17303005 learn to speak hebrew lessons 1 and 2hebrew

Learn to Speak Hebrew

Hebrew Podcasts Lessons 1-2

� [email protected] © Yedwab, 2009. All rights reserved.

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Introduction

Learning a new language requires work and commitment, but the unique dialog format of Hebrew Podcasts makes it easy and fun. You can play each lesson multiple times to internalize the material, and you can repeat each line out loud to practice pronunciation and memorize expressions.

The lessons are packed with tidbits of information about the features of the Hebrew language including idiomatic and colloquial expressions and grammar rules. The lessons also touch on Israeli cultural and geographical topics that you'll find useful especially if you plan to visit Israel.

This electronic book contains the first two lesson in the Hebrew Podcasts Learn to Speak Hebrew series. You can find all the lessons at http://HebrewPodcasts.com/

The audio files for these lessons are available as a free download at http://HebrewPodcasts.com/

The Hebrew Podcasts web site provides additional resources for Hebrew learners by membership. These includes video versions of each lesson that you can watch online or on an iPhone or iPod.

They also include flashcards to practice the vocabulary and expressions in each lesson. You can try the flashcards for lesson 1 at http://hebrewpodcasts.com/cards/flashcards1.php

Hebrew Podcasts

Lesson 1A – Prelude to Lesson 1 Easy Level


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Hello and welcome to Hebrew Podcasts.

If you are just starting to learn Hebrew and find that our lesson 1 goes too fast, then this easy-level lesson is for you. It’s designed to prepare you for lesson 1 by covering the basic vocabulary that you’ll need in that lesson.

Before we begin, I’d like to encourage you to download the read-along lesson guide that goes together with this lesson. You can download it from our web site at http://hebrewpodcasts.com.

And please let us know what you think about our podcast and give us any suggestions that you may have for how we can improve it. You can contact us by e-mail at [email protected] or using the Feedback form on our web site.

I’m Danny and Noa is here to help me.

!נועהשלום

!דני שלום

Let’s begin.

A great way to learn a language is to speak it out loud. So don’t be shy! Repeat after us. Let’s give it a try. I’ll greet Noa Shalom and you repeat after me:

!נועהשלום

Shà-lom No-à ►the clock indicates that we pause here for you to repeat

!נועהשלום

Very good!

Now let’s see how to introduce ourselves. Now suppose that I wish to say “I’m Danny”. First, let’s hear how to say “I”.

Let’s repeat after Noa

אני

À-ni אני

Excellent!

Now I’m ready to say “I’m Danny”

אני דני

À-ni Dà-ni אני דני

Noa, now it’s your turn

אני נועה

À-ni No-à אני נועה

Well done!

Transcription

We’ll use transcription in our lesson guides to help you read Hebrew. You should read the transcription as if it was English. We’ll use hyphens to help the pronunciation. We’ll use é and à to better approximate the Hebrew sounds. Are you familiar with the expression déjà vu, or the word résumé? If so, then you should pronounce these two accents accordingly. Otherwise, pronounce é like the e in let and pronounce à like the a in bark.

Finally we’ll use h (the letter h with an underscore) to denote the sound of the letter Het (ח). You should refer to lesson 2 to learn more about this sound.

You’ll see transcription in green. Here are a couple of examples:

Shà-lom שלום

À-ni אני

Hebrew Podcasts



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Now let’s use the second person. I’ll say “You’re Noa”

את נועה

Àt No-à את נועה

means you. This is the feminine form. Let’s hear the masculine אתform. Noa will say “You’re Danny”

אתה דני

À-tà Dà-ni אתה דני

.mean you when speaking to a male אתה

Next, let’s learn how to say thank you. Repeat after Noa9

תודה

To-dà תודה

Wonderful!

Okay, Noa, let’s say some really simple sentences. To do that, let’s learn a few nouns and a few verbs.

Let’s start with the nouns. Repeat after Noa, a book is

ספר

Sé-fér ספר

Hebrew is

עברית

Iv-rit עברית

A teacher is

מורה

Mo-ré מורה

And a house or a home is

בית

Bà-yit בית

Great!

Now for the verbs. The following verbs are all in the present tense. We say these verbs differently depending on the gender of their subject. In the following examples, Noa will speak about me, so we’ll hear the masculine form. Repeat after Noa, “You can”

יכול תהא

À-tà yà-hol יכול תהא

Postcard from Israel

Timna Valley Park is a National Park in the Negev desert near Eilat. The Park is noted for its natural sandstone formations. It includes what are believed to be the oldest Copper mines in the world, dating back to at least 4000 BC and worked almost continuously by many civilizations including the Egyptians and Romans.


Soreq Cave is an active cave with a uniquely dense concentration of stalactites. The cave was discovered in 1968 near Bet Shemesh. It is 83 meters long, 60 meters wide and 15 meters high. Some of the stalactites have been dated as 300,000 years old.

Hebrew Podcasts



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You go

אתה הולך

À-tà ho-léh אתה הולך

You love

אתה אוהב

À-tà o-hév אתה אוהב

You play

אתה משחק

À-tà mé-sà-hék אתה משחק

You learn or you study

אתה לומד

À-tà lo-méd אתה לומד

Outstanding!

Okay, we’re ready for a simple sentence. How would we say “Danny is learning Hebrew”?

דני לומד עברית

Dà-ni lo-méd iv-rit דני לומד עברית

Fantastic!

And “Danny loves Hebrew”?

דני אוהב עברית

Dà-ni o-hév iv-rit דני אוהב עברית

Good job!

For the next two sentences we need a preposition. We want to use the words “to the”, in Hebrew we simply add ַל in front of the word. So “to the house” is ַביתל , and “to the city” is ַעירל .

So, Noa, how do we say “Danny is going to the house”?

דני הולך לבית

Dà-ni ho-léh là-bà-it דני הולך לבית

Bravo!

