Hebrew course 5

Learn the Hebrew Alphabet ~ Lesson 4
By Jeff A. Benner

Consonants

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

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

Vowels

The Sheva. When this vowel is placed under the first letter of a word it is pronounced as a soft "e" as in help. When it appears in the middle of a word it is used as a syllable break and is not pronounced.

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

Notes

When one of the "a" vowels are followed by the consonant "yud", the pronunciation is "ah-y", which, when said quickly sounds like "i" as in bike.
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).
The "yud-mem" combination is the masculine plural ending, similar to the the "s" ending for English plural nouns.
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".