r/LearnHebrew

I’ll preface this by saying I’m Jewish but I never learned Hebrew growing up as my Jewish mother did not raise me Jewish (so I grew up with no Hebrew school, no Bar Mitzvah, and no Temple services apart from weddings and funerals).

I’ve been using Duolingo to learn Hebrew and I think so far it has been effective. I can actually read Hebrew now that is on PJ library books (for which I look at the Romanization to make sure and am pleasantly surprised I get it right a lot of the time).

My biggest gripe, however, with Duolingo is that you learn the alephbet by only associating the letters with sounds and not the names of the letters. It’s very frustrating to look at ח and call it by its sound of “kh” or ש and call it by its sound of “sh.” It’s an educational gap that makes me look silly for describing letters by their sounds.

Apart from this gap, I also noticed that when I try to read the prayer book at Temple (yes, I have decided as an adult to attend Temple services :) ), as well as when I see written Hebrew, I sometimes don’t recognize a particular variation of a letter that is used.

What apps do you all recommend for learning the official names of the letters of the alephbet and for covering a wider range of font (both written and digital font)?

Shalom! My name is Nava and I offer online 1-on-1 or class lessons in Hebrew. I'm an Israeli and native speaker with a bachelor's Degree in Linguistics from Tel Aviv University, 20 year experience as literary editor, writer and playwright and I've been teaching Hebrew courses at a leading UK University since 2019 and have been an online tutor since 2020.

I cover topics from very basic letter recognition and simple phrases to more advanced topics such as grammar and listening comprehension. My students range from members of the Jewish community in the diaspora, spouses of Israelis and even language enthusiasts. I use my own material as well as children's books and music to teach.

I'm very passionate about the Hebrew language and people say it often shows in my classes! If you're interested, please send me a chat request and I'd love to discuss further. Thank you for reading 😄

החבאתי פה די הרבה בדיחות שכנראה יצחיקו רק אותי
throw away account כי אני מפחד מטלי גוטליב

I’m trying to understand the historical development of Hebrew from the perspective of historical linguistics and comparative Semitic studies. I often see Hebrew described as a language that “died” and was later “revived,” but I’m interested in understanding exactly what happened and whether that description is technically accurate.

Ancient Hebrew developed within the Northwest Semitic/Canaanite linguistic environment and was both spoken and written for centuries. After the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BCE, Aramaic became increasingly important, particularly during the Persian period (539–332 BCE). However, Hebrew clearly continued to be used. Hebrew material from the Second Temple period (516 BCE–70 CE), including the Dead Sea Scrolls from approximately the 3rd century BCE–1st century CE, demonstrates continued Hebrew usage and also shows linguistic variation.

At some point, Hebrew gradually ceased to function as the dominant everyday spoken language for most Jewish communities. Rabbinic Hebrew continued as an important literary language, while Hebrew remained central to religious practice, scholarship, poetry, philosophy, legal literature, and biblical interpretation. This makes me wonder whether it is more accurate to say that Hebrew was largely lost as a widespread vernacular rather than saying that the Hebrew language itself completely disappeared.

I am particularly interested in what happened to pronunciation and vowels. Early Hebrew writing was primarily consonantal, while the detailed vowel signs familiar from modern Hebrew manuscripts were developed much later. The Masoretic vocalization traditions developed approximately between the 6th and 10th centuries CE, with the Tiberian tradition becoming especially influential. To what extent do these systems preserve older pronunciation traditions, and what aspects of earlier Hebrew pronunciation have had to be reconstructed using comparative evidence?

There also seem to have been several historical pronunciation and vocalization traditions, including Tiberian, Babylonian, and Palestinian traditions. Later Jewish communities developed additional pronunciation traditions such as Sephardic, Ashkenazi, and Yemenite. How do modern linguists determine which features can reasonably be traced back to Biblical Hebrew and which are later developments?

Another part of the history I find particularly interesting is the role of Arabic scholarship. From approximately the 9th century CE onward, Jewish scholars in the Islamic world produced Hebrew grammars and dictionaries, often writing their linguistic works in Arabic and using concepts from the highly developed Arabic grammatical tradition. Scholars such as Judah Ḥayyūj (c. 945–1000 CE) and Jonah ibn Janāḥ (c. 990–1050 CE) are particularly relevant. I would like to understand how much Arabic influenced the description and analysis of Hebrew, as opposed to influencing Hebrew's underlying grammatical structure itself.

I am also interested in medieval manuscripts in which Hebrew was represented using Arabic script. Could such manuscripts provide independent evidence for historical Hebrew pronunciation, particularly vowels? How do scholars evaluate this evidence alongside the Masoretic manuscripts, Dead Sea Scrolls, ancient translations, inscriptions, and comparative Semitic languages?

The divine name יהוה (YHWH) is another interesting example. The ancient Hebrew text preserves the consonantal form, but determining its original pronunciation is more complicated. The later Jewish reading tradition also used Adonai (“Lord”) when reading the divine name aloud. How confident can we therefore be about the reconstructed pronunciation Yahweh, and what evidence is considered strongest?

Finally, I would like to understand the development of Modern Hebrew. The spoken-language revival accelerated particularly from the 1880s onward and continued through the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Was Modern Hebrew best understood as a direct continuation of Biblical Hebrew, a reconstruction of Biblical Hebrew, a revival of a continuously preserved literary language, or a combination of these?

