א — alef
«alef» is a consonant of the Hebrew script. Silent by itself: it holds the vowel slot where a word starts or breaks on a vowel. For example, in the word “אני” — I. The Hebrew alphabet has 22 letters in total. In the transcription alef simply disappears: אני reads ani. Do not try to pronounce it — it is a placeholder mark. It appears, for example, in the word “לא” — no.
In short
| Character | א |
| Name | alef |
| Sound | no sound of its own (vowel holder) |
| What it is | a consonant |
In our course the character comes 1st of 22, after it comes ב, appears in roughly every fifth word on this site.
How to type א
- On a phone: add the Hebrew keyboard in the keyboard settings (Gboard on Android; Keyboards in the iPhone settings).
- In Word on Windows: type U+05D0 and press Alt+X right after it — the code turns into the character.
- On a Mac: switch to the Unicode Hex Input source, hold Option and type 05D0.
- Unicode code point: U+05D0. With it, the character can be found in the character map of any system.
How it sounds
Silent by itself: it holds the vowel slot where a word starts or breaks on a vowel
The character in a word
A lone character is hard to remember: memory holds on to meaning, and a letter has none. The word it stands in provides that anchor.
- אניаниI
The character in the “throat letters and silent holders” group
Two throat letters: ה is a light breathy h, as in English, and ח a squeezed throaty kh that English lacks. And א and ע have no sound of their own. Alef holds the vowel slot, and ayin is silent in modern speech. Both vanish from the transcription.
Words with this character
How to remember this character
A single letter is the hardest thing to remember: memory has nothing to hold on to — a character has no meaning. A three-step loop works: see the character, try to recall the sound (for «alef» it is “no sound of its own (vowel holder)”, as in the word “אני”), see the right answer.
And come back to it the next day, not in an hour: a check a day or two later beats a check the same day. Nobody holds the whole alphabet — 22 letters — at once.
- It is better to test yourself the next day than at the end of the same session. That is why a word comes back to you tomorrow.checked many timesAdesope, Trevisan & Sundararajan, 2017, Review of Educational Research 87(3) · g = 0.82 when tested a day or two later, against 0.56 on the same day.
- Studying a little every day gets more into your head than spending the same total time in one sitting.checked many timesDonovan & Radosevich, 1999, Journal of Applied Psychology 84(5) · 63 studies compared, difference d = 0.46 — a sizeable figure for a learning effect.
Frequently asked
How does the Hebrew character א read?
No sound of its own (vowel holder). It is a consonant of the Hebrew script. Silent by itself: it holds the vowel slot where a word starts or breaks on a vowel. For example, in the word “אני” — I.
What is the letter א called?
Alef is what this character is called when the alphabet is recited aloud.