Learn the basics of Hebrew writing
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| Hi! |
| Welcome to Introduction to Hebrew. |
| My name is Alisha and I'm joined by... |
| Hi everyone! I'm Idit |
| In this lesson, you'll learn the basics of Hebrew writing. |
| The Hebrew Alphabet |
| In Hebrew, we use two different scripts, one for print and one for handwriting. |
| Most people learn the printed script first and even learn to write their letters this way in block letters. |
| These are called |
| אותיות דפוס |
| otiyot d'fus |
| "print letters" |
| Printed letters are rarely used for handwriting other than in elementary school, so most people learn script letters very quickly after learning the printed letters. |
| Script letters are called |
| אותיות כתב |
| otiyot k'tav |
| "script letters" |
| One thing you don't have to worry about in Hebrew is capital letters. There is only one case for letters in Hebrew. |
| The Alphabet Letters and Nikud |
| Here's some general information about Hebrew letters. Hebrew is read right to left, the opposite of English. There are 22 letters in the Hebrew alphabet, and they are all consonants. |
| You may be thinking, "but what about vowels, right?" |
| In Hebrew, vowels are written with a system of dots called ניקוד. These dots are placed underneath or next to the letter in order to let you know what vowel comes after the consonant. |
| Here is the word for "dog," כלב, without nukud: כלב. And here it is with nikud: כֶּלֶב |
| kelev |
| "dog" |
| Let's do the same with the word for "boy," ילד. Without nikud, it's: ילד. And with nikud, it looks like this: יֶלֶד |
| yeled |
| "boy" |
| Those are both with "eh" vowels. Let's look at one with some other vowels. |
| How about the word for "mountains": הרים. Here it is with nikud: הָרִים. This has both an "ah" vowel and an "i" vowel. |
| harim |
| "mountains" |
| Although this is very useful when you're learning Hebrew, don't get used to it. Most things in Hebrew are written without the vowel dots. |
| That intimidates many learners of Hebrew, but don't despair. The reason we usually don't use ניקוד when writing Hebrew is that we don't really need it. |
| That's right. Hebrew is very systematic and structured. It's very methodical and logical. Words are created according to patterns and this helps you figure out what vowels are used in the words. |
| You already know the word for dog, which is כלב. Next time you see this word, you don't need to see the vowels because you know they are there. |
| kelev |
| "dog" |
| Most Hebrew learning material will include the vowel points, but once you start reading from other sources, like the newspaper or books, you'll have to rely on what you've learned. |
| Letter Specifics |
| There are some letters in Hebrew that will indicate what vowels are present. These letters are technically consonants, but can behave like vowels. |
| א, ה, ו, י, ע |
| aleph, heh, vav, yod, ayin |
| For example, the letter ה often ends a word with an "ah" or an "eh" sound, like in the words לילה for "night" and בונה, the masculine singular form of "build." |
| lilah |
| "night" |
| boneh |
| "build" |
| There are five letters that change form when they're at the end of a word, but they're still the same letter. |
| כ - ך, מ - ם, נ - ן, פ - ף, צ - ץ |
| khaf/khaf-sofit, mem/mem-sofit, nun/nun-sofit, feh/feh-sofit, tzadi/tzadi-sofit |
| Here's an example of how this works. The letter mem looks like this in the beginning or middle of a word, מ, like in the word for "stage," במה. |
| bamah |
| "stage" |
| When it comes at the end, it looks like this: ם, like in the word for the "sea," ים. |
| yam |
| "sea" |
| Three letters can have two different sounds depending on whether they are in a stressed position or not. |
| ב is both "b" and "v." In the word במה, or "stage," it makes a "b" sound. And in the word for dog, or כלב, it makes a "v" sound. |
| bamah |
| "stage" |
| kelev |
| "dog" |
| כ is both "k" and "kh." For this example, we can use the word for dog again. In כלב this letter makes a "k" sound, and in the word for "correct," which is נכון, it makes a "kh" sound. This letter also has a special end form that looks like this ך. When it comes at the end of a word, like חיוך, the word for "smile," it's always pronounced "kh." |
| kelev |
| "dog" |
| nakhon |
| "correct" |
| ħiyukh |
| "smile" |
| פ is both "p" and "f." In the word פרפר, or "butterfly," this letter is pronounced with a "p" sound. In the word for "book," or ספר, it's pronounced with an "f" sound. |
| par'par |
| "butterfly" |
| sefer |
| "book" |
| There are also six pairs of letters that at one point in history had different sounds, but today sound very similar. |
| א and ע, ב and ו, ח and כ, ט and ת, כּ and ק, ס and שׂ |
| aleph and ayin, vet and vav, het and khaf, tet and tav, kaf and kuf, samekh and sin |
| For example, the words טלפון, meaning "telephone," and תשובה, meaning "answer," begin with two different letters of the alphabet. But you would never know that unless you saw them written. |
| telefon |
| "telephone" |
| t'shuvah |
| "answer" |
| The Alphabet as Numbers |
| One interesting aspect of the Hebrew alphabet is the letters also represent numbers. |
| א represents the number one. ב represents the number two and so on. When you get to the number ten, or י, we add the first nine letters to it to represent eleven through 19. |
| The letters can be combined to create numbers into the hundreds and thousands. |
| You can find the first ten letters used as numbers in many day to day contexts. |
| For instance, Sunday is ofter referred to as יום א or Day 1. The first semester in university is called סמסטר א'. |
| yom aleph |
| "first day or Sunday" |
| semester aleph |
| "first semester" |
| OK. Let's wrap up this lesson by recapping what we've learned. |
| In this lesson, you learned that there are two different scripts used to write Hebrew, printed script and written script. Hebrew is written and read from right to left. All 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet are consonants. There are also vowels in Hebrew, and these are written with a dot system. Some letters in Hebrew cover two sounds, and other sounds are covered by two letters. And lastly, the Hebrew alphabet can also be used to represent numbers. |
| We've covered only the very basics of Hebrew writing. If you want to learn more, check out our "Learn Hebrew Writing" video series. |
| In the next lesson, you'll be entering Hebrew boot camp, where you'll learn useful beginner phrases to get you speaking Hebrew right away! |
| See you in the next lesson. Bye! |
| Bye! |
Comments
HideDid you like this video? Please leave us a comment!