And “Danny is going to the city”, or “Danny is going to town”?

דני הולך לעיר

Dà-ni ho-léh là-ir דני הולך לעיר

Nice!


United Buddy Bears in Jerusalem

In 2007, the “United Buddy Bears“ stood hand in hand in Cairo along the River Nile, for the first time promoting their international unifying message in an Arab country. In summer, they arrived in Jerusalem, where the municipality facilitated the exhibition on Safra Square right in front of the town hall and in close proximity to the Old City. The Buddy Bears advocate living together in peace and harmony.

Hebrew Podcasts



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Now, a couple of adjectives. Those are words that describe a noun. To say “new”, it’s

חדש

Hà-dàsh חדש

And to say “nice”, it’s

נחמד

Néh-màd נחמד

Awesome!

So now let’s add some words together. Noa, how about “a new house”

בית חדש

Bà-yit hà-dàsh בית חדש

“A new teacher”

מורה חדש

Mo-ré hà-dàsh מורה חדש

“A new book”

ספר חדש

Sé-fér hà-dàsh ספר חדש

“A nice teacher”

מורה נחמד

Mo-ré néh-màd מורה נחמד

And “a nice house”

בית נחמד

Bà-yit néh-màd בית נחמד

That’s grand!

Next, let’s learn how to ask a question. A simple question word that means what is מה

So I’ll call Noa and she’ll respond with what? Noa?

?מה

Mà? ?מה

We already know how to say new, so to ask what’s new, we say

?חדש מה

Mà hà-dàsh? ?חדש מה

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Good!

Now let’s learn to ask “How are you?”

?לומךש מה

Mà shlom-hà? ?שלומך מה

?שלומך מה that's “how are you”? And to answer, let’s learn the word for “good”

טוב

Tov טוב

And we already know how to say thank you. So let’s practice

?שלומך מה

Mà shlom-hà? ?שלומך מה

And I answer

!טוב תודה

Tov to-dà! !טוב תודה

That’s good, thank you!

You’re doing really well. Learning a language is all about practice, repetition, and recitation. It helps consolidate all these new words in the brain.

At this point it’s a good time to mention that in Hebrew nouns have a gender and other parts of the sentence such as verbs and adjectives also change form to agree with the gender of the subject.

So far we’ve heard a lot of the masculine form because Noa was talking about me or to me. Now let’s go back and change some of our examples to their feminine form by having Noa speak of herself.

Noa, how would you say that you love Hebrew?

אני אוהבת עברית

À-ni o-hé-vét iv-rit אני אוהבת עברית

We see אוהב turns into אוהבת.

Let’s see another example. How do you say “a new city”?

עיר חדשה

Ir hà-dà-shà עיר חדשה

We see חדש turns into חדשה. That’s because the word for city, עיר, is a feminine noun.

This concept of all nouns having gender feels very strange to English speakers and makes learning Hebrew harder. But don’t be discouraged. You’ll get the hang of it, I promise.

Hebrew Podcasts



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Some nouns, like animals or professions have two forms, one for male and one for female. There are examples of that in English too, like an actor and an actress and a rooster and a hen.

In our lesson, we learned how to say a teacher, מורה. Well, that was the word for a male teacher. For a female teacher the word is

מורה

Mo-rà מורה

And to say “new teacher” speaking of a female teacher

מורה חדשה

Mo-rà hà-dà-shà מורה חדשה

And to say “nice teacher” speaking of a female teacher

נחמדה מורה

Mo-rà néh-mà-dà מורה נחמדה

Very good!

Let’s look at another example. I learn Hebrew, when spoken by a woman, it’s

אני לומדת עברית

À-ni lo-mé-dét iv-rit אני לומדת עברית

Excellent!

Noa, I hope you’re not tired yet because we have some more words to learn so we can make some more sentences. Let’s learn how to say he and she.

Let’s repeat after Noa, “he is learning Hebrew”

לומד עברית הוא

Hoo lo-méd iv-rit לומד עברית הוא

And “she is learning Hebrew”

לומדת עברית היא

Hee lo-mé-dét iv-rit דת עבריתלומ היא

Well done!

Now let’s see a couple of verbs in the infinitive. The infinitive is the form of the verb that describes the action: to tell and to sing. Let’s hear these two verbs in the infinitive. To tell is

לספר

Lé-sà-pér לספר

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And to sing is

ירלש

Là-shir לשיר

Wonderful!

Now let’s see two examples with these two verbs. To say “She can tell” or “she is able to tell” is

היא יכולה לספר

Hee yé-ho-là lé-sà-pér היא יכולה לספר

Fantastic!

Noa, how would you say “she can sing”?

היא יכולה לשיר

Hee yé-ho-là là-shir היא יכולה לשיר

Good job!

The word for a song is שיר. In plural, the word for songs is יםשיר . So to say “she can sing songs”, we would say

היא יכולה לשיר שירים

Hee yé-ho-là là-shir shi-rim היא יכולה לשיר שירים

Nice!

Noa, how do you say “with us”?

איתנו

Ee-tà-noo איתנו

So “she is learning with us” or “she is studying with us” would be

היא לומדת איתנו

Hee lo-mé-dét ee-tà-noo היא לומדת איתנו

Very good!

Let’s see a variation. “She is coming with us”

היא באה איתנו

Hee bà-à i-tà-noo יא באה איתנוה

that's the verb for coming. It’s the feminine form. To hear the באהmasculine form, which is בא, let’s see how to say “He is coming with us”

הוא בא איתנו

Hoo bà i-tà-noo הוא בא איתנו

Super!

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That’s it for today. Please remember that learning to speak a new language requires practice. You need to speak out loud and repeatedly. I hope that this lesson will make lesson 1 easier to learn and more enjoyable.

Now you’re ready for lesson 1 where we’ll meet Rina. She’ll tell us about her school and about her teacher. We’ll practice some greetings and learn some new words.

