Hebrew Nuggets, Lesson 18: vav (Part 2)

Revised: 1-Oct.-2015

Although the literal English translation of vav is “and,” it leads a more varied life than its English counterpart. While in English “and” can mean “also,” or can be used like a comma to connect words, phrases and sentences, vav can do the work of “but,” “or,” “so,” “then,” “with,” “when,” “who,” “that,” “on the contrary,” and much more. Hebrew frequently uses a vav where in English no word would be used at all, and in such cases the best translation is simply to drop the “and” entirely.