Hebrew
Hebrew — the Afro-Asiatic family, about 5 million native speakers, over 9 million speakers in all: the language was revived for everyday speech about a century ago, and half of those who speak it learned it as a second one (estimate, Ethnologue). Script: the square Hebrew script, 22 letters: vowels are not written in ordinary text, and the line runs right to left.
Where to start
A young course: the words, the lessons and the recordings are all here, but a native speaker has not read it end to end yet. Spot a rough edge — tell us and we will fix it.
- →Hebrew alphabetAll letters and how they are read
- →Hebrew wordsBy topic and alphabetically
- →PhrasebookPhrases ready to use
- →GrammarRules without jargon
- →Reading textsShort texts with translation
- →How to readThe writing course from zero
- →TransliterationThe table, both ways
- →PronunciationWhat you hear and what is hard
- →From scratchWhere to start, and in what order
- →How long to studyAn honest estimate, with caveats
First words
Every conversation starts with them — and so does the first impression: one greeting in the local language and you stop being a stranger within a second.
- שלוםшаломhiThe most famous Hebrew word: hello, goodbye and peace in one. It greets at any hour of the day
- יום טובйом товgood afternoonLiterally "good day": said as a daytime greeting and wished to someone when parting
- בוקר טובбокер товgood morningLiterally "good morning". The boundary is the same as in English: after eleven it is already yom tov
- ערב טובэрев товgood eveningLiterally "good evening". The first letter ע is not read — erev, not aerev
- תודהтодаthank youRoot y-d-h — to thank. The boosted form is toda raba, thank you very much
- בבקשהбевакашаplease (as a request)One word for three jobs: please in a request, here you are when handing something over, and don't mention it in reply to toda
- להתראותлеитраотgoodbyeLiterally "until we see each other" — from the root r-a-h, to see. The all-purpose farewell
- בייбайbyeFrom the English bye, but long since its own: friends part with it more often than with lehitraot
About the language
| Native name | עברית · ivrit |
| Official in | Israel |
| Also spoken in | the USA, France, Russia, Argentina and Germany |
| How many speakers | about 5 million native speakers, over 9 million speakers in all: the language was revived for everyday speech about a century ago, and half of those who speak it learned it as a second one (estimate, Ethnologue) |
| Family | the Afro-Asiatic family, Semitic group — its closest living relative is Arabic |
| Script | the square Hebrew script, 22 letters: vowels are not written in ordinary text, and the line runs right to left |
| Writing direction | right to left |
Hard: vowels that are not written: a word of bare consonants can be read in several ways, and for the first weeks you lean on the transcript.
Easy: almost every word grows from a three-consonant root, and once you see the root you recognize the family.
What people most often take it up for: moving to Israel, family and roots, reading the texts in the original.
Curiosities in Hebrew
The first child in seventeen centuries to learn Hebrew as a mother tongue was born in Jerusalem in 1882: Eliezer Ben-Yehuda forbade everyone in the house to speak any other language in his son’s presence. Itamar Ben-Avi grew up in the language his father was reassembling — and from his childhood on, Hebrew has been passed down again.
Jack Fellman, «The Revival of a Classical Tongue: Eliezer Ben Yehuda and the Modern Hebrew Language», Mouton, 1973
How lessons work
A lesson is up to half an hour a day, split into three to five short sessions. A word comes back not on the course's schedule but at the moment you are about to forget it: the interval is computed by an algorithm from your own answers.
- The longer you want to keep a word, the longer the gap before reviewing it can be. To hold it for a week, review it after a day or two; to hold it for a year, after about three or four weeks.checked many timesCepeda et al., 2008, Psychological Science 19(11) · Over 1,350 participants, tested after delays of up to a year. The best gap is about 20–40% of the target interval when you need to remember for a week, and 5–10% when for a year.
- Recalling beats re-reading. Covering the translation and trying to remember it does more than reading it ten more times.checked many timesAdesope, Trevisan & Sundararajan, 2017, Review of Educational Research 87(3) · 188 experiments, 272 comparisons. g = 0.61; against plain re-reading 0.51, against passive review 0.93.
- A material reward promised for doing a task lowers the wish to take it up of your own accord once the reward is gone. Praise for what was done, on the contrary, keeps that wish alive.checked many timesDeci, Koestner & Ryan, 1999, Psychological Bulletin 125(6) · 128 experiments. A material reward promised in advance and the time later spent on the task by free choice: d = −0.44 for finishing, −0.40 for taking part, −0.28 for performance; a reward unrelated to the task, −0.14, not significant. Praise: +0.33.
Frequently asked
Where to start learning Hebrew?
With the script: 22 letters are worked through in a week or two, and after that words stop being pictures.
How many people speak Hebrew?
About 5 million native speakers, over 9 million speakers in all: the language was revived for everyday speech about a century ago, and half of those who speak it learned it as a second one — an estimate; source: Ethnologue. Nobody runs an exact census of languages, and sources disagree by noticeable amounts.
Is Hebrew hard?
Vowels that are not written: a word of bare consonants can be read in several ways, and for the first weeks you lean on the transcript. At the same time, almost every word grows from a three-consonant root, and once you see the root you recognize the family.
Where is Hebrew spoken?
An official language in: Israel. Noticeable communities: the USA, France, Russia, Argentina and Germany.