Until then

!שלום ולהתראות

Oh, yes, להתראות, that’s goodbye.


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Lesson 1A – Exercise

Match each picture with the correct Hebrew word. Draw a line between the word and the picture.

מורה

ספר

בית

עיר

לשיר

חדש

לומדת

מה

הולכת

mo-rà

sé-fér

bà-yit

eer

là-shir

hà-dàsh

lo-mé-dét

mà

ho-lé-hét

© Both the podcast and this accompanying lesson guide are copyrighted material. All rights reserved. You may not distribute

these materials without permission from the copyright owner.

The answers to this exercise are available online at http://www.hebrewpodcasts.com/pdf/Answers_001A.pdf

Hebrew Podcasts

Lesson 1 – Introduction Beginner Level


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Hello and welcome to Hebrew Podcasts. Today’s podcast is our first lesson. In this lesson you’ll learn spoken Hebrew by listening to a dialog and a discussion of vocabulary, grammar, and idioms.

With each podcast there’s a lesson guide where you can read the transcript, see the full translation, get additional information, and do a few exercises to reinforce the lesson. You can download the lesson guide from our web site at http://hebrewpodcasts.com.

In this first beginner-level lesson we’ll meet Rina. She’ll help us practice some greetings and learn some new words.

Let’s begin.

Hello Rina! שלום רינה!

Shà-lom Ri-nà! Hello Danny. How are you? מה שלומך. שלום דני?

Shà-lom Dà-ni. Mà shlom-hà? Great, thank you. How are you? מה שלומך. תודה, נהדר?

Né-hé-dàr, to-dà. Mà shlo-méh? All right. בסדר גמור.

Bé-sé-dér gà-moor.

I greeted Rina by saying וםשל . This is the most common greeting in Hebrew and it can mean either hello or goodbye.


Shà-lom Ri-nà!

The word, שלום, can also mean peace or well being. We see it used next when Rina asks me “How are you?”

How are you? מה שלומך?

Mà shlom-hà?

In Hebrew, Tשלומ is a single-word combination of the words: שלT שלום . This is what we say to a male person. Uשלומ is a

combination of the words: Uשלום של, which is what we say to a female person.

Let’s practice:

Hello Rina. How are you? שלום רינה .Aמה שלומ?

Shà-lom Ri-nà. Mà shlo-méh? Hello Danny. How are you? שלום דני .Bמה שלומ?

Shà-lom Dà-ni. Mà shlom-hà?

I answered you, Rina, with תודה, נהדר . Great, thank you.

Rina, if I wanted to say ‘thank you very much!’ I would say:

To-dà rà-bà תודה רבה!

When I asked you how you are, Rina, you said:

Bé-sé-dér gà-moor בסדר גמור

That means all right. emphasizes בסדר גמור ,means all right בסדרthat it’s completely all right.

Let’s listen to this short dialog again. This time we’ll pause after each line so that you can practice by repeating out loud:

Transcription

We’ll use transcription in our lesson guides to help you read new Hebrew words. You should read the transcription as if it was English. We’ll use hyphens to help the pronunciation. We’ll use é and à to better approximate the Hebrew sounds. You should pronounce those as you would in French. Are you familiar with the expression déjà vu, or the word résumé? If so, then you should pronounce these two accents accordingly. Otherwise, pronounce é like the e in let and pronounce à like the a in bark or the u in up.

Finally we’ll use h (the letter h with an underscore) to denote the sound of the letter Het (ח) or the loose version of the letter Kaf (כ). You should refer to lesson 2 to hear this sound.

You’ll see transcription in green. Here are a couple of examples:

Shà-lom שלום

Bé-sé-dér gà-moor בסדר גמור

Right-to-left

Hebrew is written right-to-left, line by line going down the page.

In our English text, if we include some Hebrew words, then read the text as you would read any English text, but when you get to the Hebrew words, then read them from right to the left. For example, follow the arrows:

1 2 3

4

Rina said בסדר גמור which means “all right”.

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Bé-sé-dér gà-moor.

Okay, now suppose I wanted to introduce myself to you Rina. I would say:

Hello, I’m Danny. אני דני, שלום.

Shà-lom, à-ni dà-ni.

This means, hello, I’m Danny. Rina, you would then respond with:

Pleased to meet you! I’m Rina. אני רינה! נעים מאוד.

Nà-im mé-od! à-ni Ri-nà.

נעים מאוד is an expression that means ‘Pleased to meet you!’. Literally, it means ‘very pleasant’. That’s a very useful expression.

Pleased to meet you! נעים מאוד!

Nà-im mé-od!

Next, I’m going to ask Rina if she goes to school.

Rina, do you go to school? בית ספראת הולכת ל, רינה?

Ri-nà, àt ho-lé-hét lé-béit sé-fér?

In Hebrew, a question is often formed simply by the way we emphasize and without changing word order. For example, the statement: you go, is הולכת את and when we turn it into a question: do you go? It simply becomes הולכתאת?

Finally, בית ספר, school, is composed of two words, בית ספר.

.literally means book house בית ספר means a book, and ספר

בית ספרל means to school.

Rina, let’s listen to your answer

Yes. I go to the school Kidmah. קידמה אני הולכת לבית הספר. כן.

Kén, à-ni ho-lé-hét lé-béit hà-sé-fér kid-mà.

You said yes, you go to the school named Kidmah.

In my question, we heard לבית ספר, to school, but when Rina answered, we heard ספרהלבית , to the school.

that’s a verb that means go. In Hebrew, verb forms change ,הולכתbased on the gender and plurality of the subject. In our case, the subject is Rina.

.is therefore the feminine form of the verb to go הולכת

Let’s consider some variations.

How are you...?

How are you? How do you do?

Bמה שלומ?

Mà shlom-hà? How are you? What’s up?

?מה נשמע

Mà nish-mà?

