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Copyright © 2013 by Ben Shaffer. All rights reserved worldwide.

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Table of Contents:

Introduction to This New Version

Introduction to Reading Hebrew

Special Bonus Audio

The First Basics

The First Basics

The Hebrew Alephbet

The Letters of the AlephBet

Aleph

Bet (Beyt)

Gimmel

Dalet

Hey

Vav

Zayin

Chet

Tet

Yod

Kaf

Lamed

Mem

Nun

Samekh

Ayin

Pey (Fey)

Tsade (Tsadik)

Qof

Resh

Shin

Tav

The Significance of the Alephbet

The Basics of Hebrew Verbs

The Hebrew Verb Subject

The Hebrew Verb Object

Hebrew Verb Tenses

Hebrew Verb Voices And Moods

Hebrew Verb Participles

The Infinite Verb Version

Hebrew Nouns

Hebrew Noun Constructs

Using Prefixes With Nouns

Hebrew Pronouns

Hebrew Plural Nouns

Hebrew Adjectives

Identifying Hebrew Questions

Adverbs, Prepositions and Conjunctions

Conclusion

Introduction to This New Version

Thank you for purchasing this new version of How to Read Hebrew in 90 Minutes.

We have take massive steps to make sure that we are able to present to you the fastest way for you to start reading Hebrew.

Whether you are a student or just want to know how to read Hebrew, we wish you the best of luck.

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to be in contact.

Ben Shaffer

Jerusalem

2013

Introduction to Reading Hebrew

There are many reasons why you might want to learn to read and speak Hebrew.

For example, as Hebrew is the national language of Israel, it would definitely be an advantage to be able to read and speak the language if you are going to visit the country.

Alternatively, many students learn to read the language so that they are able to read the Tanach or the Old Testament of the Bible in the language in which it was originally written.

Many students find that this is an essential ability to acquire because if you read the Old Testament in English, what you are actually reading is someone else’s interpretation of the original Hebrew script.

As you will discover once you start to acquire a knowledge of reading and speaking Hebrew, there are many situations where the translation of Hebrew might be open to interpretation.

In effect therefore, reading the Old Testament in English means that you might not be reading an exact translation of what is written in the Hebrew version.

Some online resources suggest that learning Hebrew is easy, whilst others put forward exactly the opposite idea.

My own experience indicates that whilst it may not be the easiest language to learn to read but it is not the most difficult either.

My belief is that if you use the information in this book for a few minutes every day to polish up your reading skills, you should soon be reading Hebrew with relative ease.

Furthermore, as you practice, you will gradually develop your Hebrew vocabulary at the same time, which is as important in Hebrew as it would be in any other language.

For this reason, I would recommend that you set yourself a target of learning a small number of new Hebrew words every day as a way of expanding your vocabulary.

Fortunately, doing so is remarkably easy nowadays, as there are many websites where you can find new Hebrew words at no cost - search Google for ‘Hebrew phrases’ or ‘Hebrew vocabulary’ and you’ll find everything you need.

This means that you will very soon be able to read Hebrew smoothly and without hesitation, thereby opening up a whole new world of literature, study and art. Without any further ado, let’s get started…

Special Bonus Audio

As a special bonus with this kindle edition of Read Hebrew in Just 90 Minutes, we are giving you access to the audio accompaniment. Using this, you will be able to experience exactly how the words and letters sound.

To access the audio, you can go right now to:

http://hebrewreadingcourse.com/kindle/

The First Basics

The first thing to understand about reading Hebrew is that unlike reading English, Hebrew is read from the right-hand side of the page to the left. You may find this a little difficult or awkward to begin with but it is something you will soon get used to.

When reading or writing English, you do so with the 26 character English-language Alphabet which is made up of 21 consonants and five vowels.

The name Alphabet originally comes from the first two characters of the Greek Alphabet, Alpha and Beta. In Hebrew however, the first two characters are Aleph and Bet (Beyt), hence in Hebrew, the equivalent to the English alphabet is the Alephbet.

The Alephbet contains 22 characters, all of which are consonants.

If you imagine trying to speak English without using vowels, it should quickly become obvious that without including vowels, every language would be impossible.

You might therefore wonder how anyone can use Hebrew without vowels.

The point however is that Hebrew does include vowels, it is just that they are not separate written letters.

Instead, vowels are formed by the addition of dashes and/or dots beneath the consonants in some written Hebrew. These vowel points are known as 'nikkud' in the singular and 'nikkudot' when used in the plural.

Note that I suggested that 'nikkud' are used in some written Hebrew.

This is because whilst they are included in prayer books, biblical text, grammar books and books written for children, they are not included in publications such as novels, magazines, newspapers and the like.

This is because anyone who has learned to read and speak Hebrew will already know how to assume the presence of vowels in written script without them actually being present.

As you can see in the sample above, the inclusion or omission of nikkud makes a considerable difference to the appearance of written Hebrew script.

The vowel inclusion or omission is one of the reasons why learning to read Hebrew is sometimes seen as difficult. However, as suggested earlier, all it needs is a little practice and you will soon pick it up.

If this fact makes learning to read Hebrew a little more difficult, there are a couple of 'positives' that counterbalance this.

The first is that unlike English, the way each letter or character is pronounced never changes. For example, whereas in English, the two 'c's' would be sounded differently in a word like 'circle' (the first 'c' sounds like an 's', whereas the second is more like a 'k'), this does not happen in Hebrew.

Secondly, whereas in English, the balance in a word between consonants and vowels is irregular, it is always regular in Hebrew.

As an example, whilst an English word like 'awkward' is made up of one vowel followed by three consonants, another vowel and finally two more consonants, the pattern in Hebrew is always far more consistent.

In Hebrew, a vowel always follows a consonant except for the final one, which may or may not be followed by a vowel.

