How the language is written

Working rules for this section

Section 1 is how Hebrew is written and sounded. You are not parsing verbs yet.

Hebrew is written right to left. There are no capital letters. The book teaches twenty-three consonants: the twenty-two letters, with sin and shin counted separately because the dot changes the sound. Five letters change shape at the end of a word: kaf, mem, nun, pe, and tsade. Learn the final form as the same letter, not a new one.

Six letters are called begadkephat: bet, gimel, dalet, kaf, pe, taw. A dot called dagesh lene hardens them to b, g, d, k, p, t. Without the dot the historical soft sounds are v, gh, dh, kh, f, and th. In ordinary reading, v, kh, and f are the soft sounds you will actually hear. Keep saying g, d, and t even when the dot is missing, but still notice the dot.

Vowels are mostly written under the consonant they follow. They come in three lengths. Short and changeable long vowels can shorten when the word shifts. Unchangeable long vowels are locked by a vowel letter, usually yod or waw, and they stay. Reduced vowels are the hateph signs plus vocal shewa. Gutturals (alef, he, het, ayin) and usually resh refuse a doubling dot and prefer a hateph vowel instead of a vocal shewa.

Shewa is the two-dot sign. Silent shewa makes no sound and closes a syllable. Vocal shewa is a hurried uh and counts as a vowel. Same sign, two jobs. If a vowel sits immediately before a begadkephat, a dot in that letter is dagesh forte, which doubles it, not dagesh lene.

A Hebrew syllable begins with one consonant and has one vowel. An open syllable ends in the vowel. A closed syllable ends in a consonant. Silent shewa closes a syllable. Accent is usually on the last syllable. The book marks the exceptions. A pathach under a final het, ayin, or consonantal he is furtive: say that a sound before the guttural, not after it.

A Hebrew noun has gender and number. Most masculine singular nouns have no ending. Masculine plural usually ends in ים. Feminine singular often ends in ה ָ, sometimes וּת, ית, or ת. Feminine plural usually ends in ות. Dual, for paired things, ends in ַיִם.

The definite article is a prefixed ה. The ordinary form is הַ plus a doubling dot in the first consonant of the noun. Gutturals and usually resh refuse that dot, so the article’s pathach often lengthens to qamets: הָ. Before some het and ayin with qamets, the article is הֶ. Before yod or mem with vocal shewa, the doubling drops and the pathach stays.

The conjunction ו is prefixed. Ordinary form וְ. Before bet, mem, pe, or a vocal shewa it is usually shureq וּ. Before a hateph vowel it copies that vowel. Before yod with shewa the shewa drops and you get וִ. A few short or initially accented words take וָ.

When you meet יהוה, do not sound out the consonants. Say Adonai.