SALT SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTIST CHURCH

In this lesson, we're looking at the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet, which is alef (א). Our letter A is actually related to the Hebrew alef. But unlike A in English, alef is much more versatile. You might think of this letter as a wildcard: alef can make a variety of sounds depending on the context. Alef can sound like a vowel (a, e, i, o, u), or it can even be silent.

You can see alef in many words such as ahava meaning "love", el meaning "god", and or meaning "light". In each of these examples, alef has a different pronunciation. Can you spot alef (א) in the Hebrew below?

• Ahava אַהֲבָה /ah-hah-vah/ love
• El אֵל /el/ god
• Or אוֹר /or/ light

So if alef can sound like so many different things, how do native Hebrew-speakers know which sound to use when alef appears in a word? The answer is simple -- experience. Native speakers memorize the pronunciation of words over time, just like we learned to pronounce English words growing up. This may sound like a long process, but luckily for us, there is a common set of "training wheels" that can be added to Hebrew letters which makes learning easier. We'll take a look at some of these helpful tools next.

Vowel Markers

You will often see Hebrew letters decorated with little dots and dashes, and these are small hints to help guide the reader along. The most important of these symbols are the vowel markers, which represent sounds for a, e, i, o and u.

Like many languages such as Arabic, Aramaic, and Farsi, most vowels are not written out in Hebrew text. Imagine what English might look like if we didn't write vowels. Try to read these sentences without a, e, i, o, u. Can you guess what they say?

• Cn y rd ths sntnc wtht vwls?
• Try yr bst!
• Y'r dng t! Grt jb!

Over time, you will get used to reading Hebrew without vowels, but for now, we will learn to recognize the common vowel marks. The chart below shows seven of the most basic signs, and you will see these used over and over again in future lessons throughout this course.

Memory tip: The names of these markers can help you remember the vowel sounds they represent. As shown in the table below, the first vowel of each name is the vowel sound that marker makes.

These "training wheels" can be added to any Hebrew letter to help remind us of vowel sounds. In the next section, we'll see how they can be used to decorate the letter alef.

Hint: All these dots and dashes may seem like a lot to remember, but keep in mind, you can always select on any Hebrew letter you see to get more information. This includes the letter's name and any associated vowel markers.

Notes:

You may have noticed that some vowel sounds are repeated. There are two different symbols that make the "ah" sound, and there are two different symbols that make the "eh" sound. The technical reason for this is not important at the moment, and for the purpose of this course, all "ah" vowels sound the same, and all "eh" vowels sound the same.

Also, keep in mind that these are not all the markers that exist. As you're reading along in the Hebrew Bible, you will come across additional dots not yet discussed. For right now, it's safe to ignore them.

Combining Alef with Vowel Markers

Now that you've been introduced to the basic Hebrew vowels, let's see how the markers above can be added to the letter alef.

Alef simply takes the sound of the marker attached to it. The table below explains the combinations shown above:

If alef doesn't have any of these vowel markers, it is silent. When you see a silent alef in a word, you can just ignore it. (Compared with English, it's like the silent k in the word "knob" or the b in "debt".) Skip over the silent alef and keep reading.

Let's practice reading alef with vowel marks in the following exercises.

Pronunciation Practice

For each of the following exercises, read from right to left and pronounce each alef out loud. (Remember, Hebrew reads in the opposite direction, so we start on the right-hand side and move to the left.)

Hidden Phrases

As previously mentioned, Hebrew has a different reading order than English. We read from left to right, but Hebrew reads from right to left.

Imagine what it might look like if we read English in the opposite direction. Consider the phrase "I love you" written backwards:

Now let's practice reading from right to left while recognizing Hebrew characters. The following exercises contain English phrases written backwards. In addition, some letters have been replaced with alef. Can you recognize these phrases?

Spot the Letter

The following exercises show several Bible verses that contain the letter alef. Click on each alef you see. A checkmark will appear next to the exercise when you've found all the alefs in the verse.

Flashcards

Challenge your memory and improve your recognition speed with these Hebrew flashcards. Each card covers material from the lesson above.

To start the quiz, click the area below, and a random card will be shown. Try to guess what's hidden under the blacked-out portion. When ready, click the card to reveal the answer. Click again to get a new card. Repeat until you can easily recognize all the cards in the deck.