Letters 1 is the first skill in the Hebrew language tree. It has six lessons and teaches twelve of the letters in the Hebrew alphabet, as well as beginner sentence structure and verb conjugation.
Alphabet Letters Taught
Hebrew has no written vowels generally. You can use nikkud to indicate this in your own notes if you like, but Duolingo does not accept them as a rule and, in any case, most Hebrew people don't use them either.
- Aleph (א): silent letter or vowel placeholder
- Bet (ב): "b" or "v"
- Hey (ה): "h"
- Vav (ו): "v" but can also indicate "o" or "u"
- Chet (ח): "ch" [pronounced like the German "ich"]
- Yod (י): "y"
- Lamed (ל): "l"
- Mem (מ or ם): "m"
- Nun (נ or ן): "n"
- Tav (ת): "t"
Grammar Notes
Note: Hebrew is written right to left - in other words, the opposite direction of this sentence.
Articles
Hebrew has no word for "a/an" but it does have a particle (or part of a word) that means "the" using the letter "ה" at the beginning of the word. This is pronounced "ha":
- יונה (pigeon) --> היונה (the pigeon)
And
If you want to indicate the word "and", you add the letter "ו" at the front of the word. It is pronounced "vuh". If you're also using "ה", then add it after the "ו":
- אמא (mom) --> ואמא (and mom)
Verb Conjugation
Verbs in Hebrew are conjugated according to number and person (I, you, they, etc.) like in English, but they also follow the gender of the person. That means there is a difference between "she comes" and "he comes" in Hebrew. In addition, person is ignored in the present tense, so the only verb forms in this skill are between "masculine singular" and "feminine singular". Later skills will add other verb forms for the plural and other verb tenses.
Adjectives
Adjectives will follow the noun they modify in Hebrew:
- לחם (bread) <-- לחם חם (hot bread)
Lessons
Lesson 1
- בא (ba) = comes, is coming (masc. sing.)
- באה (ba-a) = comes, is coming (fem. sing.)
- אבא (a-ba) = father, dad
- האבא (ha-a-ba) = the father, the dad
- אהבה (a-ha-va) = love
Lesson 2
- אמא (e-ma) = mother
- האמא (h-e-ma) = the mother
- האם (ha-im) = "question word"
Lesson 3
- ואמא = and mother
- או (o) = or
- הוא = he
- אוהב = love(s) (masc.)
- ואבא = and father
Lesson 4
- אוהבת = love(s) (fem.)
- אתה = you (masc. sing.)
- את = you (fem. sing.)
- מים = water (plural)
- היא = she
Lesson 5
- אני = I
- יין = wine
- היונה = the dove, the pigeon
- יונה = dove, pigeon
- ואני = and I
Lesson 6
- חלב = milk
- וחלב = and milk
- החלב = the milk
- לחם = bread
- ולחם = and bread
- חם = hot
- לא = not
References
Duolingo Lesson: www.duolingo.com/skill/he/Letters-1