For instance, the Hebrew word for 'king' is 'melek'. The pattern of the word is therefore CVCVC (constant - vowel - consonant - vowel - consonant), emphasizing the regularity.

Furthermore, this regularity is carried over to other similar words, so 'His king' is 'meleko' (CVCVCV) whilst 'the king' is 'hamelek'.

In both of these examples, you can see that the pattern is entirely regular, a word construction pattern with which you will quickly become familiar.

The Hebrew Alephbet

The 22 constants that make up the Alephbet are shown in this chart, together with the name of each:

As suggested previously, you read Hebrew from right to left. Hence, the first letter of the Alephbet is ‘Aleph’ (at the top right of the screen shot), followed by ‘Bet’ immediately to the left and so on.

Of the consonants shown, five have a different form that is used when they appear at the end of the word. Not everyone agrees on this form, but when they are used, they are known as the ‘sofit’ or ‘sophit’ form of the letter:

You will need to recognize the ‘sofit’ characters because they will be used in some of the written materials that you are reading.

Perhaps not surprisingly, the pronunciation of many of the consonants and vowels that together make up the basic building blocks of reading and speaking Hebrew have changed over the centuries. Even so, this is not going to make any difference to your reading and the pronunciation does not change the meaning of the words either.

Nevertheless, you should be aware that the pronunciation of many of the consonants and vowels has changed over the centuries but stick to modern Hebrew usage when you are speaking (as others will when they speak to you).

Modern Hebrew is further split into two different forms, being Ashkenazy and Sephardic. As the latter is the form of Hebrew that is officially recognized in Israel, it is the one that is most commonly used.

You will note that some of the consonants highlighted earlier look very similar to one another. You therefore need to make sure that you can recognize the different characters and differentiate between them if you are going to make any sense of your Hebrew reading.

In particular, watch out for the following similar characters which could be a little confusing if you don’t learn to separate them from one another:

The final thing that you need to learn to recognize are the different ‘nikkudot’ that cause consonants to be used as vowels.

These are the vowel points added either above or below the consonant:

Now you have the basics of the Hebrew alphabet, let’s consider each of the different characters in turn.

The Letters of the AlephBet

The following pages will now cover the letters of the Alephbet, including pronunciation, in detail.

Aleph

As Aleph is a silent letter, you will sometimes see it suggested that Aleph is the easiest letter of the Hebrew alphabet to use! In order for the Aleph to have any sound, it needs to have 'nikkud' added with different variations creating a different vowel sound. For example, when the Aleph is used in conjunction with Qamats beneath it as seen in the following screenshot:

This creates a combination between the consonant and vowel point that is pronounced as 'a' as it would be used in 'father'. In an identical way, an Aleph used with Patach would also give you an 'a' that sounds as it would in 'father':

When it is combined with the single 'dot' of a Hhirech underneath it, Aleph creates an 'I' that would sound the way it does in 'machine':

A combination of an Aleph and a Tsere produces an 'e' that sounds as it would in 'grey':

Next, when you combine an Aleph with Sh'va, you actually produce a silent vowel which is most commonly used as a syllable break:

Using an Aleph in combination with the three dots of a Segol gives you an 'e' as it would be used as the first syllable in 'elephant':

When you see a combination of the Aleph, plus both the Sh'va and Segol vowels, it is pronounced as the second 'eh' sounds as in 'elephant', but it is pronounced very softly:

When you combine Aleph and a Cholam (the small dot is placed to the top left of the main character), you have an 'o' as it would be used in 'open':

Next, you may see a combination of the Sh'va and Patach. Remembering that the Aleph and Sh'va between them creates a silent vowel, this combination produces a vowel that is pronounced the same as it would be if there was only a Patach (i.e. 'father'):

This however is only effective when placed under the first consonant of the word, and exactly the same happens with a combination of Sh'va and Qamats too:

When it is the Qubbuts being used in combination with an Aleph, you have a vowel sounds like the 'u' in 'tune':

From all of these different combinations, it should be clear that learning how the vowel points convert consonants into vowels is extremely important. This is doubly true when you remember that nikkud are not always written, so you need to learn to recognize which consonants are being used as vowels and which are not.

Bet (Beyt)

There are two different letters that are associated with this particular character, being 'bet' and 'vet'. If the letter features a 'dot' in the middle (known as a 'dagesh' mark), it indicates that it should be pronounced as a 'b' as in bet, whereas a lack of a dagesh means that it is being used as a 'v' in 'vet'.

Gimmel

Gimmel is the third letter of the Alephbet and is pronounced with a 'hard' 'g' sound as you would hear in an English word such as 'girl' or 'gate'. Note however that because pronunciation in Hebrew is always the same, it is never pronounced 'softly' as in 'giant'.

You may sometimes see Gimmel with a dagesh mark but in this case, the mark does not alter the pronunciation in modern Hebrew.

Historically, the addition of the dagesh changed the 'g' to 'gh', but nowadays, there is no difference.

You will see that the character is topped with a three-pronged crown (called a 'tagin'). There are eight such characters in the Alephbet and whilst there is some doubt as to why these characters are crowned, it is sometimes suggested that it is to do with the giving of the Torah to Moses at Sinai.

Also note that technically speaking, as with all characters in the Hebrew Alephbet, Gimmel needs a vowel adding before it becomes 'pronounced'.

Another thing to be aware of is that the English spelling of the names of Hebrew characters can vary. For example, you may see Gimel instead of Gimmel so be aware of this in your reading.

Dalet

The fourth letter of the Alephbet is Dalet which is pronounced with the emphasis on the first syllable - 'dah-let'. This is another character that can sometimes appear with a dagesh mark but as with Gimmel, the dagesh makes no difference to the usage or pronunciation.

