Letters Hebrew Searches in Accordance 13.2 and Higher

Letters searches in Hebrew allow for direct entry of text from the Hebrew Bible without knowing the lemma The canonical (dictionary) form of a word (lexical form The canonical (dictionary) form of a word) or having to distinguish the prefixes and suffixes of words. The type of search is selected via the Search Type button in the Search Entry box.

Note When opening a new Search tab The core tab used to search Bible texts, it consists of a search entry area and a search results area with a Hebrew module Any Bible text, or other single tool that can be read in Accordance, including reference texts and articles; may also be referred to as content or resource with the Letters search feature, the default search mode is Letters, if the Search tab Preferences are set to “Flex” search.

Important notes related to Letters Searches:

• Letters searches look for the letters and words exactly as entered. It does not find inflected forms, and it treats prefixes and suffixes as part of the word if selected.
• Wildcards and search commands can be used with a Letters search.
• Words are defined as divided by a space or maqef (the high horizontal bar: ־)
• Grammatical searches can be performed with a Letters search. The following is an example:
• A search for [NOUN]@[PARTICLE] will find both forms within one literal word: 
• Using double quotes in LETTERS mode is analogous to using double quotes in Flex mode - it makes the search the "normal" way. This can be confusing:
• In a Letters search: "ברא" means "find the inflected form The word as it appears in the original text, which may be modified from its base dictionary form."
• In a Letters search: ברא means "find the literal form."
• In a Words search:  "ברא" means "find the inflected form The word as it appears in the original text, which may be modified from its base dictionary form."
• In a Words search: ברא means "find the lexical form."

To perform a Letters Hebrew search:

1. Open a Hebrew Text in a Search tab.
2. Do one of the following:
3. In the Search Entry box, click the Search Type button and choose Letters. Then perform a Letters search for the desired word or phrase.
4. Select the word in the text you want to search for. Right-click and choose Search For>Letters from the shortcut menu Also known as a contextual menu, acessed by right-clicking (or pressing Ctrl+Click, Mac only) over a screen element that appears. The search is automatically performed in a new tab, and the hit words The verses, words, text, or other information found as the result of a search are highlighted.
5. Place your cursor in the Search Entry box and select "Enter Letter Forms" from the Search menu. The Enter Letter Forms dialog box is displayed containing all the Letter forms found in the current Text.

Literal or "Letters" Hebrew Searches in versions prior to Accordance 13.2

Literal searches in Hebrew (also called "Letters" searches) allow for direct entry of text from the Hebrew Bible without knowing the lemma (lexical form) or having to distinguish the prefixes and suffixes of words. The type of search is selected via the Search Type button in the Search Entry box.

Note The Hebrew default Words search is a Grammatical Search and assumes the entry is a lemma and will find all the words derived from it, ignoring the vowel pointing (unless the equal sign is added). Prefixes and suffixes are treated as separate words. Grammatical searches can be performed for one or a combination of Lemmas, Inflected Forms, Roots, or specific grammatical Tags. See the Related Topics list at the bottom of this topic, or the Help Contents, for more details about Hebrew Grammatical searches.

Literal/Letters Searches look for the letters and words as entered and finds matching inflected forms with and without additional prefixes and suffixes. Therefore, prefixes and suffixes do not need to be separated (they are found if part of the entry, but ignored if not part of the entry).

• If any special search characters (such as wild cards) or commands (such as [AND]) are used, the search switches to a grammatical one.
• If the words are not found in the current method, Accordance automatically switches it (unless the words cannot be found in either method).
• If the words cannot be found in either method, a box appears for selecting the correct word from a list.
• Once the search is successfully performed, the hit details in the Search Results area of the Search tab indicate the search method used.

To perform a Literal/Letters Hebrew search:

1. Open a Hebrew Text in a Search tab.
2. Do one of the following:
3. In the Search Entry box, click the Search Type button and choose Letters. Then perform a Letters search for the desired word or phrase.
4. Select the word in the text you want to search for. Right-click and choose Search For>Letters from the shortcut menu that appears. The search is automatically performed and the hit words are highlighted.