Hebrew/Aleph-Bet/1

Aleph-Bet Lesson 1 — א בּ ת

Lessons on the Hebrew Aleph-Bet
Introduction
1 א בּ ת • E
2 ב ה נן • E
3 מם שׁשׂ • E
4 ל ו • E
5 ד ר י • E
6 ג ז ח • E
7 ט ככּך • E
8 ס ק • E
9 ע פפּף • E
10 צץ • E
Review
Test • Answers
• talk

Welcome to the first lesson in the Hebrew alphabet! In this lesson you will learn the first two and most basic Hebrew letters - א בּ and the last letter, ת, and the first two niqqud symbols - pataħ and shva.

Important note: Hebrew words and sentences, unlike English words and sentences, are read from right to left.

Letters

The Hebrew alphabet has no vowel letters. The letters only mark consonants, which means that when you look at a word you would have no idea how it is pronounced. Such alphabets are known as "abjads". The vowels would be explained immediately after this section. But we will begin with the two, first consonants.

Aleph

When handwritten, Aleph looks like this. Blue represents first stroke, red second. Exercise: Fill out a line with cursive Alephs. Do this until you write naturally and develop your own handwriting.

א The first letter in the Hebrew alphabet is Aleph. It has 3 uses:

1. It makes a consonant called "glottal stop", as in "co’operate" or "re’enact".

2. When at the beginning of a word, it means the word starts with a vowel.

3. When preceded by any "a" vowel, when at the end of a word (there are exceptions) and in foreign words (because in most texts there are no marked vowels) it makes the "a" sound (IPA: /a/, "a" as in "spa").

Bet

Here's how Bet looks like when written. Remember: blue represents first stroke, red second. Do the same exercise as you did with Aleph. In cursive there is no need for vowels so you don't have to write the dot.

בּ The second letter in the Hebrew alphabet is Bet. It makes the "b" sound (IPA: /b/, "b" as in "ball"). When there is no dot in the middle, the letter makes a different sound, "v", so make sure to remember the dot.

Tav

Here's how Tav looks like when written. Do that exercise, as usual. In Hebrew there are two forms of the same alphabet: print dfus for typing, handwriting ktav for writing.

ת The last letter in the Hebrew alphabet and the third you will learn is Tav. It makes the "t" sound if there is a dot in it. (IPA: /t/, "t" as in "tomato"). Sometimes if it does not have a dot in it, it is pronounced "s", but most of the time it is pronounced "t".

Now you've learned the first three letters! But all you have is consonants. In order to be actually able to pronounce words, you need vowels.

Vowels

In Hebrew, vowels appear as dots and bars above, beneath or to the left of letters. This system of dots and lines is known as niqqud, a Hebrew word which means "applying dots". It was devised by a group of early Medieval Jewish scribes and Bible scholars known as the Masoretes (masoret means "tradition" in Hebrew). They invented the niqqud to make sure that the "correct" pronunciation of the Bible would not be lost.

You would eventually have to learn to read without niqqud. It might seem daunting, but with a little exercise you would learn to recognize words and know how to pronounce them. But until then, you must learn the niqqud symbols first. Now you learn the first two:

Pataħ

בַּ The pataħ is the line under the Bet.

The pataħ produces the "a" sound (IPA: /a/, "a" as in "spa").

Shva

בְּ The shva is the two vertical dots under the Bet.

Shva does two things:

1. Shva naħ (resting Shva): placed under a consonant to mark the end of a syllable.
2. Shva na‘ (moving Shva): when shva is at the beginning of a syllable, it produces the "ə" sound (IPA: /ə/, "a" as in "about"). Many Israelis pronounce it as "e".

Words

Now that we have three consonants and two vowels, we can produce words!

Vocabulary:

אַתְּ — you (feminine, singular) at

בַּתּ — daughter, girl (feminine, singular) bat

This word בַּתּ or bat is pronounced closer to the second syllable in the English word robot (American pronunciation) than the English word bat (the animal, or the thing you use to hit a baseball or cricket ball). Similarly, the word אַתְּ or at, is pronounced as in the word attraction. (notice - it is not pronounced like the English word that is spelled as at.)

Try to read these words out loud. Remember that Hebrew is read from right to left!

Notes about these letters

A common phrase that English speakers may know is Bat Mitzvah. This phrase is usually translated as Daughter of the Commandments and is used to refer to a young, Jewish woman, who is old enough to be morally responsible for her actions. This would be at age 12 or 13 depending on the Jewish denomination.

A very simple sentence is
אַתְּ בַּתּ
which means "you are a daughter" or "you are a girl". (We'll explain in later lessons about the "to be" verbs like are and the article a.)

The English word for our letters, alphabet, comes from aleph-bet, the first two letters in the Hebrew language.

Each Hebrew letter also has a numeric value. Those are explained separately. The letter Aleph (א) has the value of 1. The letter Bet (בּ) has the value of 2. The letter Tav (תּ) is the 22nd and last letter of the Hebrew Aleph-Bet; it has the value of 400.

Exercises

Remember the letters you have learned: Aleph (א), Bet (בּ) and Tav (תּ).
Also remember the vowels you have learned: Pataħ (ַ) and Shva (ְ).
With this knowledge, you can make six possible combinations:
אַ אְ בַּ בְּ תַּ תְּ
Assign each letter to the sound it makes:

• תַּ
• בְּ
• אְ
• אַ
• בַּ
• תְּ

Ta

B

’

A

Ba

T

Now do the opposite. Assign each sound to the equivalent Hebrew letter:

• T
• A
• Ba
• B
• Ta
• ’

* תְּ

אַ

בַּ

בְּ

תַּ

אְ

How do you spell each of the following words (most of which are fictional)?
Example: אַבְּ Aleph-pataħ Bet-shva

בַּתּ

Bet-pataħ Tav

בַּתַּא

Bet-pataħ Tav-pataħ Aleph

תְּבַּ

Tav-shva Bet-pataħ

אַתְּ

Aleph-pataħ Tav-shva

אַבְּתּ

Aleph-pataħ Bet-shva Tav

How do you pronounce each of the following words?
Example: אַבְּ Ab

אַתְּבּ

Atb

תְּבַּ

Tba

אַתְּ

At

בַּאְתּ

Ba’t

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