Reading and Writing Hebrew
Lesson 1:
[edit | edit source]The Hebrew Alphabet
[edit | edit source]Regular Alphabet
[edit | edit source]In Hebrew there are no vowels (except a few letters that can also function as vowels), only consonants.The Hebrew Letters are:
Aleph - א - Similiar to A but again it is not a vowel, it's a consonant, a sound.
Beit - ב - Like the letter B or V.
Gimel - ג - Like G or J but only g as of gum. It can sound like G as of Germany if it is written like that: 'ג.
Daled - ד - Like D.
Hey - ה - Like H. If used at the end of a word it makes the word end with AH sound.
Vav - ו - As a consonant, the letter is pronounced as V. as a vowel it's pronounced as O or U.
Zain - ז - Like Z. When 'ז it's pronounced like a soft J (Like Jean in french).
Khet - ח - Like KH. it's similiar to J in spanish but harder sound.
Tet - ט - Like T.
Yod - י - As a consonant, it's pronounced like Y. As vowel it's like I.
Kaf - כ - Like K or Khet(KH).
Lamed - ל - Like L.
Mem - מ - Like M.
Noon - נ - Like N.
Samekh - ס - Like S.
Aeen - ע - Similiar to Aleph but it's pronounced from the throat.
Pey - פ - Like P or F.
Tsadik - צ - Like TS. When 'צ it's pronounced like CH.
Koof - ק - Like K.
Reish - ר - Like R but rolling.
Shin - ש - Like SH or S.
Taf - ת - Like T. When 'ת it's pronounced like TH though that sound doesn't exist in the hebrew language, only in foreign words.
Ending Alphabet
[edit | edit source]There are also "final letters" which replace some letters at the end of a word and sound exactly the same, they just look different:
Kaf Sofit (Ending Kaf) - ך - Like Kaf.
Mem Sofit - ם - Like Mem.
Noon Sofit - ן - Like Noon.
Pey Sofit - ף - Like Pey, but nearly always pronounced F.
Tsadik Sofit - ץ - Like Tsadik.
Notes
[edit | edit source]Almost all of these letters look different in hand writing but we won't get into it right now.
Instead of vowels, in hebrew there is Nikud- signs that show the reader how to pronounce the words but that is quite difficult and we also won't get into it right now.