How are you feeling? מרגשאיך ה?

Éyh hà-màr-gàsh?

What’s new? מה חדש?

Mà hà-dàsh?

Nikkud דMNִנ

Hebrew vowel marks, or nikkud, are useful for beginner readers. They tell you how to pronounce and let you distinguish between words that are otherwise spelled the same. For example, without nikkud, the word שלומך is written identically in its masculine ְשQלBמ and feminine ְשQמֶ לA forms.

Experienced readers, however, don’t rely on nikkud. They read whole words rather than phonetically and they can resolve ambiguity from the context. Modern Hebrew books, newspapers and web sites do not provide nikkud.

In our lessons guides we will have Hebrew text typed without nikkud.

You can read more about nikkud on Wikipedia.

Hebrew Podcasts



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If Avi, a man, wanted to say ‘I go to school’, he would say...

הולך לבית הספראני

À-ni ho-léh lé-béit hà-sé-fér

Rina, if you and Noa, two girls, wanted to say ‘we go to the city’, you would say...

חנו הולכות לעיראנ

À-nàh-noo hol-hot là-ir

Let’s hear my question and Rina’s answer again.

Rina, do you go to school? בית ספראת הולכת ל, רינה?

Ri-nà, àt ho-lé-hét lé-béit sé-fér? Yes. I go to the school Kidmah. קידמה אני הולכת לבית הספר. כן.

Kén, à-ni ho-lé-hét lé-béit hà-sé-fér kid-mà.

So, Rina, please tell us about your Hebrew Teacher, המורה לעברית.

I love the Hebrew teacher. אני אוהבת את המורה לעברית.À-ni o-hé-vét ét hà-mo-rà lé-iv-rit.

Rina loves her Hebrew teacher. We hear אוהבת, which is the feminine form of the verb to love.

means of Hebrew – the teacher of לעברית .is Hebrew עבריתHebrew.

Let’s try some variations

Rina, if you were speaking about a male English teacher, then you would say...

The English Teacher המורה לאנגלית

Hà-mo-ré lé-àn-glit

And to speak about both teachers ‘my teachers’, you would say...

my teachers המורים שלי

Hà-mo-rim shé-li

Okay, Rina, tell us more about your Hebrew teacher:

She is a new teacher היא מורה חדשהHee mo-rà hà-dà-shà

from Tel-Aviv. מתל אביב.mi-tél à-viv.

She is very nice היא נחמדה מאודHee néh-mà-dà mé-od

and she plays with us והיא משחקת איתנו vé-hee mé-sà-hé-két ee-tà-noo

and sings songs with us. ושרה איתנו שירים.vé-shà-rà ee-tà-noo shi-rim.

Okay, we heard quite a bit here. Let’s examine what we heard:

Rina, you said that your Hebrew teacher is new

Yes. She is a new teacher. היא מורה חדשה. כן.

Kén. Hee mo-rà hà-dà-shà.

Present Tense

to go ללכת

Là-lé-hét

I/you/he go/goes (male singular)

הוא /אתה/אני הולך

À-ni/À-tà/Hoo ho-léh

I/you/she go/goes (female singular)

היא /את/אני תכהול

À-ni/Àt/Hee ho-lé-hét

we/you/they go (male plural)

הם /אתם/אנחנויםהולכ

À-nàh-noo/À-tém/Hém hol-him

we/you/they go (female plural)

הן/אתן/אנחנו ותהולכ

À-nàh-noo/À-tén/Hén hol-hot

לתל אביב הולכיםדני ורינה

Dà-ni vé-ri-nà hol-him lé-tél à-viv

Danny and Rina go to Tel Aviv (Danny and Rina are going to Tel Aviv)

Present Tense

to love לאהוב

Lé-é-hov

I/you/he love/loves (male singular)

הוא /אתה/אני אוהב

À-ni/À-tà/Hoo o-hév

I/you/she love/loves (female singular)

היא /את/אני תאוהב

À-ni/Àt/Hee o-hé-vét

we/you/they love (male plural)

הם /אתם/אנחנויםאוהב

À-nàh-noo/À-tém/Hém o-hà-vim

we/you/they love (female plural)

הן/אתן/אנחנו ותאוהב

À-nàh-noo/À-tén/Hén o-hà-vot

לשיר אוהבדני

Dà-ni o-hév là-shir

Danny loves to sing

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If .חדש is the feminine singular form of the Hebrew adjective חדשהyou were talking about your teachers—in plural—you would say...

New teachers מורים חדשים

Mo-rim hà-dà-shim

Rina’s teacher is from Tel-Aviv. Let’s listen to that again in the dialog:

She is a new teacher from Tel-Aviv. היא מורה חדשה מתל אביב.

Hee mo-rà hà-dà-shà mi-tél à-viv.

Hebrew uses prefixes like ל in עבריתל , or מ in אביב תלמ . Those prefixes are the prepositions of, and from, respectively.

Next Rina told us that her teacher is very nice. She is very nice is

She is very nice היא נחמדה מאוד

Hee néh-mà-dà mé-od

She is very nice and she plays with us. Let’s listen to how Rina said that:

היא משחקת איתנו היא נחמדה מאוד ו

Hee néh-mà-dà mé-od vé-hee mé-sà-hé-két ee-tà-noo

Let’s hear that again

היא נחמדה מאוד והיא משחקת איתנו

Hee néh-mà-dà mé-od vé-hee mé-sà-hé-két ee-tà-noo

Rina’s new teacher also sings with the kids. So Rina,

Do you like to sing? והבת לשיראת א?

Àt o-hé-vét là-shir? Yes, it’s nice. זה נחמד, כן .

Kén. Zé néh-màd. I’m learning to sing אני לומדת לשיר

À-ni lo-mé-dét là-shir Hanukkah songs. שירים של חנוכה .

shi-rim shél hà-noo-kà. Like for example כמו למשל

Kmo lé-mà-shàl “Ma'oz Tzur Y'shu'ati9” "מעוז צור ישועתי"...