Hi Pamela,
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Team HebrewPod101.com
Hi Ruth,
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I couldn't find anywhere the answer to this. If you sign up for basic for instance and then decide later that you want to upgrade to a higher level, how does that work?
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Team HebrewPod101.com
❤️️
Hi Gene,
Thanks for posting!
Using the Hebrew letters as numbers (ie א=1, ב=2 etc.) is called Gematria and it was used in Hebrew for many decades in Jewish texts. Nowadays we can find a few examples where this still common, one great example, as you mentioned, is the days of the week. This is still widespread and used as a common abbreviation.
Please note that even though the day is written "יום א" one would read it as "yom rishon" and not "yom alef".
I hope that helps :)
Best,
Roi
Team HebrewPod101.com
I'm studying in a Ha Yesod textbook and it lists the days of the week as יום א(instead of יום ראשון), יום ג, יום ב, etc. I'm curious which way is the most commonly used in Israel today.
Hi Gene,
Thanks for posting!
Yes, this is absolutely correct. In Hebrew, there are many cases in which the same combination of letters can have more than one meaning - according to the vowels and the pronunciation. In such cases, one must understand out of context what is the correct one, which can be a little tricky at the beginning... 😄
Best wishes and a happy new year,
Roi
Team HebrewPod101.com
I came across a word with the same spelling as במה but with different vowel makers and I am unsure how to pronounce it. It means "with what" and is spelled במה with a patach under the beit and a seggol under the mem. I think it is pronounced bameh.
Shalom John,
Toda for your question. Do you have a Free Lifetime Account? Please note that those with a Free Lifetime Account can only access the most recent lessons from the past 3 weeks and the first 3 lessons from each series. We publish several lessons per week, so our free users are entitled to countless hours of free materials. However, for those who are truly committed to improving their language skills, we offer subscriptions. For a comprehensive overview of these, please have a look at http://www.HebrewPod101.com/helpcenter/billingsubscription/pricing.
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Levente (לבנטה)
Team HebrewPod101.com
Hi, i can't get into Lesson NO 4. How can I do it?
Shalom again, Сергей,
That's perfectly doable. Your subscription automatically renews at the end of your term, in your case, at the end of each month, unless you cancel it. Cancelling can be done at any time by following these simple steps:
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Have fun learning Hebrew with us! 😉
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Levente
Team HebrewPod101.com
If i want use it only for one or two months how will be i able to stop payings?
Shalom Сергей,
Do you have a Free Lifetime Account? Please note that those with a Free Lifetime Account can only access the most recent lessons from the past 3 weeks and the first 3 lessons from each series. We publish several lessons per week, so our free users are entitled to countless hours of free materials. However, for those who are truly committed to improving their language skills, we offer subscriptions. For a comprehensive overview of these, please have a look at http://www.HebrewPod101.com/helpcenter/billingsubscription/pricing.
If you enjoy our free lessons and want to improve faster, I'd recommend you upgrade your account so that you will have access to more learning tools. If you are still unsure, you have the option to choose only a 1-month option.
Hope this helps. If you have any more questions, please let us know.
Kind regards,
Levente
Team HebrewPod101.com
Why couldn't i see the fourth and other videos? Is there a limit for free version?
Hello Marcelo,
Thank you for your positive feedback!
Please check out this series:
https://www.hebrewpod101.com/lesson-library/hebrew-alphabet-made-easy-video/
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Lena
Team HebrewPod101.com
Shalom :)
I have a question: in the end of the video, they say "If you want to learn more, check out our "Learn Hebrew Writing" video series."
Where can I find that series? I've looked for it here and haven't found it yet.
And I ant to say that it's been awesome to learn with you, guys!
I did not get the numbers 15 and 16 on 5:38 minute. They did not appear with the "yod" letter but with the "tet" letter... why?
Hi Pam Blackman
Thanks for posting your questions, I'll try to explaine.
In Hebrew, letters have names, and they are written according to those names. Let's imagine for a sec that it would the same in English, then, one would write the letter "L" as "El", the letter "X" as "Eks" and so on... This is how it works in Hebrew. "א" is actually written "אלף" (Aleph or Alef - this doesn't really matter - there are several ways to express it with Roman letters), and so on.
"Sofit" is a letter that changes its form when it appears at the end of a word. These letters are:
Kaf - "כ" that becomes "ך"
Mem "מ" that becomes "ם"
Nun - "נ" that becomes "ן"
Peh - "פ" that becomes ף"
Tsadi - "צ" that becomes "ץ"
Is that clearer now?
Best,
Roi
Team HebrewPod101.com
Hi Andrew,
Thank you for posting.
It seems the video works fine with this lesson.
Could you check if you have a free lifetime account? Those who have the free lifetime account can access only up to lesson 3 for free. If you have a basic or premium membership, please let us know which error message you see on the screen. It’d be great if you could send us an email at contactus@HebrewPod101.com so that we can take a look at the issue closely.
Thank you,
Cristiane
Team HebrewPod101.com