How to read in Hebrew

Right to left, and no vowels

Two differences from English, and both show in the first word. First, the line runs right to left: the first letter of a word sits where English puts the last. Second, there are no vowel letters at all. The script is an abjad: letters carry the consonants, and memory restores the vowels. That is why every word here comes with a transcription — without it the first weeks are a pattern, not text.

The four letters of this step are among the most frequent in the language: ש is sh, ל is l, מ is m. And ו does three jobs at once: the consonant v and the vowels u and o. In shalom the vav is the o: sh-l-o-m, read from the right.

Bet: b or v

ב is the first of three letters with a double reading. With a dot inside (the dagesh) it is b, without it — v. A working rule: at the start of a word, after a pause, read b. Further in, trust the transcription.

Next to it works י — yod. As a consonant it is y, but more often it is the vowel i. In בית you hear an i between b and t.

He: the article and the silent ending

ה has two jobs. At the start of a word it is most often the definite article: הבית is ha-bait — "the house" with the already attached. As a consonant it is a light h: a plain breath from an open throat.

At the end of a word he is usually silent: in תודה the last letter makes no sound at all — toda. The transcription always tells the truth: an h in the spelling sounds, no h — silence.

Resh: an r from the throat

ר is not the English r. The tongue tip stays low. Israelis make the sound in the throat, at the soft palate, with a gargle — closer to the French one. Your English r will be understood, but it will give you away.

On paper resh is easy to mix up with ד (dalet): the difference is one stroke — resh curves, dalet has a corner. The pair רע — ra, "bad" — assembles from two letters, and the second one is silent for now.

Alef: a letter without a sound

א is a placeholder. It has no sound of its own. It holds the vowel slot where a word starts with a vowel or breaks on one. In the transcription alef simply disappears: אני is ani.

There is nothing to pronounce: modern Israelis do not hear it. See א — read the word as if the letter were not there.

Chet: a kh from the throat

ח is a throaty kh: a sound from a squeezed throat, not from the middle of the mouth. The tongue lies low and its back rises toward the little tongue at the back of the mouth. The air scrapes through that gap. It is not the English h, and it is closest to the ch in Bach.

In לחם the chet stands in the middle. The word ends in ם, the final form of mem: the same m in a different shape.

Kaf and the begad-kefat three

כ is the second letter with a double reading: with a dagesh it is k, without it a throaty kh. At the start of a word it is usually k: כאן is kan. At the end of a syllable it is more often kh: שלומך is shlomkha.

Together with ב and פ this is the begad-kefat three — six letters where the dagesh picks between a pair of sounds. Three pairs are alive today: b/v, k/kh, p/f. The dot inside the letter is not written in ordinary text — the transcription and word habit choose.

Five new consonants

Five frequent letters are left, and all of them sound ordinary: ג is g, ז is z, ס is s, צ is ts. And פ is p or f by the same dagesh rule as ב and כ.

גבינה shows two of the earlier traps at once: ב inside the word reads v, and the final ה is silent.

Ayin: the second silent one

ע was once a distinct throaty sound; today it is simply silent, like א. It disappears from the transcription: עיר is ir, עבודה is avoda.

On paper ayin is easy to mix up with alef: א has a stroke at the top left, ע an open corner. Both are silent, so a reading mistake is inaudible — but they are written differently.

Tet and qof: two t, two k

The last pair of doubles: t is written both ט and ת, k is written both ק and כ. They sound almost the same (qof a bit deeper, from the throat) but are written differently. Which shape goes where is learned with the words.

In קפה the qof stands at the start and פ gives a p. The final ה is silent: kafe.

Five letters change shape at the end

כ מ נ פ צ are written differently at the end of a word: ך ם ן ף ץ. The sound is the same, the shape is different — like Greek σ and ς. They are not counted as separate letters: it is the same letter, dressed for the end of a word.

שלומך has both forms side by side. The מ in the middle is the ordinary one; the ך at the end is the final kaf. It reads kh by the begad-kefat rule: shlomkha.

What order to take the characters in

The writing course is split into 6 steps: one step is one lesson, a few characters at a time. Nobody takes the whole script at once out of mercy: 22 signs in an evening stay in memory for exactly that, an evening.

• Studying a little every day gets more into your head than spending the same total time in one sitting.checked many times
  Donovan & Radosevich, 1999, Journal of Applied Psychology 84(5) · 63 studies compared, difference d = 0.46 — a sizeable figure for a learning effect.
• 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 times
  Adesope, 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.

Next

• Hebrew alphabetA reference of all the characters
• TransliterationThe table, both ways
• PronunciationWhat you hear and what is hard
• How to break down an unfamiliar scripta note