“mà-oz tsoor yé-shoo-à-ti…”

To sing, לשיר, is nice, זה נחמד.

So Rina, what song are you learning now for Hanukkah?

I’m learning to sing אני לומדת לשיר

À-ni lo-mé-dét là-shir “Ma'oz Tzur Y'shu'ati9” "מעוז צור ישועתי"...


that’s another verb in its feminine singular present tense, just ,לומדתlike הולכת and משחקת.

Before we conclude our lesson, let’s listen again to the entire dialog. We’ll pause after each line for you to repeat it out loud.

Present Tense

to play לשחק

Lé-sà-hék

I/you/he play/plays (male singular)

הוא /אתה/אני משחק

À-ni/À-tà/Hoo mé-sà-hék

I/you/she play/plays (female singular)

היא /את/אני תמשחק

À-ni/Àt/Hee mé-sà-hé-két

we/you/they play (male plural)

הם /אתם/אנחנויםמשחק

À-nàh-noo/À-tém/Hém mé-sàh-kim

we/you/they play (female plural)

הן/אתן/אנחנו ותמשחק

À-nàh-noo/À-tén/Hén mé-sàh-kot

בבית הספר משחקותילדות

Hà-yé-là-dot mé-sàh-kot bé-béit hà-sé-fér

The girls play at school

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Bé-sé-dér gà-moor. Rina, do you go to school? בית ספראת הולכת ל, רינה?

Ri-nà, àt ho-lé-hét lé-béit sé-fér? Yes. I go אני הולכת . כן

Kén, à-ni ho-lé-hét to the school Kidmah. קידמה לבית הספר.

lé-béit hà-sé-fér kid-mà. I love אני אוהבת

À-ni o-hé-vét the Hebrew teacher. את המורה לעברית.

ét hà-mo-rà lé-iv-rit. She is a new teacher היא מורה חדשה

Hee mo-rà hà-dà-shà from Tel-Aviv. מתל אביב.

mi-tél à-viv. She is very nice היא נחמדה מאוד

Hee néh-mà-dà mé-od and she plays with us והיא משחקת איתנו

vé-hee mé-sà-hé-két ee-tà-noo and sings with us. ושרה איתנו שירים.

vé-shà-rà ee-tà-noo shi-rim. Do you like to sing? את אוהבת לשיר?

Àt o-hé-vét là-shir? Yes, it’s nice.” זה נחמד, כן .

Kén. Zé néh-màd. I’m learning to sing אני לומדת לשיר

À-ni lo-mé-dét là-shir Hanukkah songs. וכהשירים של חנ .

shi-rim shél hà-noo-kà. Like for example כמו למשל

Kmo lé-mà-shàl “Ma'oz Tzur Y'shu'ati9” "מעוז צור ישועתי"...


That’s it for today. In our next lesson we’ll meet Noa and we’ll review the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet.

Until then


Hanukkah חנוכה

Hanukkah, the Festival of Lights, celebrates the re-kindling of the Temple menorah at the time of the Maccabee rebellion. It is an eight-day Jewish holiday beginning on the 25th day of the month of Kislev, which may fall anytime from late November to late December.

Adjective

Nice נחמד

Néh-màd

I am/you are/he is nice (m. singular)

הוא /אתה/אני נחמד

À-ni/À-tà/Hoo néh-màd

I am/you are/she is nice (f. singular)

היא /את/אני הנחמד

À-ni/Àt/Hee néh-mà-dà

we are/you are/they are nice (m. plural)

הם/אתם/אנחנו יםנחמד

À-nàh-noo/À-tém/Hém néh-mà-dim

we are/you are/they are nice (f. plural)

הן/אתן/אנחנו ותנחמד

À-nàh-noo/À-tén/Hén néh-mà-dot

נחמדיםמורים

Mo-rim néh-mà-dim

Nice teachers

ותנחמדמורות

Mo-rot néh-mà-dot

Nice teachers (referring to a group of all-female teachers)

Hanukkah חנוכה

Hanukkah, the Festival of Lights, celebrates the re-kindling of the Temple menorah at the time of the Maccabee rebellion. It is an eight-day Jewish holiday beginning on the 25th day of the month of Kislev, which may fall anytime from late November to late December.

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Lesson 1 – Exercises

Match each sentence with its Hebrew translation. Then draw a line to connect them.

I am going to school אני אוהבת את המורהÀ-ni o-hé-vét ét hà-mo-rà

I love the teacher אני לומדת לשירÀ-ni lo-mé-dét là-shir

The teacher is nice אני הולכת לבית ספרÀ-ni ho-lé-hét lé-béit sé-fér

I am learning to sing המורה משחקת איתנוHà-mo-rà mé-sà-hé-két ee-tà-noo

The teacher plays with us המורה נחמדהHà-mo-rà néh-mà-dà

Select the correct form of the verb and write it in the space. Pay attention to gender and plurality.

1. Ri-nà __________ lé-béit sé-fér. 1 . ספרלבית ________ רינה.

Hol-him הולכים) א

Ho-léh הולך) ב

Ho-lé-hét הולכת) ג

2. Hoo __________ ét hà-mo-rà. 2 . את המורה________ הוא.

O-hév אוהב) א

O-hà-vim אוהבים) ב

O-hà-vot אוהבות) ג

3. Hà-mo-rim __________. 3 . המורים________.

Néh-màd נחמד) א

Néh-mà-dim נחמדים) ב

Néh-mà-dà נחמדה) ג

4. A-nàh-noo __________. 4 . אנחנו________.

Mé-sà-hé-két משחקת) א

Mé-sà-hék משחק) ב

Mé-sàh-kim משחקים) ג

5. Hém __________ shi-rim shél hà-noo-kà. 5 . שירים של חנוכה ________הם.

Là-màd למד) א

Lom-dim לומדים) ב

Lo-mé-dét לומדת) ג



The answers to this exercise are available online at http://www.hebrewpodcasts.com/pdf/Answers_001.pdf

Hebrew Podcasts

Lesson 2 – Alphabet Beginner Level


17

Hello, and welcome to Lesson 2 of Hebrew Podcasts.

