What Is the Kadma Trope?
Kadma (קַדְמָא, also spelled Qadma) is a conjunctive Torah cantillation mark — a "connecting" or servant accent that links its word to the word that follows rather than signaling a pause. It is one of the everyday joining accents of the Hebrew Bible.
קַדְמָא
Conjunctive (connecting) accentWhat it does in the verse
As a conjunctive (mesharet, or "servant") accent, Kadma keeps the verse moving: it ties its word to the next word instead of breaking the phrase. It belongs to the family of Torah conjunctives alongside munach, mercha, mahpach, darga, telisha qetannah, and yerach ben yomo. Kadma very often serves a following accent at the start of a phrase, most famously as the first element of the two-mark unit Kadma ve-Azla (Kadma followed by Geresh/Azla). Because it is a connector, Kadma is not a stop — it pushes the reading forward rather than holding it.
What the symbol looks like
Kadma is a small slanted stroke drawn above the word (Unicode U+05A8 HEBREW ACCENT QADMA, shown as ב֨), shaped as though leaning or curving forward. Its single most important placement rule is that it always sits over the accented (stressed) syllable of the word. This placement is what distinguishes it from Pashta, which uses an identical-looking symbol: Pashta is written on the last letter of the word (and additionally on the stressed syllable when the stress is not on the final syllable), whereas Kadma marks the stressed syllable itself. In short — symbol on the stressed syllable is Kadma; symbol on the final letter is Pashta.
Good to know
Kadma is one of the most common accents in the Torah, the Haftarah, and across the Hebrew Bible — an everyday workhorse rather than a rarity. It frequently appears as the opening member of the pair Kadma ve-Azla, which Wikipedia reports occurs 1,733 times in the Torah; that puts it in a completely different frequency class from genuinely rare accents such as Mercha Kefulah (only five occurrences in the whole Torah) or Shalshelet (only four). The name comes from the Hebrew root ק־ד־ם / קדמה, meaning "front, east, to advance or precede," which fits an accent that leans forward and precedes others at a phrase's start. One naming caution worth knowing: traditions differ, and Sephardi usage applies "qadma" to what Ashkenazim call Pashta and "azla" to what Ashkenazim call Kadma — so the same word can point to different marks depending on the tradition. With TropeTrainer you can hear Kadma chanted aloud and practice the actual readings in which it appears, so the rule "stressed syllable, keep moving" becomes second nature.
Frequently asked questions
What is the Kadma trope?
Kadma (קַדְמָא) is a conjunctive Torah cantillation mark — a connecting or 'servant' accent that joins its word to the next word instead of marking a pause. It is one of the most common accents in the Torah and Haftarah.
What does Kadma mean?
The name Kadma comes from the Hebrew root ק־ד־ם / קדמה, meaning 'front, east, or to advance/precede.' The sense fits the mark: it is a forward-leaning symbol that often precedes other accents at the start of a phrase.
Is Kadma a pause?
No. Kadma is a conjunctive (connecting) accent, not a disjunctive one. Instead of stopping or separating words, it links its word to the word that follows and keeps the reading moving forward.
What is the difference between Kadma and Pashta?
Kadma and Pashta use an identical-looking symbol, so they are told apart by placement: Kadma is always written over the stressed syllable, while Pashta sits on the last letter of the word (and also on the stressed syllable when the stress is not on the final syllable). Kadma is also a conjunctive (a connector), whereas Pashta is a disjunctive (a separator).
How often does Kadma appear in the Torah?
Kadma is very common. As the opening half of the Kadma ve-Azla pair alone, it occurs 1,733 times in the Torah (per Wikipedia), and it also appears on its own — far more frequent than rare accents like Shalshelet (four times) or Mercha Kefulah (five times).
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