My current understanding is that Hebrew was not completely lost. Rather, it appears to have largely lost its status as a widespread native vernacular while continuing as a literary, religious, and scholarly language. Some aspects of ancient pronunciation and linguistic structure became uncertain and had to be reconstructed or analyzed from surviving evidence. Modern Hebrew was subsequently created through a deliberate spoken-language revival, drawing on Biblical, Rabbinic, and Medieval Hebrew as well as the linguistic backgrounds of its modern speakers.

I would appreciate corrections if any part of this understanding is inaccurate. I’m especially interested in perspectives from people familiar with historical linguistics, Semitic languages, Biblical Hebrew, Rabbinic Hebrew, Masoretic studies, Aramaic/Syriac, Arabic linguistics, and epigraphy. Academic references, manuscript evidence, and primary-source examples would be particularly helpful.

My main question is:

To what extent can we trace a continuous linguistic chain from ancient Hebrew to Modern Hebrew, and which parts of Hebrew's pronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary were preserved, changed, standardized, or reconstructed along the way?

I teach Hebrew, and this is the mistake I hear most — usually from Israelis, less from students.

ש and כש are not the same word.

ש = "that."

אמרתי לך שאני בא — I told you that I'm coming.

כש = "when."

תתקשר אליי כשתגיע — Call me when you arrive.

Yet you'll hear "תתקשר אליי שתגיע" everywhere.

Small word. Big difference. 😉

Hello. I'm looking for learning materials regarding Ashkenazi Hebrew. I see few options available online for free, but wanted to ask what in your opinion would be the best for reading Torah, Siddur and Talmud.

I started to learn Hebrew recently and realized that all materials I use refer to Sephardi standard and ivrit, which is not exactly what I'm looking for. I want to reconnect to the Hebrew as i was read and spoken in Poland. Any advice would be very much appreciated. Thank you.

I am an Arab and I have just started learning Hebrew. I have a talent for learning languages; I know some German, Russian, and English in addition to my native language. My question is about learning Hebrew. For me, it is a very wonderful language and very close to our language. However, I'm having difficulty with writing and the letters, which are very similar. I would like your advice, and how long it took you to learn the language completely. I'd also like learning resources. Thank you very much.

Hey there 👋🏻,

in a Duolingo lesson I came across the question

"האם היא עצובה או שמחה?"

I was confused by that question because I read in a Wiktionary entry for the word האם that it introduces a yes or no question.

The question in Duolingo isn't a yes or no question but rather a question with different options.

Is it allowed to use האם for this kind of question also?

Hey folks!

I am a first generation American from a Polish family (I speak English and Polish - I'm not Jewish). My girlfriend is Israeli-American (she was born in Tel Aviv but moved to the US at age 4 - she speaks English, Hebrew, some Arabic and can curse in Farsi - she is Jewish). Our relationship is getting more serious and topic is having kids. My gf would really want our kids to not only be Israeli citizens (which I'm all for) but also be fluent in Hebrew. We live in NYC but we will frequently visit Israel as much as we can.

As someone who would want his kids to speak/be fluent Hebrew - I would also like to speak Hebrew fluently. As you can imagine Polish Hebrew (and English) is quite different from Hebrew. I picked up some Hebrew from my gf, as well as friends of ours and from her family. But I would love to speak the language fluently.

My gf recommended in learning the language from children's books and shows and eventually prove on that.

But I'm curious, as a non-native, as a foreigner - what is the best way to learn Hebrew as a newby? As well as for the shake of our kids :)

Thank you!

I’m one of those silly American Jews who learned to decode fluently, but hardly understands a word.

I’m teaching a third grade Hebrew decoding class this year, hoping for your advice on everyday Israeli vocab to incorporate.

Some everyday words/phrases to use would be:
—“here/present” for roll call
—“may I use the bathroom” (the shorter the better for phrases)
—“may I get a drink”
—“I’m done” (finished with an assignment)
— recess, snack, apple juice, grape juice, chocolate milk, Hershey’s kisses
—the variety of responses to
"מה נשמע” “מה קורה” “מה הולך”
— how Israelis would casually say “nice job” (Mazel? Mazel Tov? Tov Meod?) and conversely, “incorrect”
—any fun (age-appropriate for 9 year olds) slang they would have fun with?

— basically, if a kid goes to Israel for a week (or a lifetime!), what are some phrases that would help them get by & feel at home.

Thanks so much!!!

i know basic hebrew like 1000 words, Is it a good idea to learn and memorize 100 words a day like a little south korean kid in college, it is a hustle and hard but if i do it like for 8 hours a day and i memorize them and do that do 30 days then i will have 4000 words. I manly want to learn hebrew to study theology and read the bible in original hebrew. and i have friend who studied hebrew for like 8 hours a day and after 2000 hours of hebrew he could understand and speak very good

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That was Moscow, years ago, when I was tutoring children in Jewish schools on the side. He wasn’t the only one — a few of my students went from failing to solid grades, some went from silent to actually speaking. I still think about that shift, the moment someone stops translating in their head first.
Then I moved to Israel myself, Hebrew philology degree in hand, and found out how much of what I’d been teaching was still textbook Hebrew. Correct, but not how anyone actually talks. I had to rebuild my own Hebrew from scratch, this time by living in it — at work, at the bank, arguing with clerks, sitting through meetings that had nothing to do with grammar and everything to do with getting things done. I built one career there in optometry, then another in clinical research, and somewhere along the way Hebrew stopped being something I studied and became something I just used.
I’m going back to teaching now, online, mostly with adults who’ve had enough of conjugation tables and want to actually speak. If that’s you, I’d like to talk.