Hebrew Alphabet (Just the Letters)

hi I'm Tracy rich from Judaism 101 je w FAQ org today we're going to do a quick overview of the Hebrew alphabet just the names of each letter and how the letter is pronounced if you'd like to try to read Hebrew remember that Hebrew is written from right to left not left to right as English's let's get started olive which is silent or some would say makes the sound before the a in apple olive bette which is pronounced B as in boy or v as in victory native speakers know which way to pronounce it just as we know how to pronounce the seasoned circus but in texts written for non natives like Hebrew English prayer books or Bibles you'll find a dot inside the bet when it's pronounced B and no dot when it's pronounced v this dot is not found in texts that are written for people fluent in Hebrew bet gimel is pronounced G as in good never like in general always like in good like most letters it's pronounced the same whether there's a dot inside or not gimel doll 'it is pronounced like the d endure dull it pay is pronounced like the H in hello like H in English it's silent at the end of words Hey love can be pronounced like the VN victory the oh and home or the oh and moon which is usually transliterated as you if there are no dots it's pronounced v as in victory if it has a dot on top it's usually pronounced o as in home but if the letter before it has a vowel of its own then it does double duty both a V and O pronounced veau if it has a dot in the middle it's usually pronounced o as in moon but if the letter before it has a vowel of its own then it's pronounced v as in victory remember those dots are only found in texts for non-natives love Zion is pronounced Z as in zebra Zion Hut is pronounced a throat-clearing noise that doesn't occur in English it's like in a in German or law and Scottish cut tete is pronounced T as in tango tete cured is pronounced Y as in yellow sometimes you'd is part of the preceding vowel and is not pronounced at all you can tell because it doesn't have a vowel of its own but vowels like dots are not found in texts written for native speakers of Hebrew good cuff sounds like the k in kangaroo or the sound that Hut makes if there's a dot it makes the K sound if there's no dot it's the sound cough is written differently when it appears at the end of a word there are five letters in Hebrew that have a special form for the end of a word final cough almost never has a dot in it so it's almost always pronounced cuff and final cuff lammott is pronounced l as in lucky lumidee mem is pronounced M as in Mary mem is another letter that has special final form this is the final form of mem mem and final mem none is pronounced n as in November known is another letter that has a special final form this is final none none and final none some F makes an S sound as in Sahara summer ion is silent like the letter Alif ion pay makes the sound of P as in pair or F as in Fox if pay has a dot inside it makes the P sound if there's no dot it makes the F sound pay also has a special final form final pay almost never has a dot inside so it's almost always pronounced with the F sound pay and final pay sadi makes a TS sound like at the end of the word pants or nuts Saudi has a special final form Saudi and final Saudi cuff makes a sound like the k' in kangaroo it sometimes transliterated as a cue to distinguish it from cuff which also makes a K sound and also because it comes from the same source as the letter Q in English cuff rakes an R sound now most Americans pronounce it like the R in road but Israelis pronounce it as more of a guttural sound hey SHhhh Shin makes an SH sound as in show or an S sound as in so when the dot is over the right branch it makes the SH sound when it's over the left branch it makes the S sound Shin the last letter of the Hebrew alphabet is Tov which makes a t sound as in tango now some older Jews in Orthodox Jews will pronounce this letter as an S sound if it doesn't have a dot inside but most people pronounce it as T with or without the dot Tov now I know I said that table was the last letter but actually there's one more thing we need to talk about and that's a vowels like the dots we've seen before you won't find vowels in texts in Israel they're only found in texts written for non-natives let's start with pata which looks like a dash under the letter it's shown here with the letter olive which is silent potaka makes the off sound and father you pronounce the PHA tok after the continent goes with so for example you would pronounce this baa next is Shiva which looks like a : under the letter Shiva is either silent or it makes a generic unstressed sound like the e and begin if it's the first vowel in a word it makes the schwa sound otherwise well sorry I don't know a good way to tell which way it go sometimes you'll see what looks like a pata side by side with the Shiva under the letter that's actually a separate Val called a tough pata or half pata it makes the same sound as pata but it's unstressed never gets the emphasis next is comets which looks like the letter T comets also makes the off sound and father at least for most people some older Jews and Orthodox Jews will pronounce this like the OO and saw nothing wrong with that pronunciation but most people today pronounce it as R now just to make things as difficult as possible comets is sometimes pronounced differently more of an O sound some texts write comets differently when it's pronounced this way and some make it larger or make the shaft longer but most texts just write it the same way if it's not written differently I don't know a good way to tell which way it's pronounced but you can pretty much assume that it's going to be an R sound the most common word that uses this unusual pronunciation is coal which means all just like Putta comments sometimes appears with the Shiva making a new vowel called huh tough comets half comets still sounds like the eye and father but it never gets the emphasis okay let's try something easier this is Segel which is a triangle of dots Segal makes the a sound in bed Segel can also appear with a Shiva making cutoff Segel and unstressed as sound and that's the last of the Fatah vowels this is holem a dot above and to the left of the consonant it's the only valid point that's not written below the letter column makes the O sound in home if this sounds familiar that's because you've seen it before on top of the valve this is kibbutz which is three diagonal dots it makes the short u sound and put next is sarey two dots side-by-side it's pronounced like the a and neighbor or they sometimes it's followed by a you'd that doesn't have a vowel of its own when you see that good as part of the say rave Alan isn't pronounced separately and that's the way I learned it and that's the way I hear it in America but I gather that in Israel it's pronounced a when it has a hood and air when it doesn't have a good you can take that as you will last vowel is here eck which is a single dot under the letter Herrick makes an e sound like the ion machine likes a ray it's sometimes followed by a Hewitt that becomes part of the vowel also likes a ray some people say it's pronounced differently when it has a Hewitt than when it doesn't some say it's pronounced as a short I in sit when it doesn't have a good and as the I in machine when it does have a good but I don't always hear it that way now I said earlier that the vowels are normally pronounced after they are consonants so for example you would pronounce this ba there's one exception to that if the last letter in the word is het and the vowel under it is pata the pata is pronounced before the hat instead of after it as usual the best-known example of this is the word Ruach which means spirit race which makes an R sound shrek which makes the e sound hat which makes the throat-clearing sound and pata which makes the ah sound so you'd think this was pronounced ruja but when the last letter is het and it's followed by pot off the pot off is pronounced first rule I've seen some texts that write the pot off a little to the right when this happens to make it more clear but that's not common so that's the entire Hebrew alphabet in just under 10 minutes if you'd like to go a little deeper I also have a series of videos that helps you tell the letters apart and introduces some useful Hebrew vocabulary by showing the letters within words

Channel: jewfaq

Views: 899,328

Rating: 4.8521285 out of 5

Keywords: Hebrew, Alphabet, Alefbet, Jewish, Judaism

Id: Uz_m118Yheg

Length: 9min 54sec (594 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 10 2010