַּנְכְּרְנוּת‎ /histankreˈnut/ "being synchronized" is סנכר״נ‎ (s–n–k–r–n).
• In older texts, to indicate the transliteration of a foreign word. This use corresponds to English's use of italics. For example: in printed works of Rashi, the town of Rashi's birth, Troyes, is spelled טרוי״ש‎.

Gershayim is a disjunctive cantillation accent in the Tanakh - ◌֞. It is placed above the stressed syllable, as in וַיִּקַּ֞ח (Genesis 22:3).[1]

Most keyboards do not have a key for the gershayim. As a result, a quotation mark is often substituted for it.

Look up ״ in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• Hebrew acronyms
• Hebrew alphabet
• Hebrew diacritics
• Hebrew punctuation