Hey

The fifth character is 'Hey', pronounced with a distinct 'h' sound as it would be in 'hay' or 'hello'. It is on the other hand never pronounced as a 'ch' as in 'chewy':

'Hey' is one of the Alephbet characters that is described as a 'guttural' letter or character because it used to be spoken with a guttural sound produced at the back of the throat.

This is also a character - similar in this way to Aleph - that often appears at the end of words when it is almost always silent. A word that ends with 'Hey' is most commonly a feminine word as well.

'Hey' is also prefixed to words to add a definite article to them i.e. 'the' something. Furthermore, it is a character that will sometimes appear with a dot in the middle but in this case, the additional 'dot' is known as a 'mappiq' rather than a dagesh mark:

In this case, 'Hey' will be pronounced as a closing stop so that there is a faint 'h' sound. The addition of the mappiq may indicate direction by suggesting 'towards' or 'to'.

Vav

The sixth letter of the Alephbet is Vav, pronounced 'vahv' as in 'visit' or 'vine':

On those occasions when it is added as a prefix at the beginning of a word, it means 'and'.

When used in Biblical Hebrew and other similar situations, Vav was sometimes pronounced as a 'w'. This was however ancient usage, a style that is no longer followed nowadays when it is always a 'v'.

In modern usage, Vav makes the same sound as in 'vet' to which you were introduced earlier.

Vav is another character that is used in conjunction with vowel points to create vowel sounds.

For instance, when Vav is used as part of 'Cholam Maley' (sometimes written as 'Hholam Maley), it is pronounced as an 'o' as it would be used in 'open':

In this case, when it is added to a word as a suffix, 'Cholam Maley' means 'to him' or 'his'. On the other hand, as a prefix, Vav means 'and'.

Similarly, when a Vav is included with a Shuruq, the dot is pronounced as a 'u' as it would be if the word 'tune':

Zayin

'Zayin' is the next letter of the Alephbet, another character that is topped with the three-pronged 'tagin' crownlet to which you were introduced earlier:

This letter is pronounced 'zah-yeen' and is sounded as a 'z' like you hear it in 'crazy' or 'zebra'.

Chet

The eighth character of the Hebrew alphabet is Chet, pronounced with a guttural 'ch' as in the German 'Bach'. This is one of the more common or well-known Hebrew characters, one that is often described as sounding as if you are gargling without water:

Note that in this particular character example, there is a clear bridge between two characters that both look like an 'uncrowned' Zayin.

As you would probably expect however, the way that the characters are written varies. In some cases, the 'bridge' is not as evident as in this example which is one of the reasons why Chet can easily be confused with other letters:

This should not cause any major problems once you are used to the different ways that characters can be written, but it is something that you need to be aware of.

Tet

The ninth letter of the Alephbet is Tet, which is pronounced to rhyme with 'late' and is sounded as the 't' in 'time' or 'tune':

As you can see, this is another of the 'crowned' letters of the Alephbet.

You may find that in some academic Hebrew books, there is a different letter used when transliterating Tet. This is done to differentiate this particular letter from Tav (the last letter of the Alephbet). Nevertheless, in most written Hebrew works, it is Tet that is most commonly used for the letter 't'.

Yod

'Yod' is a very important character, being the one that appears most commonly in the Scriptures as well as being the smallest:

When pronounced, the letter rhymes with 'lode' or 'mode', generally being used in words as is the 'y' in 'yellow' or 'yes'. However, this letter is sometimes softened into the sound of a double 'ee' as it would be pronounced in 'Greek' or 'feel'.

When there is a Yod at the end of a word, it suggests 'of me' or 'my'.

Kaf

This is one of the more confusing letters in Hebrew alphabet, as it is one that you might see in several different forms when reading Hebrew:

For instance, it is sometimes said as Khaf (or 'Chaf') instead of Kaf, on top of which, you have the 'sofit' versions 'Kaf sofit' and 'Khaf sofit'. In effect therefore, there are four different versions of exactly the same letter.

When the letter is used as Khaf, the pronunciation is the same as it is with Chet, with the guttural 'Bach' being the nearest approximation. Kaf on the other hand is pronounced as a hard 'k' as it would be in words like 'kite' and 'kick'.

The difference between the two letters in written form is that the hard 'k' version of the letter has a dagesh mark in the middle:

On the other hand, if there is no dagesh, it is the softer but more guttural 'ch' letter that is being used. The same rules also apply with the sofit (pronounced 'so-feet') forms of the character too. Although the way that the letter is written changes, the pronunciation does not. Hence, 'Kaf sofit' will appear with a dagesh mark:

On the other hand, 'Khaf sofit' does not have a dagesh mark.

One slight oddity about 'Kaf' or 'Khaf' sofit is that whilst most Hebrew words end with a consonant, both of the sofit versions of this particular character are usually followed by a vowel.

Lamed

'Lamed' is considered to be unique in the Hebrew alphabet as the tallest and also central character:

Making the 'l' sound as in 'lion', it is the only character to rise above the baseline and as the 12th letter is right in the middle of the alephbet.

Another thing to understand about Hebrew characters is that each one has a numerical value which in the case of Lamed is 30.

Whilst the numerical value has little relevance when reading Hebrew, it does have a significance in terms of the meaning of the letter.

For instance, as with many of the Hebrew letters, Lamed is made from a combination of other characters. In this case, the letter is made up of a Vav sitting atop a Kaf which between them gives a numerical value of 26 (Vav is 6, Kaf is 20).

This equates to YHVH, one of the names that is widely recognized as representing God. For this reason, Lamed is said to represent the 'melek hamelakim' the 'King of kings'.

As with all Hebrew characters, there are different forms of 'Lamed' that you might come across in your reading.

