Lesson 1

• All transliterated Hebrew texts or letters are written in blue.

• Hebrew words are generally stressed on the last syllable. To clarify this we always add an h to the vowels a or e of the last syllable, where it is stressed – eg moreh – teacher. Where this doesn’t apply we have underlined the vowel of the stressed syllable (e.g. kneset – Israeli parliament).

• A break between two vowels as in cooperate or coeducation is always shown by an apostrophe, as in ma’ayan (source) or tza’ar (sorrow).

• Words which are written in one word in Hebrew but which are separate words in English, are connected by a hyphen in the transliteration – as in ve-amar (and he said) or ba-bayit (at home, in the house).

• Composed nouns, very frequent in Hebrew and known as smichut, are for a better understanding connected with + in the transliteration, eg dovre + ivrit, Hebrew speakers, shomre + torah, keepers of the teachings.

​

​

Hebrew pronunciation is transliterated as follows

​

Vowels:

a –    as in father, car, or short as in mother, cup – never as ay like in name
e –    as in hair, or short as in when or as the French article le – never as ee like in knee
i  –    as in me, or short as in hit, never as in mile
o –    as in order, or short as in hot, never as in hope
u –    as in rumor, mood, or short as in put, never as in huge

​

Consonants:

s    –    as in grass, never as in pose
z    –    as in haze
v    –    as in vain
tz   –    as in puts
ch  –    always as in Loch Ness, never as in Charles
sh  –    as in show
g    –   always as in gore, never as in gym
y    –    always as in yield or yoke, never as in why

​

Letters:

We do not cover the handwritten letters in this course, but recommend that you learn these in an advanced stage.

​

Hebrew doesn’t know upper and lower case.