Hebrew 101: Lesson 4

The new letters required for this lesson are:

ז Zion, pronounced like the letter 'z' as in zebra

ג Gimel, pronounced like the 'g' as in gallon or girl. It is the first letter of the word gammal, meaning camel, and it evolved its shape from a piture of a camel.

ס Somech (prononounce sah-mech), it makes the 's' sound found in summer and sun. It looks a bit simmilar to the memsofit, but the mem sofit is more square, the somach more rounded in appearance.

פ Pay, it is pronounced like the 'p' in potato. Notice that it has a dagesh (dot) inside the letter, this differentiates it from the next letter and makes it have a harder sound.

פ Fay, is is the same letter as the pay, but without the dagesh. We will learn by the word to distinguish when it is a fay or when it is a pay. The fay has a softer sound than the pay, like the 'f' in falafel or foot.

The vowels required for this lesson are:

These three dots on a slant are called a kubuts (kooboots). The kubuts makes the same sound as the shuruk does (see lesson 3 for a picture of the shuruk if you have forgotten what it looks like). Both are pronounced like the oo in boot. This will be represented on IRC by a \

Vocabulary for this lesson--part A:

םג
 _
Pronounced gahm and transliterated as gam, it means also. It is voweled gimel-patach-nun sofit.

 .
הפ
Pronounced poh and transliterated po, it means here, as in "ani po" הפ ינא, I am here It is voweled pay-holam hasar-hey.

יכ
 .
Prounounced key and transliterated key, it mean because. It is voweled kaf (with dagesh)-hirik-yud

רדח
 VV
Prounounce ched-er and transliterated cheder, it mean room and is a masculine noun. All nouns are either masculine or feminine. Cheder (room) is a always masculine in gender. It is voweled chet-segol-dalet-segol-raish.

ןג
 _
Pronounced gahn and transliterated gan, it means garden or park (not park the car, but a public park which is garden like). It is masculine in gender and is voweled gimel-patach-nun sofit

הכס
 T\
It means sukkah, booth (f.), it is voweled samech-kubuts-kaf (with dagesh)-kamatz-hey. It is pronounced sukkah.

Vocabulary for this lesson--part B:

הז
 V
Zeh - this (m).

תא`ז (תאז)
Zoht - this (f.)

רפס
 V~ (the ~ represents the tsereh 2 dot eh
Sehfer (sefer) - book (m.)

ריג
  .
geer or geyr - chalk (m)

תרבחמ
 VV:_
Machberet - notebook (f)

Vocabulary for this lesson--part C:

לודג
לiדג
   T

Gahdohl (gadol) - big, great (m.)

Note: adjectives, such as gadol, have both masc and fem forms, so they can modify masc or fem nouns.

תלד
 VV
Dehleht (delet) - door (f.)

ןולח
ןiלח
   _
chahllohn (halon/chalon) - window (m)

אסכ
 ~.    The ~ stands for the two dot eh vowel)
The kaf has a dagesh (otherwise it would not be a kaf). It is pronouced Keyseh - chair (m)

ןחלש
 T:\
Shool-chan (shulchan) -- table (m)

רופס
   .
See-poor (oo vowel, not oh) - story (m). It has the same root as sefer (book).

החפשמ
 TT:.
Meesh-pahchah (mispachah) - family (f.)

חא
 T
Ach - brother

תוחא
תiחא
   T
Achoht (achot) - sister