Towards Better Davening and Torah Reading
v'ti-har-TA, v'hik-rav-TA, v'hik-hal-TA, v'ha-amad-TA, v'hei-naf-TA, v'hiv-dal-TA, v'hei-naf-TA, v'la-kach-TA, v'ya-rad-TI, v'di-bar-TI, v'a-tzal-TI, v'sam-TI
Review within a review. These 12 words (and probably others we missed, not to mention the ones in other sedras) are all accented on their last syllable. Not doing so changes the meaning of the word and is therefore a serious error in Torah reading. Each of these words without the VAV is past tense. As past tense verbs, they are correctly accented on the next to the last syllable. With the VAV and a shift of the accent to the last syllable, the word becomes future (or command) tense. Without shifting the accent, the word stays past tense, thereby changing the intended meaning of the word. E.g. di-BAR-ti, I spoke. v'di-BAR-ti, and I spoke.v'di-bar-TI, (And) I will speak.

Call your attention to v'hik-hal-TA. It is very easy to swallow the second HEI and say v'hikal-TA. It takes extra effort to pause very briefly after v'hik and then to say hal-TA.

Call your attention to v'ha'mad-TA and v'ya-rad-TI. The SH'VA under the DALET in each is NACH, meaning it has no vowel sound at all. mad, rad. It is very common to give the DALET/SH'VA before a TAV a short vowel sound as if it were a SH'VA NA, which it is not. Takes practice. And we've got some of these in davening too, so don't think this is only a Baal Korei problem. E.g. in Sh'ma, we have va-a-vad-TEM.

Here's another "heads up" with verbs and their tenses. In Bamidbar 9, we have the "report" of the first annual celebration of Pesach with the bringing of the Korban
Pesach. Pasuk 2 says V'YA'ASU, and they (B'nei Yisra'el) shall do the Pesach in its time.

Then in pasuk 5, the Torah tells us that they did it, V'Y'A'SU. The word YAASU is future tense and means "they will/shall do". With a VAV/SH'VA prefixed to the word, it remains future/command and means, "and they shall do". With a VAV/PATACH (and a DAGESH in the YUD), va-ya-a'SU, the word switches to past tense and means (and) they did. The rules for the tense-switching-VAV are different for past-future and future-past switches. For example, there is no accent shift with a future-past switch, as there is (in most cases) for the past-future switch.

Here's another B'HA-ALO-T'CHA pointer. The ASAFSUF were the EIREV RAV, non-Jews who joined B'NEI YISRA'EL when we left Egypt. This word appears only once in Tanach, in this week's sedra. v'ha-saf-SUF. The ALEF is not heard at all (it has no vowel), so the word is pronounced v'ha-saf-SUF (not v'ha-a-saf-SUF).