בְּיַעֲלֶה וְיָבוֹא: זָכְרֵנוּ ה' אֱלוֹקֵינוּ בּוֹ — בֵּית דְּגוּשָׁה — וּפָקְדֵנוּ בוֹ — בֵּית רְפוּיָה.

In the passage Yaaleh VeYavo,1 the letter beis in the phrase zochreinu A-donai Elokeinu bo has a dagesh, but in the phrase u’fakdeinu vo it does not have a dagesh.2

To Fill In the Background

In the Holy Tongue, every minute detail of spelling and pronunciation is regulated by clearly-defined grammatical rules. In the above case, for example, the presence or absence of the dagesh in the initial letter beis is determined by whether or not that letter appears at the beginning of a syllable or word or phrase. (The letter beis is one of six consonants to which this rule applies.) In the phrase zochreinu A-donai Elokeinu bo, the last word begins with a dagesh because it appears after [an implied] comma and thus begins a new phrase. (The pause preceding the new phrase is clearly indicated in the fully-punctuated English translation.) In the phrase u’fakdeinu vo, the latter word does not begin with a dagesh because it is semantically continuous with the previous word.