Whilst the character that is highlighted above is the most common Lamed form you will come across, there are other forms of the letter that you might encounter in manually written documents, documents that use cursive script and so on:

When used as a prefix, Lamed often suggests a grammatical object similar to 'for' or 'to'. For instance, whilst 'melek' means king, 'l'melek' would be translated as 'for a king' or 'to a king'.

Mem

Mem is the 13th letter of the Alephbet, one that makes the 'm' sound (as in 'mess'):

Note from the character pictograph that Mem is 'open' when used in the mediall form. In this case, the character is again formed from a combination of a Vav (on the left) and Kaf.

However, Mem is the second letter of the Hebrew alphabet which has a sofit form for use at the end of the sentence. When this happens, the character has a closed form as seen in the following screenshot:

When used at the end of the sentence, you can see that the character is considerably more 'boxy' than it is otherwise.

Nun

Once again, Nun has two different characters with a 'normal' form and soffit. Both are pronounced as the 'n' would be when used in 'nuts' or 'November':

In this example, you can see that the 'crownlet' is added to the letter. However, the character will often be used in a more simple form without the adornment on top:

This makes more sense of the sofit form of the character which appears without the 'tail' as shown in the previous image:

Samekh

Samekh is the 15th letter of the Alephbet and is pronounced as an 's' as it would be in 'savoury' or 'sour':

Be careful when reading not to confuse Samekh with Mem, and especially not with Mem sofit. You will note that in the image, Samekh is rounded whereas Mem is more of a square box, but not all written materials will make the difference as obvious as this.

Ayin

Ayin is one of the more difficult characters for non-native Hebrew speakers to deal with because most Hebrew teaching resources highlight that it is a silent letter, others suggest differently:

The major difficulty with Ayin is that when it is sounded, the sound itself is one that is not familiar to anyone who has little experience of Semitic languages like Syriac or Arabic.

In a situation where Ayin is 'sounded', it is something like the 'ng' at the end of 'wrong' or the 'nk' in 'wink'. As this sound essentially comes from the back of the throat, this is another guttural letter like Hey, Chet and Aleph.

Because of the difficulty of getting the pronunciation right, most non-native Hebrew speakers (and many natives) treat Ayin like Aleph by leaving it completely silent. As it is perfectly normal and acceptable to do so, it is probably best to follow this practice.

Pey (Fey)

Pey and Fey are both derivatives of the same letter and as there is a sofit form of each, you have four different characters derived from the same letter:

Once again, the difference between the two characters is the presence or absence of a dagesh mark. When the dagesh is absent as in the previous screenshot, the character is pronounced as a 'ph' or 'f' as in 'telephone'.

If however the dagesh is present, then the pronunciation is 'p' as in 'park' or 'party':

As suggested, there is also a sofit version of both of these characters that is used at the end of words. This for example is the sofit version of Fey:

Tsade (Tsadik)

Tsade is another character that has a sofit version which only appears at the end of sentences. This is the medial letter that would appear in the middle of a sentence:

Both the medial and sofit versions of the character are pronounced like the 'zz' in the middle of 'pizza' or the 'tz' in 'chintz'. In some academic works, you might see it transliterated as an 's' but the 'zz' or 'tz' version (the latter is commonly favored by non-native speakers) are more widely used nowadays. If however you see either Tsade or Tsade sofit appear with an apostrophe next to it, it changes the sound of the character to be more like 'ch' as in 'much' or 'chocolate'.

Qof

Qof is sometimes pronounced as the 'q' in 'queen' or 'quick' whereas for others, it is used as a 'k':

You will see some resources that suggest that the 'k' pronunciation is becoming increasingly common whilst others suggest exactly the opposite. The 'q' sound is however more widely accepted as the 'correct' pronunciation, so it is probably better to stick with this.

Resh

Resh (ray-sh) is the 20th letter of the alephbet, one that is usually pronounced as an 'r' by non-native speakers:

When speaking Hebrew, it is usually recommended that Resh comes from the back of the tongue with a rolling 'r' sound. Consequently, Resh is another guttural character. Interestingly, in some of the Scriptures, Resh is written with a dagesh which many scholars have posited tells you that there should be a double 'rr' used. For instance, the evidence that Sarah was spelled with a double 'rr' is taken from the inclusion of the dagesh mark.

Shin

Shin is the 21st character of the Alephbet and the last to be 'crowned':

This letter carries two different pronunciations depending on the presence and position of a dot above it. Without any dot (as seen in the previous image), it is pronounced 'sh' as in 'shin', with the same applying if the dot appears to the upper right of the letter:

If however the dot appears above the upper left-hand side, it is pronounced as an 's' as in 'sin':

In all these examples, the character is shown with three 'heads'. It is however not unknown for both 'shin' and 'sin' to be written with four heads:

In this case, scholars suggest that the three headed Shin is representative of the Shin pertaining to this world, whereas the four headed Shin is related to the world to come.

Tav

The last letter of the alephbet is Tav:

You will sometimes see this character with a dagesh mark which in modern Hebrew does not change pronunciation. However, in ancient Hebrew, Tav without the dagesh would have been pronounced 'th' (as it would in the word Sabbath for example).

Furthermore, in Ashkenazi Hebrew, a Tav without the dagesh would be pronounced as an 's', but in modern usage, Tav is a 't', used as it would be in 'terrify' or 'tango'.

The Significance of the Alephbet

As with any language, the individual letters of the Alephbet are the basic building blocks of both reading and speaking. Furthermore, practice makes perfect in Hebrew as it does in anything else that needs to be studied and learned.

In short, the first thing you need to learn are the 22 basic characters highlighted in this chapter plus the way vowels are created from consonants etc. Consequently, you should go back through this chapter, study each individual letter and learn them by rote.

