The vav ו looks like an extended yod י. It is. It is like the first words God spoke to create the universe. It is the action which created, where the yod is the person who created. It is the horn of revelation declaring that God alone is God. The rabbis say that the vav looks like a horn. The horns in the Bible are declarations of God. As a prefix, the vav is translated 'and'. Like the word 'and', the vav divides two things and joins them in order to clarify or makes things more understandable. It tears them apart and puts them together.  It also is a vowel, pronounced ''waw''. All the other letters of the Hebrew alphabet are formed with yods and vavs. It is said that Hebrew has no vowels. this is patnt nonsense. You cannot pronounce words without vowels. But every letter, since it is formed by vowels, and consonants are formed by interrupting breath or vowels, ... every letter has embedded vowels. Other conventions indicate if the vowel should be pronounced before or after the consonant.  Since the vav clarifies things, it can be 'translated' as ' a certain' or a 'distinct' something.