Basic Hebrew Lessons
Hebrew is a delightful language to learn. Anyone interested in the Bible, Kabbalah or Judaism would do well to understand Hebrew. In other words, get with it already, what is your holdup man? These lessons will be designed for learning Hebrew (and having fun in the process) and increasing our abilities to read the Bible in the Hebrew language (and having fun learning in the process). The first necessary thing to do (besides having fun in the process) is learn the alphabet. It is not difficult, (if you are having fun in the process) and just a couple hours with it should do the trick. I will share some secrets and hints on how to help increase your speed in learning the alphabet and remembering the letters, as long as you have fun in the process.
The Hebrew )b (Alphabet)
) + p
b y c
g k q
d l r
h m #&
w n #^%$
z s t
x (
Reading the columns from left to right and all the way down:
) Aleph, the first letter. It is not necessarily pronounced, but is rather a stoppage of breath. It is considered a silent letter. Sort of like the "h" in the word "heir" You don’t say hair, but rather air. Right? Don’t we all wish we were heirheads eh?
b Beth, the second letter. It is pronounced like "b" as in bravo, biscuit, bully, bash, bug, brag, boogie, and ba ba boom.
g Gimel is the Hebrew G. It is pronounced like "g" as in great, good, get em, groovy, gag, golly, gumball, goo-gaw galore or grumble.
d is Dalet. This is pronounced "d" as in dad-gum-it, dipstick, dork, dill pickle, darling, or dweeb. Dimwit is also a correct pronunciation of the "d".
h is the letter "he." Pronounced like hay, not he. It has the sound of…. You guessed it,
"h", as in hillbilly, heehaw, hanky, holler, hit, hum, or who-done-it. This last one is bound to raise your eyebrows eh? Look to the sound, not the spelling.
w is the letter waw, and is pronounced like "v" as in va-va voom, Vinny Testaverde, Vacuum the room NOW! Or even as Vacation. Sometimes it is pronounced as "w", but that will come later, I suppose. You want it now? Tough. Be patient, you’ll have plenty more to learn. You still have vowels to go.
z is the letter Zayin. It is pronounced, not as "Q", of course, but as "z", hence the name "Zayin," so to pronounce this is the same as in zoom, zigzag, zap, zodiac, zany, zip, zanzibar or zealous.
x is the letter Het, and is pronounced…..well, how would YOU suppose it is pronounced? WRONG! Yeah, I know I didn’t hear you, but you are wrong anyway, because it is pronounced as "ch" as in Bach, (like Arnold, as in "The Terminator" Arnold, saying "I’ll be Bach." GRIN!) not pronounced as in chatter, chinchilla or chiwawa. Yes I KNOW Chiwawa is misspelled, I am just seeing if you are awake through all this.
+ is the letter Tet, and is pronounced "t" as in tweedle dee and tweedle dum, twinkie, toots, tattletale, twerp and even twit.
y is the letter Yod, and is pronounced "y" as in yoyo, yip, yummy, yammer, or yowzer.
k is the letter Kaf, and is pronounced "k" as in killroy, kettle, kerchief, khaki, kibitzer, kindle and krazy. Oh yes it is, look it up if you think I am kidding. You have to look under "c" though…….
l is the letter Lamed, pronounced "l" as in linguistic, lala-land, lilt, lulu, lipstick or lazy.
m is the letter Mem, pronounced "m", as in yo Mama!
n is the letter Nun, pronounced as nitwit, ninny, nut, or nerd.
s is the letter Samek, pronounced "s" as in sassy, silly, spindly, splatter, spin, or spank.
( is the letter Ayin, another basically silent letter as is Aleph above.
p is the letter Peh, pronounced "p" as in prattle, prissy, pringles, or prayer.
c is the letter Tsade(h), pronounced ts as in bets or nets, like a hissing "s".
q is the letter Qoph, pronounced "q" as in plaque.
r is the letter resh, pronounced "r" as in rake, race, run, rummage, rumble, or ridiculous.
# is the letter Shin when a dot is on the right hand side like this: #$ It is called Sin when the dot is on the other side like this: #&
t is the letter Tav, pronounced as "th" as in think, thank, thunk, etc.
This is always the first place to start correctly learning Hebrew. Lesson two is coming up, so get with it and learn this one.