Perhaps the easiest way of learning the Alephbet is by writing each of the individual characters several times. Repeat this exercise for several days and you will find that you begin to recognize and distinguish between the different letters.

Once you can do this, you are ready to move on.

The Basics of Hebrew Verbs

After you have mastered the basic letters of the Alephbet, the next thing to begin working on is the formation of verbs in Hebrew. This is essential as verbs are action words without which no language makes sense, and obviously, when you are reading Hebrew, you will encounter verbs in every sentence.

For instance, in a sentence like 'Job drank the tea', the verb is 'drank' as this describes the action that takes place in this phrase. 'Job' is the subject of the verb in this example as it is him who is taking action, whereas the tea is the object of the verb as it is the 'thing' that the action imparted on.

Once you understand how verbs are used in English, you have the information you need to understand what is happening in Hebrew as well, because the basic verb construction is the same.

As an example, in every sentence, the Hebrew verb will identify:

•             The person that it is being used in (i.e. first person, second person or third person) in relation to the subject of a verb;

•             Whether the subject of the verb is masculine or feminine;

•             Whether the subject is singular or plural;

•             If the tense of the verb is perfect or imperfect;

•             Sometimes, the verb will also indicate the number and gender (i.e. masculine or feminine) of the object of the verb as well.

In the following sections, we will examine the various different forms of verbs in more detail.

The Hebrew Verb Subject

As highlighted in the previous section, the subject of the verb can be indicated by using a proper name (i.e. Job). Alternatively, if the sentence were 'she drank the tea', the subject would be 'she' because she is the one taking the action denoted by the verb.

Rather than including a pronoun to highlight the subject of the verb, it is instead indicated by the way the verb itself is conjugated in Hebrew.

For example, using the basic verb 'qatsar' ('to cut'), the following conjugations point to the subject:

•             = 'qat-sar-ti' = 'I cut’;

•             = 'qat-sar-ta' = 'You cut';

•             = 'qats-ru' = 'They cut';

•             = 'qats-rah' = 'She cut'.

To extend this example, if you were to read

(= 'qatsarti ets')

It would mean 'I cut a tree'. If however it was

(= 'qatsarah ets')

You have 'She cut a tree'.

In these examples, you can see that the verb indicates whether the sentence is in the first, second or third person, the number of subjects (i.e. whether it is singular or plural) and the gender.

For instance, the change of verb in the second example indicates that the subject is in the third person, that it is singular and of a feminine gender (i.e. she'). If however the sentence were 'qatsru ets', the verb usage would identify the subject as being masculine, in the third person and plural - 'they' (masculine').

One other thing to note is that in Hebrew, the subject of the verb comes after the subject, whereas in English, it is the other way round.

The Hebrew Verb Object

The easiest way of identifying the object of a sentence is by looking for the identifying noun, pronoun or proper name. Also, remember that the object is the one to whom the action happens or to which they are submitted.

For example, in a sentence 'Job helped a man', it is the man which is the object of the verb as it is Job who is doing helping. Similarly, 'Job helped him' would have 'him' as the object, whereas with 'Job helped Jack', the object is Jack as he is being helped.

Finding the object of verb in Hebrew works exactly the same way as it does in English. However, if the object of the verb can be recognized from the pronoun usage, it can be written in a couple of different ways.

The word 'oto' () means 'him'. It could be used as the object of the sentence as in ('azar Ya'aqov oto') meaning 'Jacob helped him'.

Alternatively, the same could be done by adding a suffixed Vav could be added to the sentence to do exactly the same thing (this would also mean exactly the same as well) so you have .

Another thing to note that is very important when reading Hebrew is that it is not uncommon for the subject, object and the verb itself to be run together into one word.

For example, the Aaronic blessing taken from Numbers starts with (yevarekhekha). This composite word is made up of the verb 'barak' which means 'to bless' prefixed by a Yod that indicates that the subject of the verb is masculine, singular and in the third person tense ('he').

On the other hand, the word is suffixed by a Kaf sofit (without a dagesh mark) which identifies that the subject of the verb is in the second person, masculine and singular ('you' in the masculine). Consequently, in one word, you have 'he will bless you'.

Below is a table of the pronoun suffixes that can be attached to a verb to indicate the object of it. Note however that these pronouns can also be used in conjunction with nouns as well:

If you are going to be able to read Hebrew fluently, you need to learn these suffixes so that you can recognize them. In this way, you will begin to recognize a noun with a pronoun added. This is important because recognizing these noun/pronoun combinations will ensure that you get the correct meaning.

Hebrew Verb Tenses

Another aspect of Hebrew verbs is that they identify the tense in which the verb is being used. On the other hand, there are less verb tenses in Hebrew than there are in English.

By way of simple explanation, you have three possible tenses in English. A verb can be used in the past tense ('I sang'), the present ('I am singing') or in a future tense ('I will sing'). As you can see, all of the tenses used in English are related to time.

However, in Hebrew, you have only two tenses, the perfect and imperfect. Furthermore, they are not related to time, having far more to do with the action taking place. The perfect tense describes actions have already been completed, whereas the imperfect tense refers to those actions which have not.

For example, 'qatsarti ets' tells you that 'I cut a tree'. The verb therefore refers to the subject, but also indicates that this is a verb being used in the perfect tense, as the action took place in the past and is therefore completed.

If however the verb was written ('eq-tsor') it would still be first person ('I'). However, in this case, it would more accurately translate as 'I am cutting' (i.e. present tense) or 'I will cut' (i.e. future tense). As the action is still ongoing or has not yet started, this represents an imperfect use of the verb.

Continuing with the same verb, the chart in the following screenshot gives you an indication of the differences between the perfect and imperfect tenses:

Note from this example that when the added letters that differentiate between the various usages are added at the end of the verb, it usually indicates that it is being used in the perfect tense. On the other hand, if the additional letters are added before the verb (and sometimes after as well), this suggests the imperfect tense.