In this beginner-level lesson we’ll review the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet. We’ll say the name of each letter and hear a word or two that begin with that letter. We’ll then discuss pronunciation.

Here to help us is Noa.

Hello Noa. נועהשלום.

Shà-lom no-à Hello. שלום!

Noa, let’s begin with the first letter of the alphabet...

אלף Alef (À-léf)א

This letter, אלף, is one of a few letters in Hebrew that can serve as either a consonant or a vowel. Hebrew uses accents called Nikkud rather than vowel letters to indicate the sound. There are five basic sounds in Hebrew: ַא (À), ֵא (É), ִא (EE), ֹ .(OO) אֻ and ,(O) א

We should mention that in modern Hebrew writing, the Nikkud is simply omitted. You’ll need to read whole words and remember how to pronounce them.

So אלף is mostly used as a consonant. Let’s see an example...

A lion Àr-yé אריה

That’s a lion – אריה. The ַא sound comes from the throat. It sounds like the u in up, but a bit more from the throat.

Noa, what’s the second letter in Hebrew?

בית Bet (Bét)ב

The letter בית has an interesting quality. It has two possible sounds. The first is a stressed sound that’s similar to the letter B, and the second is a loose sound similar to the letter V. Let’s see an example of the former...

A duck Bàr-vàz ברווז

That’s a duck – ברווז. We hear the B sound in רווזב . For an example of the V sound of בית you may remember that in our previous lesson we learned the word תבאוה , which means ‘loves’. You can here the V sound in תבאוה .

גימל Gimel (Gi-mél)ג

The letter גימל is pronounced like G in go. Let’s see an example...

A camel Gà-màl גמל

A camel is גמל. This letter also has an interesting feature. When there’s an apostrophe on the letter גימל, it’s pronounced like G in George. Old Hebrew doesn’t have this sound. In modern Hebrew we use an apostrophe on the letter גימל to make this sound. This is useful for spelling words borrowed from other languages.

The Hebrew Alphabet

Hebrew letters look quite different than English, some of their sounds are not found in English, and they are written from right to left, nevertheless, the two alphabets are not as different as it first appears.

For starters, even the word alphabet is similar to the Hebrew אלפבית. Alphabet originates from the first two letters in Hebrew, אלף and בית, as well as the Greek alpha and beta.

Consider the following 12 consonants. They are in the same order in Hebrew as their equivalent sounding letters in English.

ת ש ר ק פ נ מ ל כ ד ב א

A B D K L M N P Q R S T

Transcription

We’ll use transcription in our lesson guides to help you read new Hebrew words. You should read the transcription as if it was English. We’ll use hyphens to help the pronunciation. We’ll use é and à to better approximate the Hebrew sounds. You should pronounce those as you would in French. Are you familiar with the expression déjà vu, or the word résumé? If so, then you should pronounce these two accents accordingly. Otherwise, pronounce é like the e in let and pronounce à like the a in bark or the u in up.

Finally we’ll use h (the letter h with an underscore) to denote the sound of the letter Het (ח) or the loose version of the letter Kaf (כ). You should refer to lesson 2 to hear this sound.

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דלת Dalet (Dà-lét)ד

The letter דלת sounds like the letter D. Let’s see an example. Since we’re using animals as examples, the word for a bear is...

A bear Dov דוב

Okay, moving on9

הא He (Héy)ה

The letter הא sounds like H in English. At the end of a word, the letter הא can be silent. Like הא ,אלף can also function as a vowel, often at the end of a word. For example, the second הא in the word

האהב , which means love, serves as a vowel, and we don’t hear any H sound.

Noa, what animal begins with הא?

A hippo Hi-po-po-tàm היפופוטם

.as you probably guessed means a hippo היפופוטם

The letter הא has an important use. It’s used for the definite article. It has a name in Hebrew. It’s called הא הידיעה. It is not a separate word like ‘the’. Instead it’s attached as a prefix to the word that follows. Let’s look at a few examples:

.דובהו, גמלה, ברווזה, אריהה

Hà-àr-yé, hà-bàr-vàz, hà-gà-màl, vé-hà-dov

This means the lion, the duck, the camel, and the bear, respectively.

Next, we come to the sixth letter which is...

וו Vav (Vàv)ו

is often used as a vowel. It can sound like O. For example, in the ווword אוהבת. It can also sound like the double O in book. For example, in the word גמור that we heard in our previous lesson when Rina said בסדר גמור.

,can also be used as a consonant and sound like the letter V. Noa ווlet’s hear an example of a word like that. How do you say a virus?

A virus Vi-roos וירוס

means a virus. This word is obviously borrowed from another וירוסlanguage. Hebrew is an ancient language that has been revived around the end of the nineteenth century. Therefore, words like virus, atom, and telephone were brought into Hebrew from other languages.

The letter וו has another function. Because Hebrew does not have a letter that sounds like W, it uses two consecutive וו to make this sound. For example the word וולבי which means a wallaby. This usage is typically for words that were borrowed from another language.

Terminal Letters

אותיות סופיות

O-ti-yot so-fi-yot

There are five Hebrew letters that are written differently when they are at the end of a word. These are:

ךשלומ ף סופיתכ Shlom-hà ך Kàf so-fit

םשלו ם סופיתמ Shà-lom Mém so-fit ם

ןמצוי ון סופיתנ Mé-tsoo-yàn Noon so-fit ן

ףינשו א סופיתפ Yàn-shoof Pé so-fit ף

ץע די סופיתצ Éts Tsà-di so-fit ץ

.means a tree or wood עץ

Letters as Numbers

Hebrew letters can also be used as numbers, with א being 1, ב being 2, and ג being 3. For example, יום ג' means Tuesday, which is the third day of the week. יום ו' is Friday. (Saturday however is special, it’s שבתום י .)

