the left of the letter it points, and it is then called . Some inadequate typefaces do not support the distinction between the ⟨⟩ , the consonantal vav pointed with a ⟨⟩ (compare ⟨⟩ and consonantal vav- ⟨⟩ ). To display a consonantal vav with correctly, the typeface must either support the vav with the Unicode combining character "HEBREW POINT HOLAM HASER FOR VAV" (U+05BA, HTML Entity (decimal) &#1466;) or the precomposed character (U+FB4B). Compare the three: The vav with the combining character HEBREW POINT HOLAM: The vav with the combining character HEBREW POINT HOLAM HASER FOR VAV: The precomposed character: Vav with a dot in the middle Vav can also be used as a mater lectionis for , in which case it is known as a shuruk, and in text with niqqud is marked with a dot in the middle (on the left side). Shuruk and vav with a dagesh look identical ("") and are only distinguishable through the fact that in text with niqqud, vav with a dagesh will normally be attributed a vocal point in addition, e.g. (), "a market", (the "" denotes a shuruk) as opposed to (), "to market" (the "" denotes a vav with dagesh and is additionally pointed with a zeire, " ", denoting ). In the word (), "marketing", the first ("") denotes a vav with dagesh, the second a shuruk, being the vowel attributed to the first. Numerical value Vav in gematria represents the number six, and when used at the beginning of Hebrew years, it means 6000 (i.e. in numbers would be the date 6754.) Words written as vav Vav at the beginning of the word has several possible meanings: vav conjunctive (Vav Hachibur, literally "the Vav of Connection" — chibur means "joining", or "bringing together") connects two words or parts of a sentence; it is a grammatical conjunction meaning 'and' . This is the most common usage. vav consecutive (Vav Hahipuch, literally "the Vav of Reversal" — hipuch means "inversion"), mainly biblical, is commonly mistaken for the previous type of vav; it indicates consequence of actions and reverses the tense of the verb following it: when placed in front of a verb in the imperfect tense, it changes the verb to the perfect tense. For example, yomar means 'he will say' and vayomar means 'he said'; when placed in front of a verb in the perfect, it changes the