The way the verb is conjugated in this particular example is common for the majority of verbs although there are exceptions. Nevertheless, by learning how the verb is conjugated, you should be able to identify the different verb forms when you are reading.

Another example based on the verb 'dabar' ('to speak') is shown in the following table:

One thing that you need to note when it comes to establishing the tense of a verb is the inclusion of a Vav () as a prefix.

When this happens, it often suggests that and has been added to the front of the word. For example, ('v'ets') means 'and a tree'.

The Vav could also be added as a prefix to a sentence like ('uqartsiy ets') which you might imagine would create 'and I cut a tree'.

However, in this situation, the addition of a Vav actually reverses the tense of the verb being used. Consequently, instead of using the perfect tense to describe an accomplished action, this would become imperfect to produce 'I am cutting a tree' or 'I will cut a tree'.

Unfortunately, this does not happen in every case and there is no hard and fast rule as for when it will. Instead, it is the context of the verb and the sentence that indicates whether the meaning has been reversed from perfect in perfect, or vice versa, or not.

One final thing to note is that when the negative particle 'lo' () appears before the verb, it changes the meaning from positive to negative. In other words, it would switch 'I cut a tree' to 'I did not cut a tree'.

Hebrew Verb Voices And Moods

Verbs have voices and moods.

In our initial study of Hebrew verb is in the previous chapter, it was noted that every Hebrew verb identifies several characteristics, being a person, gender, whether the verb is being used in a singular or plural form, the tense and sometimes the number and/or gender of the object as well.

There are a couple more characteristics that can be seen with Hebrew words as well. These are:

•             The 'voice' of the verb usage. In other words, whether the verb it is being used in a passive, active or reflexive manner.

•             Something that is often described as the 'mood' of the verb, meaning whether it is being used in a simple, intensive or a causative way.

You need to learn to recognize the voice and mood of the verb usage. Let's get started.

As suggested, there are three different voices that are referred to in connection with Hebrew verbs.

When a verb is being used with an active voice, it suggests or imparts the action of the verb. For example, in the last chapter, every verb was used with an active voice, so that the phrase 'Jacob cut' ( - qatsar ya'aqov ) it is a clear indication of the activity taking place for example.

When the verb is being used with the passive voice however, it suggests that the subject of the verb is the recipient or subject of the action taking place. For example, to apply the passive voice to the previous example, (niq'tsar ya'aqov) would suggest that it is Jacob that is being cut.

When the verb usage is reflexive, the suggestion is that the action is taken by the subject of the verb and imparted on the subject as well. For example, the phrase tells you that 'Jacob cut himself'.

As a general observation, the passive voice is often identified by the prefix (nee) when it is used in the perfect tense, whilst the reflexive voice can be recognized by the addition of (heet) in the perfect tense. Verbs using the active voice are most common and should be easily recognized.

The rules for verbs being used in the imperfect tense are however a little more complex. For example, there is little to differentiate between the passive and active voices apart from a change in vowel sounds that will be heard in spoken Hebrew. Obviously, this is not a change that you can easily recognize when reading.

Similarly, when a verb has a reflexive voice in the imperfect tense, the first letter of the reflexive prefix () is dropped. The second letter of the prefix () is then moved so that it is in front of the prefix which identifies the verb subject.

As you'd imagine, adding another two characteristics to Hebrew verbs makes understanding the various conjugations a little more complex. However, there are a couple of simple rules that you can learn which should help you identify what is going on.

•             The vast majority of verbs used in both written and spoken Hebrew are used in the active, simple form (known as 'pa'al'). Consequently, although you will encounter some of the more complex conjugations, it is not likely to happen often enough to make reading overly difficult.

•             In most written materials, common conjugations are used many times over. Hence, once you have recognized the verb the first time, you will encounter it again many times in the same piece. As an example, the verb conjugation (vay-yo-mer - 'and he said') is used over 2000 times in the Hebrew Bible, so you would very quickly get used to seeing this conjugation if it was the Bible you were reading.

In terms of verb 'moods', the most widely used is the simple mood. For example, the verb voices that have already been highlighted in this section are all simple mood.

When the verb is causative and being used with an active voice, it is the verb subject that is the cause of the action described by the verb. If however it is a combination of a causative mood and a passive voice, the action happens to the subject of the verb.

Finally, intensive moods always make the verb action stronger or more intensive. For instance, instead of being 'cut', the tree might be 'slashed' or 'hewn' when the verb is used in an intensive, active manner.

Hebrew Verb Participles

In the previous verb lesson, we identified that Hebrew verbs are used in either the perfect or imperfect tense. The use of a verb participle in Hebrew effectively creates a third verb tense which helps to identify the specific action associated with that verb.

As an example, the sentence (qotser ya'aqov) features the verb qatsar used as a participle. The translation of this would be 'Jacob is cutting' meaning that the verb highlights the action. As a general rule, in this participle form, the verb will be translated in the present tense although you should bear in mind that Hebrew verbs relate to action rather than time.

An alternative usage of the participle is to identify the person or subject who takes the action, rather than the action itself.

For example, when the verb (to feed) is used as a masculine singular participle, it is changed to (ro'eh). This can be used to refer to the action of 'feeding' or the one who is doing the feeding.

When a verb is used as a participle, it identifies the number and gender of the usage, but has no relationship to the person - first, second or third - when it is used.

The Infinite Verb Version

When a verb is being used in the infinitive form, there are two different formats. These are known as the absolute and construct forms.

The purpose of the absolute infinite is to intensify the meaning or level of action in the following verb. For instance, the biblical phrase ('mot tamut') contains an absolute definitive that changes the verb 'mot' (die) to 'you will die'.