The following table shows the value of each letter. Numbers are written by stringing letters so that their values add up to the number. ט ח ז ו ה ד ג ב א

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 צ פ ע ס נ מ ל כ י

10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 ת ש ר ק

100 200 300 400

For example, ג"ל is 33.

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Okay Noa, what’s next?

ןזי Zayin (Zà-yin)ז

The letter זין sounds like Z. Now, how about an example?

A fly Z-voov זבוב

A fly is זבוב. So זין sounds like Z, except when there’s an apostrophe on the letter זין. In that case, it is pronounced like the letter J in French. For example in the French name ורז'ז' .

Noa, let’s spell the word זבוב.

.זבוב. בית, וו, בית, זין

Zà-yin, Bét, vàv, bét. z-voov.

Okay, let’s go on.

חית Het (Hét)ח

Now that’s a hard one to pronounce. Let’s hear that again...

Het Hét חית

really doesn’t have an equivalent sound in English. It sounds חיתsimilar to J in Spanish like in the name José. חית is pronounced from the throat, like the sound made when you’re clearing your throat.

Okay Noa, let’s do a couple of examples with חית.

A pig Hà-zir חזיר

That means a pig – חזיר. And...

A donkey Hà-mor חמור

A donkey is חמור. This word, חמור, is also used for name calling, meaning an idiot, and it’s a rather mild expletive.

Let’s go on...

טית Tet (Tét)ט

The letter טית sounds like the letter T. For example9

A tuna Too-nà טונה

.טונה mean tuna as in tuna fish. Noa, let’s spell טונה

.טונה. הא, נון, וו, טית

Tét, vàv, noon, héy. Too-nà

Okay Noa, what’s the next letter?

יוד Yud (Yood)י

When used as a consonant, יוד sounds like the letter Y. When used as a vowel, יוד sounds like I in pig. Let’s see an example of יוד as a consonant.

Examples

דוב חום

Dov hoom

Brown bear

חזירוהחמור ה

Hà-hà-mor vé-hà-hà-zir

The donkey and the pig

ונהדג ט

Dàg too-nà

Tuna fish

ינשוף עצים

Yàn-shoof éts-im

Long-eared owl (literally trees owl)

Stressed and Loose

There are six letters in Hebrew that can be “stressed”, but in modern Hebrew you can only hear the difference with three of these letters: פא ,כף, בית.

When a word begins with one of these letters, then the letter is always stressed.

When a word ends with one of these letters, then the letter is never stressed.

Hebrew Dictionary Lookup

When you look up Hebrew words in the dictionary, remember to strip any prefixes.

Examples:

Instead of Look up

ספרה (the book) ספר (book) אניו (and me) אני (me) באהש (that came) באה (came)

עירל (to the city) עיר (city)

Hebrew Podcasts



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An owl Yàn-shoof ינשוף

An owl is ינשוף. Another word that begins with יוד is לדי which means a child. Next we come to another interesting letter...

כף Kaf (Kàf)כ

Like we saw before with the letter בית, the letter כף has also two possible sounds. A stressed sound similar to K—for example, כלב, a dog—and a loose sound similar to the Hebrew letter חית. In our previous lesson we saw an example of the soft sounding כף in the word כולהי .

Another interesting feature of the letter כף is that it is written differently at the end of a word. It’s called סופית כף .

Let’s see a couple of examples of animals that begin with כף. The first, I just mentioned:

A dog Ké-lév כלב

that’s a dog. And another example9 – כלב

A shark Kà-rish כריש

That’s a shark – כריש.

Ready for the next letter?

למד Lamed (Là-méd)ל

?למד sounds like the letter L. Any animal beginning with למד

A lizard Lé-tà-à לטאה

A lizard is לטאה. Noa, let’s spell לטאה.

.לטאה. הא, אלף, טית, למד

Là-méd, Tét, à-léf, héy. Lé-tà-à.

Let’s continue.

מם Mem (Mém)מ

?sounds like the letter M. And how do you say fossil in Hebrew מם

A fossil Mé-oo-bàn מאובן

A fossil is מאובן. The word is derived from אבן, a word that means rock, because מאובן describes something that turned into a rock.

The letter מם turns into סופית מם when it’s at the end of a word.

The next letter is...

נון Nun (Noon)נ

סופית כף sounds like the letter N. Like נון and סופית מם at the נון ,end of a word is סופית נון .

And an animal starting with נון is9

Examples

כלב נחמד

Ké-lév néh-màd

Nice dog

כריש לבן

Kà-rish là-vàn

White shark

לטאה זריזה

Lé-tà-à zri-zà

Literally nimble lizard (Lacerta laevis – a lizard native to Israel)

מאובנים

Mé-oo-bà-nim

Fossils

קן נשרים

Kén né-shà-rim

Eagles nest

Morphology

A characteristic of the Hebrew language is that most words are derived from a root of 3-4 consonants. Multiple words with similar meaning are derived from the same root.

In our example here, we have the word .אבן which is derived from the root מאובןLet’s see some other words derived from .אבן

Stone אבן

é-vén

Fossil בןואמ

mé-oo-bàn

Tartar (as in teeth) יתאבנ

àv-nit

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A vulture Né-shér נשר

A vulture or eagle – נשר.

Next...

סמך Sameh (Sà-méh)ס

This letter sounds like S. Let’s hear a couple of examples. How do you say a horse?

A horse Soos סוס

And a crab?

A crab Sàr-tàn סרטן

Noa, can you spell סרטן for us?

