With the summary below you can identify whether the Dagesh in any given letter in the image is strong or weak.

Weak Dagesh appears:

• only in begad-kefat consonants (בגדכפת)
• at the beginning of a verse/ in an isolated word, e.g. in a vocabulary word
• (in the middle of a verse) at the beginning of a word that is immediately preceded by a consonant
• at the beginning of a syllable within a word of a consonant immediately precedes

Strong Dagesh appears:

• in all consonants except א, ה, ח, ע, ר
• in a begad-kefat consonants provided that בגדכפת are immediately preceded by a vowel

Flowchart: 

Click on the Flowchart below to open it in a new tab for printing

1. Ask: Is the letter that contains the dagesh one of בגדכפת?
2. Follow the arrow to the right and check against the text

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Exercise: Identify the nature of each given dagesh below.

Answers:

1. Weak Dagesh in ב because nothing precedes, i.e., the word appears at the beginning of the verse and at the beginning of the Bible.
2. Strong Dagesh in ש. It is not a בגדכפת and must therefore be strong.
3. Weak Dagesh in פ. The letter is one of בגדכפת and appears directly after a word that ends in a consonant.
4. Strong Dagesh in י, because it is not one of בגדכפת. Weak Dagesh in ד, because the בגדכפת letter appears at the beginning of a syllable that is preceded by a consonant (the Shewa is silent).
5. Strong Dagesh in ת, because the בגדכפת letter is immediately followed by a vowel.