Hebrew/Aleph-Bet

Welcome to the first lesson in the Hebrew alphabet! In this lesson you will learn the first and most basic Hebrew letters - Hebrew|א בּ and Hebrew|תּ, and the first two niqqud symbols - pataħ and shva.

Important note: the Hebrew alphabet, unlike the Latin alphabet (which English uses), is read from right to left.

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Letters

The Hebrew alphabet has no vowels. The letters only mark consonants, which means that when you look at a word you would have no idea how it is pronounced. Such alphabets are known as "abjads". The vowels would be explained immediately after this section. But first you must learn the consonants:

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Aleph

א The first letter in the Hebrew alphabet is Aleph. It has 3 uses:

1. It makes a consonant called "glottal stop", as in "co’operate" or "re’enact".

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Bet

בּ The second letter in the Hebrew alphabet is Bet. It makes the "b" sound (IPA: /b/, "b" as in "ball"). When there is no dot in the middle, the letter makes a different sound, so make sure to remember the dot.

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Tav

תּ The last letter in the Hebrew alphabet and the third you will learn is Tav. It makes the "t" sound (IPA: /t/, "t" as in "tomato").



Now you've learned the first three letters! But all you have is consonants. In order to be actually able to pronounce words, you need vowels.

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Vowels

In Hebrew, vowels appear as dots and bars above, beneath or to the left of letters. This system of dots and lines is known as niqqud, a Hebrew word which means "dots". It was devised by a group of early Medieval Jewish scribes and Bible scholars known as the Masoretes (masoret means "tradition" in Hebrew). They invented the niqqud to make sure that the "correct" pronunciation of the Bible would not be lost.

You would eventually have to learn to read without niqqud. It might seem daunting, but with a little excercise you would learn to recognize words and know how to pronounce them. But until then, you must learn the niqqud symbols first. Now you learn the first two:

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Pataħ

Hebrew-Huge|בַּ The pataħ is the line under the Bet.

The pataħ produces the "a" sound (IPA: /a/, "a" as in "spa").

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Shva

Hebrew-Huge|בְּ The shva is the two verticle dots under the Bet.

Shva does two things:

1. Shva naħ (resting Shva): placed under a consonant to mark the end of a syllable.
2. Shva na‘ (moving Shva): when shva is at the beginning of a syllable, it produces the "ə" sound (IPA: /ə/, "a" as in "about"). Many Israelis pronounce it as "e".

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Words

Now that we have three consonants and two vowels, we can produce words! Vocabulary:

Hebrew-Vocab|אַתְּ| you|feminine, singular|at Hebrew-Vocab|בַּתּ| daughter, girl|feminine, singular|batWhen Tav is at the end of a letter it loses the dot but does not change its pronunciation. In order to avoid confusion with the Bet/Vet pronunciation, in this lesson only there will be a dot in the Tav in the end of the word bat.

Try to read these words out loud. Remember that Hebrew is read from right to left!

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Exercises

Remember the letters you have learned: Aleph (Hebrew|א), Bet (Hebrew|בּ) and Tav (Hebrew|תּ).
Also remember the vowels you have learned: Pataħ (Hebrew|ַ) and Shva (Hebrew|ְ).
With this knowledge, you can make six possible combinations:
Hebrew-Large|אַ אְ בַּ בְּ תַּ תְּ
Assign each letter to the sound it makes: Question-answer | question =

• Hebrew|תַּ
• Hebrew|בְּ
• Hebrew|אְ
• Hebrew|אַ
• Hebrew|בַּ
• Hebrew|תְּ

| answer =

• Ta
• B
• ’
• A
• Ba
• T

Now do the opposite. Assign each sound to the equivalent Hebrew letter: Question-answer | question =

• T
• A
• Ba
• B
• Ta
• ’

| answer =

• Hebrew|תְּ
• Hebrew|אַ
• Hebrew|בַּ
• Hebrew|בְּ
• Hebrew|תַּ
• Hebrew|אְ

How do you spell each of the following words (most of which are fictional)?
Example: Hebrew|אַבְּ Aleph-pataħ Bet-shva Question-answer | question = בַּתּ | answer = Bet-pataħ Tav Question-answer | question = בַּתַּא | answer = Bet-pataħ Tav-pataħ Aleph Question-answer | question = תְּבַּ |answer = Tav-shva Bet-pataħ Question-answer | question = אַתְּ | answer = Aleph-pataħ Tav-shva Question-answer | question = אַבְּתּ | answer = Aleph-pataħ Bet-shva Tav

How do you pronounce each of the following words?
Example: Hebrew|אַבְּ Ab Question-answer | question = אַתְּבּ | answer = Atb Question-answer | question = תְּבַּ | answer = Tba Question-answer | question = אַתְּ | answer = At Question-answer | question = בַּאְתּ | answer = Ba’t