Hebrew course 2

Learn the Hebrew Alphabet ~ Lesson 1
By Jeff A. Benner

Consonants

The "aleph" is the first letter of the Hebrew alephbet. This consonant is silent.

The "beyt" is pronounced two ways, a "b" as in ball, and as "v" as in visit. A dagesh (a dot in the middle of the letter) indicates that the letter will have the "b" sound, while the abscence of the dagesh indicates the "v" sound. When the beyt is prefixed to a word it means "in".

Vowels

The qamats. This vowel, which is placed under the consonant, is pronounced "a" as in father. Since the aleph is silent, this consonant/vowel combination would be pronounced as "a". (Note: The aleph here is not part of the vowel, it is simply used here to show the placement of the vowel only)