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ל The "lamed" is pronounced "l" as in long. When the lamed is prefixed to a word it means "to" or "for".

ו The "vav" is pronounced "v" as in visit. When the vav is prefixed to a word it means "and".

אְ The Sh'va. This vowel is usually used as a syllalbe break and is silent, but when it is not used as a syllable break it is pronounced "e" as in elephant.

אֶ The Segol. This vowel is pronounced "e" as in elephant.

1. When a syllable includes one of the "a" vowels and is followed by the consonant "yud", the pronunciation is "ah-y", which, when said quickly sounds like "ai" as in aisle. An example is the word lai-lah (Vocabulary Word #1). Note that this rule does not apply to words like ma-yim (Vocabulary Word #3) as the "a" is at the end of the first syllable and the "y" is the beginning of the second syllable.

2. In some languages nouns are masculine, feminine or neuter . Hebrew is much the same, all nouns are either masculine or feminine (there is no neuter).

3. The "yud-mem" combination is the masculine plural ending, similar to the the "s" ending for English plural nouns.

4. When the dagesh (the dot in the middle of a letter) is placed within some letters, such as in the nun in the word for "Here [am] I" in the vocabulary list below, it doubles the letter. Therefore, this letter would be pronounced "hin-ney-niy" rather than "hi-ney-niy".

לֵ וַ לִ לָ וֶ וִי לִי לָי וַי וֵי	.1
וֶו וֵל וַל לֵה הֵל לָה הָל	.2
לִבָּה לַיִל לֵבְמָה מָלֵא מְלָה	.3

Night (Masc. Noun)	לַיְלָה	.1
God (Masc. Noun)	אֵל	.2
Water (Masc. Noun)	מַיִם	.3
Amen	אָמֵן	.4
Here	הִנֵּה	.5
Sea (Masc. Noun)	יָם	.6
Here am I	הִנֵּנִי	.7
To me	לִי	.8

Night came.	לַיְלָה בָּא	.1
My son came to me.	בֵּנִי בָּא לִי	.2
Mother came in the night.	אֵם בָּאָה בַּלַיְלָה	.3
My father and my mother are here.	אָבִי וְאֵמִי הִנֵּה	.4
Water is in the sea.	מַיִם בַּיָם	.5

Learn the Ancient Pictographic Hebrew Script (Lessons) Easy lessons to learn how to read the the ancient pictographic Hebrew script, also called Paleo-Hebrew.

How to Type in Hebrew (Article) Instructions in how to set up your keyboard to type in Hebrew characters.

How to Write Hebrew (Article) Instructions in how to hand-write the modern Hebrew alphabet.