Aleph Bet Letters (Modern Cursive) Flashcards
Guttural Alef
An example is the word for man, ‘ish’, spelled א’ש.
אָלֶף
alef
’
Vowel-Marker Alef
For example, it marks:
- ‘a’ in here “kan” כאן
- ‘oh’ in no “lo” לא
- ‘i’ in first “rishon” ראשון
אָלֶף
alef
’
Bet
Seen in son, “ben”, spelled בן.
בֵּית
bet
Nikkud –> With dot = ‘B’ sound. (B for ball)
Vet
Seen in good, “tov”, spelled טוב.
בֵית
vet
Nikkud –> Without dot = ‘V’ sound. (No ball, it has been Volleyed)
Gimel
Seen in the word for also, “gam”, spelled גם.
גִּימֶל
gimel
Opens to the right, like a G for gimel.
Dalet
Seen in the word for flag, “degel”, spelled דגל .
דָּלֶת
dalet
Straight down, NOT like the number 3, unlike Tsadi, which does look like the number 3.
Consonant “He”
Seen in the word for mountain, “har”, spelled הר.
הֵא
He
Curved downwards, not like an ear. Do not join the two lines at the top.
Vowel Marker “He”
E.g.,
- You (m.) “ata”, spelled אטה
- Coffee, “kafe”, spelled קפה
- Po “here”, spelled, פה
הֵא
He
Curved downwards, not like an ear. Do not join the two lines at the top.
Consonant "Vav"
## Footnote
As in rose, "vered", spelled ורד.
וָו
vav
Short line, vav ו is shorter than the non sofit, which is longer and lower ן .
Vowel Marker “Vav”
For example:
- “o” in tov, spelled טוב.
- “u” in cat, “xatul”, spelled חתול.
וָו
Short line, vav ו is shorter than the non sofit, which is longer and lower ן .
Zayin
Seen in the word ‘zol’, meaning inexpensive, spelled זול
זין
Opens to the left, like a cursive ‘z’, compared to Gimel, which opens to the right like a capital ‘G’.
Xet
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PlmbiM_ASIE&t=141s (See 2:00 - 2:15)
Also seen in ‘xaver’, meaning friend, spelled חבר. Used at the START of a word.
חית
The two strokes are joined, unlike in ‘heh’. Compare ה and ח.
Tet
Seen in the word טוב, ‘tov’, meaning good.
טית
Not written like a ‘G’, it is more open to the top.
Consonant “yod”
Seen in the word, ילד, meaning ‘boy’, pronounced ‘yeled’.
יוד
Yod is shorter than vav, which in turn is shorter than nun sofit. Yod is written from the top down, and does not reach the bottom line. Vav reaches the bottom line. Nun goes beyond and below the bottom line. Note the cursive ‘yod’ is straight, whereas the print ‘yod’ is curved like an apostrophe.
Vowel marker “yod”
Seen in איש, the word for ‘man’, pronounced ‘ish’.
טית
Yod is shorter than vav, which in turn is shorter than nun sofit. Yod is written from the top down, and does not reach the bottom line. Vav reaches the bottom line. Nun goes beyond and below the bottom line. Note the cursive ‘yod’ is straight, whereas the print ‘yod’ is curved like an apostrophe.
How do you pronounce ‘ב’ depending on its location in a sentence?
Always ‘bet’ at the start, can be ‘bet’/’vet’ in the middle of a word, and ‘v’ at the end of a word.
How can the letter ו be pronounced when it is acting as a vowel?
It can be pronounced ‘o’ or ‘u’ depending on what letter is in front of it and what the word is.
How is the י sound pronounced when it is a consonant?
It is pronounced like a short ‘i’, and its pronounciation depends on which consonant is in front of it.
How do you pronounce כ, depending on its location in a sentence?
Kaf at the start, Kaf/xhaf in the middle, always xaf sofit at the end.
What is the sofit form of כ?
Compare the ‘xhaf sofit’ in black, with the ‘raysh’ in pink. Techcnially the ‘xhaf sofit’ is more vertical rather than slanted, it is also longer than the ‘raysh’. The ‘xhaf sofit’ should also be written like a ‘bet’ with a longer vertical.
What is the sofit form of מ?
What is the sofit form of נ?
Technically it should be written more like a backwards ‘L’.
Compare ‘Nun sofit’ in black, vav in blue, and yod in green.
How do you pronounce ‘פ’ depending on its location in a sentence?
It is always ‘pe’ at the start, ‘pe/fe’ in the middle, and ‘fe sofit’ at the end.
What is the sofit form of פ?
Pe sofit is shown in print and cursive. Note the similarity to lamed, shown in purple.
