There wasn ' t a recount yet , what are you talking about ? <| sep |> More properly and modern Israelis don ' t usually do this , consonantal alef is a glottal stop . If you say nuhuh , the alef is the stoppage of sound between the two syllables . Note that there are plenty of cases of the actual silent alef , like at the end of a word same as the silent heh , but when it ' s at the beginning of a syllable , it ' s a glottal stop . The ayin , on the other hand , is not a stop . It ' s a voiced consonant . It ' s just a really weird one for Westerners to say , but Sephardim do usually pronounce it in some fashion . Spanish and Portuguese Jews pronounce it like ng . If you say sing out , it ' s the consonant between these two syllables you ' ll notice that the g isn ' t actually pronounced . To get the Arabic ayin , which is what Sephardim tend to use , you basically have to make an ng sound without actually closing your throat . So , like , half of an ng . I recommend listening to some Sephardic recordings to get a feel for this !