In Biblical Hebrew, `ayin represented a voiced pharyngeal fricative, probably pronounced [ʕ] (IPA), similar to the sound in the Arabic letter `ain (`ayn). This pronunciation was likely retained during the First Temple period, but later shifted to [g], becoming indistinguishable from the pronunciation of the letter gimel. Today, in Modern Hebrew, the letter `ayin is silent.
As a grammatical element in words, the letter `ayin is used to form some nouns and verbs, and is also used in the construction of some verb conjugations.