1. The Hebrew Café thehebrewcafe.com/forum Textbook: Cook & Holmstedt’s Biblical Hebrew: A Student Grammar (2009) Found here online: http://individual.utoronto.ca/holmstedt/Textbook.htmlhttp://individual.utoronto.ca/holmstedt/Textbook.html Textbook: Cook & Holmstedt’s Biblical Hebrew: A Student Grammar (2009) Found here online: http://individual.utoronto.ca/holmstedt/Textbook.htmlhttp://individual.utoronto.ca/holmstedt/Textbook.html

2. The Hebrew Café thehebrewcafe.com/forum Slide 2

3. The Hebrew Café thehebrewcafe.com/forum Answer the following about the last lesson: Recite the alphabet in order. (Can you write it?) What are the begedkefet ( בֶּגֶ״ד כֶּפֶ״ת ) letters and why are they special? How many letters have two different forms, and what are these letters? What is the second form used for? What letters are these? ← יוד כף שׁין אלף עין גימל נון צדי מם פא דלת What names are spelled out here? ← רחל תמר ישׂראל אדם משׁה יוסף כנען לוי עשׂו Slide 3

4. The Hebrew Café thehebrewcafe.com/forum Slide 4

5. The Hebrew Café thehebrewcafe.com/forum There are basically five full vowel sounds in Hebrew. They are the same as those in Spanish (a, e, i, o, u). You should not think of them like the vowels in English, in which a might sound like apple. They are consistent and do not change between words (as we have apple, want and acorn with no predictability in terms of the sound of the letter a). In Hebrew a always sounds like the a in the word father. Slide 5 a = father or wante = sent or met i = unique or machineo = hope or drove u = flute or suit

6. The Hebrew Café thehebrewcafe.com/forum Slide 6 ClassSoundLongShortHalf aa םָ \ םָהםַםֲ i e םֵ \ םֵיםֶםֱ i םִ \ םִיםִ - u o םֹ \ וֹםָםֳ u םֻ \ וּםֻ -

7. The Hebrew Café thehebrewcafe.com/forum Slide 7

8. The Hebrew Café thehebrewcafe.com/forum Syllables We don’t think too much about syllables in English. To tell the truth, Israelis don’t think about them much in Hebrew either! When you study biblical Hebrew, you need to know a few things about syllables. A syllable can be either open or closed. An open syllable ends in a vowel; a closed syllable ends in a consonant. Simple as that! If we let C be a consonant and v be a vowel, we have: Cv (open)orCvC (closed) Slide 8

9. The Hebrew Café thehebrewcafe.com/forum Syllables (cont.) Every syllable in Hebrew begins with a consonant (with only one exception). In the word דָּבָר davar, we have two syllables: דָּ | בָר. The first ( דָּ ) is open, since it ends in a vowel (Cv). The second ( בָר ) is closed, since it ends in a consonant (CvC). In the word מַלְכָּה malkah, we have two syllables: מַלְ | כָּה. The first ( מַלְ ) is closed, since it ends in a consonant (CvC). The second ( כָּה ) is open, since it ends in a vowel (Cv). Notes: 1.Vowel letters (such as the ה in מַלְכָּה ) do not count as consonants. 2.Sheva usually closes a syllable in the middle of a word. Slide 9

10. The Hebrew Café thehebrewcafe.com/forum Syllables (cont.) Examples from the Vocabulary שָׁלוֹם – two syllables: first open; second closed… שָׁ | לוֹם יִשְׂרָאֵל – three syllables: first closed; second open; third closed… יִשְׂ | רָ | אֵל אֶ֫רֶץ – two syllables: first open; second closed… אֶ֫ | רֶץ אִשָּׁה – two syllables: first closed; second open… אִשְׁ | שָׁה The dagesh represents doubled shin. אֱלֹהִים – two syllables: first open; second closed… אֱלֹ | הִים Half vowels and sheva do not count for full syllables. Slide 10

11. The Hebrew Café thehebrewcafe.com/forum Slide 11

12. The Hebrew Café thehebrewcafe.com/forum Introduction In English, all true sentences have verbs (words that indicates actions or states of being). This isn’t the case in Hebrew. In Hebrew, we can make sentences without verbs, as long as we have a noun as the subject and something in the predicate. He doctor. = “He is a doctor.” They my friends. = “They are my friends.” She beautiful. = “She is beautiful.” This is found on page 11 of the book with the sentence לֹא אֱלֹהִים הֵ֫מָּה. Slide 12

13. The Hebrew Café thehebrewcafe.com/forum Slide 13

14. The Hebrew Café thehebrewcafe.com/forum The second lesson’s goals are basically as follows: Learn the nikkud (the marks that represent the vowel sounds). Uses of Sheva. Dividing words into syllables. Verbless clauses. Welcome to Hebrew!!! Slide 14

15. The Hebrew Café thehebrewcafe.com/forum Textbook: Cook & Holmstedt’s Biblical Hebrew: A Student Grammar (2009) Found here online: http://individual.utoronto.ca/holmstedt/Textbook.htmlhttp://individual.utoronto.ca/holmstedt/Textbook.html Textbook: Cook & Holmstedt’s Biblical Hebrew: A Student Grammar (2009) Found here online: http://individual.utoronto.ca/holmstedt/Textbook.htmlhttp://individual.utoronto.ca/holmstedt/Textbook.html