Consonant “kaf” at the start of a word.
Seen in the word כן as in ‘yes’, pronounced ‘ken’.
כף
Nikkud –> With dot = ‘K’ sound. (Some phlegm to Kaf up)
Consonant “kaf” in the middle of a word.
Seen in the word “oxel”, spelled אוכל, meaning ‘eat’ or ‘food’.
כף
Nikkud –> With dot = ‘K’ sound. (Some phlegm to Kaf up). Without dot = ‘x” sound, already xleared it out.
Xaf sofit ך
Seen at the end of a word ending in כ, which forms the ך ‘xaf sofit’. For example, מלך, “melech”, which means ‘king’.
Note it’s called ‘Xaf’ sofit because it’s the soft sound.
כף סופית
Drawn like the ‘bet’, but with a longer vertical. (Looks like a key that Sofi owns.)
Lamed
“L” as in “look”.
Seen in לא, “lo”, meaning “no”.
למד
Mem
Seen in מלך, or ‘melex’, as in ‘king’.
מם
Like an ‘N’ but drawn backwards.
Mem sofit
As in ‘sham’, שם, meaning ‘there’.
מם סופית
Kind of like writing a cursive ‘p’.
Nun
“Nexed” meaning grandson, spelled נכד.
נון
Draw the cursive more like a backwards ‘L’, rather than curved like a ‘J’ as shown above. (This is the tip from Ronit Litman).
Nun Sofit
“N” as in “now”
Kan, as in “here”, spelled כאן , pronounced “kan”.
נון סופית
“Nun sofit”, I , is longer than vav, ו , which is longer than yod, י .
Samech
Seen in “sefer” meaning book, spelled ספר.
סמך
Drawn like a clockwise ‘o’.
Ayin
A guttural, unaspirated sound, it is pronounced IDENTICALLY to א.
Note that some ulpanim will insist on a guttural pronunciation, no-one does this in modern Hebrew.
An example would be עיר, or “ir”, which means city. Note that ע is silent.
עין
Written like an upside down fish.
Pe/ Fe
“f” as in “food”
“p” as in “pen”
For example, פה pronounced “po” meaning “here”.
And איפה, pronounced “eifo” meaning “where”.
פה
Note that פה is the same spelling for “po” and “pe”.
You write it like a spiral.
Nikkud –> With dot = ‘P’ sound. (Some poop in the intestine), without dot = ‘F’ (No poop, just a fart.) :-)
Fe Sofit
As seen in חוף, pronounced xof, meaning “beach”.
Note it’s called ‘Fe’ sofit because it’s the soft sound.
פה סופית
Starts very similar to a ‘lamed’, then has an additional loop at the top.
How many letters are in the Hebrew alphabet? Can you sing the song?
There are 22 letters in the Hebrew alphabet.
In Biblical Hebrew, there used to be 5 letters called the BeGeD KaPHeT letters. [The name is simply an acronym for the letters beged kafet letters: bet/bet, gimmel/gimmel, dalet/dalet, kaf/kaf, pey/pey and tav/tav, which had a hard (plosive) and soft pronunciation each.]
In modern Hebrew, three letters have two pronunciations: (hard first, soft second), which are dictated by the presence of the dagesh.
ב - Bet (dagesh)/vet
כ - Kaf (dagesh)/Xaf
פ - Pe (dagesh)/Fe
Also, you have a one letter which is changed by the presence of a nikkudot.
ש - Sin (left)/shin (right)
So, 22 letters with 4 additional sounds due to diacritical marks.
Link: https://www.etz-hayim.com/hebrew/letters_and_vowels/aleph-bet_beged_kaphet_letters.php
Which letters are the guttural letters? How many are there?
These letters are created in the throat.
There are 5 guttural letters.
Aleph א
He ה
Chet ח
Ayin ע
Resh ר
Al, he chews, “Ayarrrr!”
Which letters have Sofit forms?
There are 5 letters with Sofit forms, they can be remembered with the acronym, KheMNiFaTs. Note that for the letters with soft/hard pronunciations, the sofit is always the SOFT SOFIT
Kaf/Xaf כ –> Xaf sofit ך
Mem מ –> Mem sofit ם
Nun נ –> Nun sofit ן
Fe/Pe פ –> Fe sofit ף
Tsadi צ –> Tsadi sofit ץ
Tsadi
צדי
Tsadi sofit
צדי סופית
Kof
קוף
C.f. Kaf/Xaf
Resh
ריש
Sin/Shin
שין
Tav
תיו
J sound
E.g., giraffe, Julia
Zh sound
E.g., Rio de Janeiro, Jacques
‘Tsh’ sound
E.g., Chilli, chips
