Learning to read and pronounce letters and vowels is the first step on the road to learning Hebrew. Learning the naems of the letters is not quite as important as learning to pronounce them. While the Latin alphabet is based on the Hebrew and Greek originally, there are enough differences to make it challenging for westerners.



Believe it or not, students don't learn Hebrew for the same reasons, and you, too, should examine your goals. Is your goal to learn to read the Hebrew scriptures, or is it to talk to your cousin in Israel? Or maybe you are trying to learn to pray the traditional prayers in Hebrew.

To learn Biblical Hebrew, a great way to start is with the "Top 400 Words of the Hebrew Bible". These words are included with the "At Home with Hebrew" software tutorial, and are also sold on audio-CDs, so the stduent can learn in the car.

If you learn how to conjugate Hebrew verbs, it will help you with both Biblical and Modern Hebrew. Even though there are minor differences, the verb conjugation is basically the same. While many nouns overlap between the two, the subjet matter is quite different.

Some students might get some words "mixed-up", because there are several letters in Hebrew that are silent. For example, the word "ET" could be AYIN-TAV (meaning "time"), ALEPH-TAV (pronounced: "AT" meaing "you feminine singular" or "ET the pointer to the direct object , or even ALEPH-TET (pronounced "ET" meaning "pen'). A good tutorial will point out these similarities and differences.

Learning numbers is another challenge. Hebrew has both masculine and feminine numbers, so the student must learn to count to 10 two different ways! A good way to enforce numbers is telling time, or doing simple math problems in Hebrew.

Children can begin learning Hebrew as young as three years of age. Why not let them learn Hebrew at the same time they learn their English letters? Children enjoy using software programs that have interactive games.

Most students of modern Hebrew must also learn the cursive letters. This is almost like learning a second Hebrew alphabet, because they are quite different from their printed counterparts. The time-tested method of writing the letters over-and-over on lined paper works today as well as it did years ago.