On the other hand, the construct form identifies a simple action. This can be seen with an infinitive construct such as which means 'return'. Sometimes, the character for 'to' () is used as a prefix with construct infinitives to create such phrases as (ve-lim-shol - 'and to regulate').

With both absolute and construct infinitives, the subject of the verb can be recognized because of the pronoun that is added to the infinitive as a suffix. For example, the verb (akhal - to eat) has an added pronoun suffixed, so the term (akhal'khem) means 'to eat you' (i.e. 'you eat').

Hebrew Nouns

As it would be in English, a Hebrew noun is a word that describes a person, a place or an object. For instance, you have already been introduced to the Hebrew words for 'king' and tree'.

Every Hebrew noun that you encounter will either be masculine or feminine. As examples, ('iysh') means 'man' which is a masculine noun whereas ('iyshah') means 'woman' and is therefore equally obviously a feminine noun.

It is not always possible to spot the difference between a masculine or feminine noun by the presence or lack of a suffix in every case however. This is because some nouns have roots that are entirely unrelated to anything using the opposite gender.

For example, you have masculine nouns like ('ets' - tree) and feminine nouns ('ru'ahh' - wind) where there is no equivalent in the opposite direction.

Simple nouns are most commonly formed from two or three consonants to which additional policy letters are added as a prefix, suffix or within the body of the word. Consequently, there can be many different nouns formed from the same combination of consonants.

As an example, we have already seen that is written as 'melek' ('king'). The three characters are M-L-K, from which many other words are constructed.

Furthermore, there is sometimes a element of logical linkage between the various different words formed from the same consonant combination.

For instance, a King will reign over his people. Hence, the fact that the word for reign is 'malak' (i.e. it is derived from the same root consonants) is relatively logical. Similarly, the word for Queen is ('mal'kah'), (mal'khut) is 'kingdom' and (melukhah) is 'royal').

As suggested, nouns are formed by adding prefixes, suffixes or additional letters within the body of the word. The ones listed below are the most common letters used in this way so learning to recognize these will help you to identify the root consonants when you are reading Hebrew.

This in turn will help to make the meaning of the word clearer:

Hebrew Noun Constructs

When two nouns are put together as a single term to express a concept or idea, it is known as a noun construct. Bringing two nouns together in this way is a relatively common feature in written Hebrew, one that can be seen from Biblical times onwards.

For example, the concept of the 'messenger of God' is expressed in one noun construct as , with 'of' implied rather than written.

In a situation when the first word of the two that make up the construct is feminine and ends with , it is changed to . As an example, if you were to combine (meaning 'teachings') with to form the phrase 'teachings of God', the final construct would be .

Using Prefixes With Nouns

There are several letters that can be used as a prefix for a noun which will act as a preposition, conjunction or the definite article.

As a simple example, adding (Hey) to the beginning of the word is 'the', so would be 'the tree'. The following are the letters that are most commonly used as a prefix for nouns:

The

And

To, For

In, Width

From

Like

Like

Note however that the prefix for 'like' shown near the end of this list is not all that common, whereas used for 'which' is actually quite rare.

Sometimes, you will see more than one prefix added to a noun. This will sometimes happen in a regular fashion whereas in other examples, the combination is created in a more complex or irregular way.

As an example of a regular prefix combination, if you take plus , you get 'and the', a phrase which is seen in the first words of Genesis 1:2, 'veha'areta', meaning 'and the land'.

Similarly, means 'in a land' (i.e. another regular combination) whereas you would not form 'in the land' as as you might expect.

Instead, because this is an example of an irregular combination of two prefixes, you need to change the construction to form this phrase. To do this, you drop the Hey completely whilst the Sh'va vowel points also disappear. Finally, the Qamats vowel point is moved so that it is added to Bet to form the word which gives you the required meaning.

The way that the prefix is to be combined in both regular and irregular fashion is something that you will have to learn to recognize as there is no common pattern to where and when this happens. However, if in your reading you are on the lookout for the prefixes shown earlier in this section, this is something that you should quickly master.

Hebrew Pronouns

Pronouns that are added to nouns are used in either a possessive or non-possessive manner.

In the following list of possessive pronouns, you will need to change the grammatical constructions slightly to make proper sense of the Hebrew usage in English:

of me (i.e. my, mine)

of us

of you (M,S)a

of you (F,S)

of you (M,P)

of you (F,P)

of him (i.e. 'his')

of her (i.e. 'hers')

of them (M)

of them (F)

For example, in the simplest of the possessive pronouns, 'of me' would be transliterated in English as 'my' or 'mine'. Similarly, 'of him' would be 'his' whereas 'of her' would be 'hers'

Consequently, the Hebrew wordיָדוֹwhich actually means 'hand of him' would be 'his hand' in English.

Below is a list of non-possessive pronouns that you will see with nouns in written Hebrew text:

and     I

and   We

You (M,S)

You (F,S)

You (M,P)

You (F,P)

He

She

They (M)

They (F)

It is not uncommon to see both possessive and non-possessive pronouns combined together in one word. For example, is a combination that gives the word 'in him'.

One final thing to be aware of with pronouns is that when a noun is being used in the plural with a possessive pronoun added, it is necessary to make changes to the construction of the phrase to make sense of what is being read.

As an example, the noun means 'son'. When the possessive pronoun is added, it becomes 'his son'.

It is of course perfectly possible for there to be more than one son, in which case the singular would need to be converted to the plural. This is done by adding as a suffix which now means sons.

So far, everything is following the regular construction path but if you want to create the phrase 'his sons', you have to make a few unexpected changes.

In this scenario, you would still add the expected possessive pronoun but drop the . Hence, the final phrase for 'his sons' would be .

