Lesson 1 – THE ALPHABET

These lessons are extracted from:

http://www.hebrew4christians.com

Basics of Biblical Hebrew Grammar: Second Edition by Gary D. Pratico and Miles V. Van Pelt (Hardcover – Aug 1, 2007)

For the pronounciation, here is the link:

http://www.hebrew4christians.com/Grammar/Unit_One/Aleph-Bet/aleph-bet.html

For the transliteration, here is the link:

http://www.hebrew4christians.com/Grammar/Unit_One/Transliteration/transliteration.html

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1. The pronounciaation recommended here is based upon in modern Hebrew. It is known as the Sephardic pronounciation.

2.  There are 22 letters in the Hebrew alphabet.  This number is arrived at by counting “sin” and “shin” as variant of the same letter.

3. The first letter in the alphabet is “alef”, but it must not be confused with English “a” or Greek “alpha”. The 2 are vowels, while “alef” always a consonant.

4. There are no capital letters in Hebrew

5. Five Letters take special forms when they stand at the end of a word (kaf, mem, nun, pe, and sade)

6. Six Hebrew consonants (bet, gimel, dalet, kaf, pe, and tet) may appear either with or without dotplaced within them (http://www.hebrew4christians.com/Grammar/Unit_One/Begedkephat_Letters/begedkephat_letters.html). The dot is called “dagesh lene”. The dot will normally required when one of these six consonants begins a new word. The rules will studied later.

7. Individual Hebrew letters stand alone and are not joined each other, except in modern script.

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Excercises:

http://www.hebrew4christians.com/Grammar/Unit_One/Exercises/exercises.html