Hebrew/Aleph-Bet

Welcome to the seventh lesson of the Hebrew alphabet! In this lesson you will learn two new Hebrew letters - Hebrew|ט and Hebrew|כ - and the niqqud symbol ħataf-segol.

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Letters

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Tet

Hebrew-Huge|ט The ninth letter in the Hebrew alphabet is Tet. Like Tav, it makes the "t" sound (IPA: /t/, "t" as in "tomato").

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Kaf

Hebrew-Huge|כּ The eleventh letter in the Hebrew alphabet is Kaf. It has three forms:

• When the dot is inside Hebrew|כּ, it makes the "k" sound (IPA: /k/, "k" as in "kitten").
• When there is no dot inside Hebrew|כ, it makes the same sound as Ħet. For spelling distinction purposes, Ħet (Het, Chet) is transliterated as "ħ" whilst Khaf is transliterated as "kh".
• At the end of a word, it changes form Hebrew|ך. This form is known as Khaf Sofit. There is a hard K final form (Hebrew|ךּ), but it is rarely used.

It is about time for the dot to be explained. This dot, appearing in the letters Bet Hebrew|בּ, Gimmel Hebrew|גּ, Dalet Hebrew|דּ, Kaf Hebrew|כּ, a letter we haven't learned yet and Tav Hebrew|תּ, is known as dagesh ("emphasis"). What it does is to make sounds "harder": "v" to "b", "kh" to "k", and in ancient times "th" to "t", "dh" to "d" etc. Do not confuse the dagesh with mappiq (which indicates that He needs to be pronounced at the end of a word) or dagesh ħazaq (which indicates that a consonant must be emphasized, as in Hebrew|אִמָּא).

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Vowels

One more and we're done!

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Ħataf-Segol

Hebrew-Huge|בֱּ The shva and segol under the Bet are the Ħataf-Segol.

It produces the "e" sound (IPA: /e/, "e" as in "bet").

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Words

Hebrew-Large|טוֹב tov good, well (masculine, singular)
Hebrew-Large|אֱלוֹהִים elohim God
Hebrew-Large|מִטָּה mitah bed (feminine, singular)Ktiv malei ("full writing", with Aleph, Vav and Yod): Hebrew|מִיטָּה.
Hebrew-Large|כָּךְ kakh like this, like so
Hebrew-Large|כֶּלֶב kelev dog, hound (masculine, singular)
Hebrew-Large|חָתוּל ħatul cat (masculine, singular)
Hebrew-Large|כֵּן ken yes
Hebrew-Large|לֹא lo noThe Aleph is not pronounced. It is an orthographic irregularity.

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Summary

In this lesson, you've learned:

• The letters and forms Tet Hebrew|ט, Kaf Hebrew|כּ, Khaf Hebrew|כ and Khaf Sofit Hebrew|ך.
• The niqqud symbol ħataf-segol (Hebrew|ֱ).
• The words Hebrew|טוֹב, אֱלוֹהִים, מִטָּה, כָּךְ, כֶּלֶב, חָתוּל, כֵּן and Hebrew|לֹּא.

Practice what you've learned in the exercises.