.סרטן. נון סופית, טית, ריש, סמך

Sà-méh, réish, tét, noon so-fit. Sàr-tàn.

Let’s go on.

עכביש ,עז ,עין Ayin (À-yin), a goat, a spiderע

À-yin, éz, à-kà-vish

A goat is עז and a spider is ןעי .עכביש sounds like the letter אלף but comes from even deeper in the throat. It’s the sound that the doctor wants you to make when she examines your throat with a tongue depressor. Nevertheless, in modern Hebrew you will rarely hear the difference between אלף and עין.

פיל, פא Pe (Péy), an elephantפ

Péy, pil

An elephant is פיל. The letter פא has two possible sounds. The stressed sound is similar to P like we just heard in the word פיל. The loose sound is similar to F like we heard in the word ינשוף. Here פא is at the end of the word and, yes, you guessed it, it’s פא .סופית

צפרדע, ציפור, צדי Tsadi (Tsà-di), a bird, a frogצ

Tsà-di, tsi-por, tsfàr-dé-à

A bird is ציפור and a frog is צפרדע. There’s no equivalent in English for the sound of צדי. This sound is approximated by the letter combination TS like in the word pets.

סופית צדי is the fifth and last of the אותיות סופיות, or terminal letters—those letters that are written differently when they are the last letter of a word.

has another feature. If written with an apostrophe, it makes the צדיsound צ' . For example, כיה'צ and הלי'צ which means the Czech Republic and Chile, respectively.

Noa, what’s the next letter?

Examples

חלב של עז

Hà-làv shél éz

Goat’s milk

פיל אפריקני

Pil àf-ri-kà-ni

African elephant

צפרדע ירוקה

Tsfar-dé-à yé-roo-kà

Green frog

קיפוד מצוי

Ki-pod mà-tsooy

Common hedgehog

מראשן לצפרדע

Mi-ro-shàn lé-tsfàr-dé-à

From tadpole to frog

שועל אדום

Shoo-àl à-dom

Red fox

תנין היאור

Tà-nin hà-yé-or

Nile crocodile

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קוף Kuf (Koof)ק

The letter קוף sounds like Q or K. Now, this is a bit strange because we already encountered a letter that sounds like that. It was the letter כף in its stressed form. So, you’re probably wondering why there are two letters that sound pretty much the same. But this is no different than English with Q, K, and even C, all sounding the same.

How about an animal that starts with קוף, Noa?

A hedgehog Ki-pod קיפוד

A hedgehog. קיפוד. That’s a prickly animal.

Okay Noa, we’re almost done, the twentieth letter is...

ריש Resh (Réish)ר

has no identical sound in English. This one is really hard to רישpronounce for English speakers, just like it’s really hard for Hebrew speakers to pronounce the English R correctly.

is approximated by the letter R, although it sounds quite a bit רישdifferent. ריש is rolled in the back of the throat like when you gargle salt water. Let’s see an example. Noa, how do you say tadpole in Hebrew?

A tadpole Ro-shàn ראשן

A tadpole. ראשן.

Let’s move on.

שין Shin (Shin)ש

has two possible sounds. The first and more common sound is שיןlike the letter combination SH, like in shush. The second sounds like S in snake. You can hear this form in the word ישראל.

The first form of שין, pronounced `, is called ימנית שין . The second form of שין, pronounced a, is called שמאלית שין ,שמאלית and ימנית .are the adjectives right and left, respectively.

So, we just saw an example of שמאלית שין in the word ישראל. Let’s listen to an example of ימנית שין . How do we say a fox?

A fox Shoo-àl שועל

A fox is שועל.

We come to the last letter of the Hebrew alphabet.

תו Tav (Tàf)ת

This letter sounds like the letter T. It also sounds a lot like the Hebrew letter טית. This makes spelling hard. How can you tell whether to use טית or תו? One clue is that טית is more often used in words borrowed from other languages, like the name of the Israeli town of טבריה which was named after the roman emperor Tiberius.

Left and Right

Right ימין

Yà-min

Left שמאל

Smol

.are the nouns שמאל and ימין

Below are their adjective forms

Right (m.) ימני

Yé-mà-ni

Right (f.) ימנית

Yé-mà-nit

Left (m.) שמאלי

Smà-li

Left (f.) שמאלית

Smà-lit

are the feminine שמאלית and ימניתform of the adjective. We use the feminine form for ימנית ן"שי and

שמאלית ן"שי because the letter ן"שי , itself being a noun, is

feminine.

Hebrew Dictionary Lookup

When you look up verbs in a Hebrew dictionary you should use the past tense of the verb in the first-person singular. Unlike some other languages, you should not lookup the infinitive.

For example, instead of looking for .(played) שיחק look for (to play) ,לשחקInstead of לשיר, (to sing) look for שר (sang).

Hebrew Podcasts



23

So, Noa, to finish off, how about an animal that begins in תו?

An alligator Tà-nin תנין

That’s right, תנין, which means an alligator.

And with תו we come to the end of this lesson that was entirely dedicated to the Hebrew alphabet. You can find more information in the lesson guide that goes together with this podcast. You can download the lesson guide from our web site at http://hebrewpodcasts.com.

That’s it for today. In our next lesson Noa will be back. We’ll learn some new vocabulary related to school and we’ll touch on the subject of counting and ordinal numbers.

Until then


Hebrew Podcasts



24

Lesson 2 – Exercise

Match each animal with its Hebrew name. Draw a line between the word and the picture.

זבוב

אריה

כלב

תנין

קיפוד

גמל

ברוז

סוס

צפרדע

פיל

z-voov

ar-yé

ké-lév

tà-nin

ki-pod

gà-màl

bar-vàz

soos

tsfàr-dé-à

pil



The answers to this exercise are available online at http://www.hebrewpodcasts.com/pdf/Answers_002.pdf

17303005 learn to speak hebrew lessons 1 and 2hebrew

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