Hebrew Plural Nouns

As suggested in the previous section, masculine nouns become plurals with the addition of as a suffix. Feminine names on the other hand are changed from the singular to the plural by the addition of .

You can see how this works if we consider the masculine noun for 'a tree',. This is converted from the singular to the plural by the addition of the masculine character, meaning that 'trees' is . Similarly, the feminine singular noun for the wind is which would become in the plural.

This general rule is not however universal.

For instance, there are a small number of masculine nouns that will take the feminine character that converts a singular noun to the plural instead of the masculine character. They will nevertheless remain masculine even in this slightly odd plural form.

As an example, ('or' = light) is a masculine noun that is converted to the plural by the addition of the feminine character introduced a couple of paragraphs ago. Consequently, the plural version (i.e. 'lights') is but the noun nevertheless remains masculine.

Another plural noun formation that you need to be aware of is known as the 'dual plural' which is generally used for things that come in pairs like your eyes, your hands, your feet etc.

In this scenario, the plural uses the appropriate masculine or feminine character to convert the single version of the plural but the pronunciation changes.

As an example, if the noun is masculine, the normal pronunciation of the character that converts the singular to the plural ('iym') becomes 'yim'.

Consequently, is 'eyes' which is as you would expect in written form. Nevertheless, be aware that the presence of a 'dual plural' changes the pronunciation although this is not something that you will necessarily be aware of when reading.

If the first noun in the construct is masculine, theםcharacter is dropped when the singular is converted to the plural. As an example, the Biblical phrase 'sons of Jacob', the standard plural noun for 'sons' () is altered so that the phrase is written .

Hebrew Adjectives

As they would be in English, adjectives are words that add additional information or color to a noun. For instance, (good) is a relatively common adjective which you would see in a term like , meaning 'good day'.

Note from this example that the adjective appears after the noun rather than before it. The adjective also follows the gender of the noun being used, so in the previous example, the masculine noun means the adjective form is also masculine.

However, with a feminine noun like ('land'), you would see used to create the phrase ('good land') it in the feminine form.

In addition to managing the gender of an noun, the adjective also matches the number as well.

In other words, in the previous examples, because the noun is singular, the adjective is also used in the same form.

If on the other hand the noun is plural, then the adjective will be the same.

As an example, the word (house) is singular, becoming when used in the plural. Note the addition of which is the character that creates a plural noun. A similar situation applies to the adjective, hence the phrase for 'good houses' would be .

Identifying Hebrew Questions

Identifying written questions in Hebrew is relatively simple as there are several common interrogative words that are used to begin questioning sentences. These are as follows:

Who

What

When

Where

Why

How

Another way that question can be formed is by adding Hey as a prefix to a term or phrase, known in this case as an 'interrogative hey'. Hence, a phrase like can be turned into a question by adding at the beginning, so now you have 'do you know?'.

Adverbs, Prepositions and Conjunctions

There are many common adverbs, prepositions and conjunctions that you will regularly see in written Hebrew. The following are amongst the most common, starting with the most widely used adverbs:

So

Now

Indeed, certainly

Only

Perhaps

But

The following are common conjunctions that you should learn to recognize:

Which, Who, That

Or

Also

Otherwise

Finally, you have regularly used prepositions:

To, Belonging to

If

Between

That, Because, So

From

Until

Again

Upon, Over

There

Words for each of these lists are often used in combination with one another to create new concepts and ideas.

For instance, the following three examples are relatively common as well:

Unless, Except

Because

Since

Conclusion

If you want to learn to read Hebrew or speak the language, you should not make the mistake of believing that it is going to be easy.

Now, don't get the wrong idea - I'm not suggesting that it is difficult to learn.

However, I am suggesting that it is important that you approach your language learning realistically (as it would be if you were learning any other language).

This matters because if you start to learn written Hebrew with unrealistic expectations, the chances are that you will be disappointed with your progress. Disappointment can lead to becoming disheartened which could in turn bring the learning process to a halt.

Don't put yourself in this situation by expecting too much, too soon.

Instead, go at your own pace, learning everything on a step-by-step basis. In other words, make sure that you have mastered the Alephbet first before moving on to the creation of vowels, when to use the sofit version of characters (and what characters have them), and so on.

Next, start to learn the most common verbs, the nouns, adjectives, adverbs and prepositions.

At the same time, make an effort to learn a few new Hebrew words every day, being sure to continue doing so even after your reading skills have reached a reasonable level.

Even at this level, if you focus on continually expanding your vocabulary by reading more challenging materials, you naturally expand your reading ability, meaning that you can tackle even more complex reading materials. Once again, there are plenty of online Hebrew dictionaries, so expanding your vocabulary (for free) is not difficult.

Armed with the information in this book and the resources that you will find by researching online, you have everything you need to start learning to read Hebrew right now.

It's now up to you to start by taking action!

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Table of Contents

Introduction to This New Version

Introduction to Reading Hebrew

Special Bonus Audio

The First Basics

The First Basics

The Hebrew Alephbet

The Letters of the AlephBet

Aleph

Bet (Beyt)

Gimmel

Dalet

Hey

Vav

Zayin

Chet

Tet

Yod

Kaf

Lamed

Mem

Nun

Samekh

Ayin

Pey (Fey)

Tsade (Tsadik)

Qof

Resh

Shin

Tav

The Significance of the Alephbet

The Basics of Hebrew Verbs

The Hebrew Verb Subject

The Hebrew Verb Object

Hebrew Verb Tenses

Hebrew Verb Voices And Moods

Hebrew Verb Participles

The Infinite Verb Version

Hebrew Nouns

Hebrew Noun Constructs

Using Prefixes With Nouns

Hebrew Pronouns

Hebrew Plural Nouns

Hebrew Adjectives

Identifying Hebrew Questions

Adverbs, Prepositions and Conjunctions

Conclusion