Hebrew for Beginners. How to learn Hebrew - on your own, in courses, individually with a teacher or online

Dear friends! We are starting to publish Hebrew lessons for those who, for one reason or another, cannot attend the ICC ulpan.

Lesson #1 – Differences and similarities between Hebrew and Russian

Hebrew is written from right to left. The covers of books and magazines are on the reverse side for us. Page numbering goes from right to left. The exception is numbers and figures - they are written and read in the way that is familiar to us.

The Hebrew alphabet has 22 letters and the Russian alphabet has 33. This is one of the reasons why Hebrew is an easier language to learn.

In Hebrew no capital letters neither at the beginning of a sentence, nor at the beginning of proper names and titles. For this reason, it is a little harder to read the text at first - it is more difficult for the eye to catch on to the place where a new sentence begins, but you quickly get used to it.

The Hebrew alphabet has virtually no vowels. Vowel sounds are expressed by special symbols: dots and dashes, which are called vowels or “nekudot”.

In neither written nor printed font, letters are connected to each other. In rare cases, due to the speed of writing, they do touch.

Five letters have double graphics, i.e. at the beginning and in the middle of a word they are written in the same way, and at the end of the word they change their appearance.

Each letter in Hebrew stands for a specific number. An entire science is based on this - gematria (disclosure secret meaning all words).

For many centuries, Hebrew was a dead language. This is an isolated case when, after so many years, a language is revived and begins to actively develop. For this reason, most modern words, which did not exist two thousand years ago, were invented or borrowed from other languages.

In Hebrew, dull and hissing sounds predominate, so some may think that the Russian language sounds more sonorous, but Hebrew, like any Mediterranean language, can sound very soft.

Two different letters Hebrew alphabet can convey the same sound.

Hebrew lacks the sounds [ы], [ш]. But there are several unfamiliar to our ears:

ה (similar to the Ukrainian letter "g" or Latin "h")

ע (glottal sound "a")

ח (glottal “x”, rustling sound coming from the larynx)

In modern Israeli society, it is common to burr. However, scientists claim that “R” in Hebrew should sound exactly the same as the Russian “R”

The letters “א”, “ה”, “ח”, and “ע” convey a guttural sound unusual for Russian. In order to pronounce it correctly, it is necessary to activate the larynx, to raise its tone, since for Russian speakers it is more relaxed.

In Hebrew, the sound “l” is softer than in Russian, but not entirely hard. The correct “l” is something between “le” and “le”, “la” and “la”, “lo” and “le”, “lyu” and “lu”.

One of the rules of Hebrew grammar is that a noun always comes before an adjective. In Israel they say: “the house is beautiful”, “the person is smart”, “the car is fast”, etc.

In every language, stress (meaning emphasis) sets the tone for the entire sentence. In Russian, such stress falls on the first part of the sentences, and in Hebrew on the last.

The arrangement of words in sentences differs from the Russian language, for example in Hebrew they say: “He is happy because he has a family”, “His sons wanted to congratulate him”, “They were born in the year 1985”

In Hebrew literary and colloquial like earth and sky. For example, if someone on the street tries to communicate in high Hebrew, others will think that he is a writer, a poet, or an alien.

Some prepositions in Hebrew are written together with the words that follow them.

In russian language most of words are formed using suffixes and prefixes. In the Hebrew language, the main method of word formation is the change of vowels within the root.

In Hebrew there are word-formation models unusual for the Russian language:

1. Mishkali (for nouns and adjectives)

2. Binyans (for verbs)

Knowing them, you can easily conjugate verbs and determine the semantic connotation of a word by its root.

In Hebrew there is such a thing as “smichut” (a conjugate combination of two nouns). For example, the word “cafe” (beit-kafe) in Hebrew consists of two nouns: “house” (bayt) and “coffee” (cafe).

Unlike many languages, Hebrew has pronominal suffixes. For example, with the help of such a suffix, the phrase “my house” can be said in one single word.

Unlike Russian, Hebrew has the same adjective or verb, even in plural has both feminine and masculine forms. For example: the adjective “beautiful” - yafot (f.r.), yafim - (m.r.). The verb “we speak” is madabrim (m.r.), medabrot (f.r.).

There is no respectful form of "you" in Hebrew, so even completely strangers From the first meeting they address each other on a first name basis.

All pronouns except “I” and “we” are gender related. For example, "you" in masculine will be different from the “you” in the feminine. When contacting to the women's team(“they/you”), feminine pronouns are used, but if there is at least one man among them, then the masculine gender is used when addressing.

A masculine word in Russian can be a feminine word in Hebrew, and vice versa.

In Russian there are only two numerals that take masculine or feminine: one/one, two/two. In Hebrew, all numbers can be either masculine or feminine. The gender of a numeral depends on the gender of the noun with which it is used.

There is no neuter gender in Hebrew. Russian neuter words in Hebrew can be feminine or masculine.

When writing this article, materials were used from the site http://speak-hebrew.ru/

Victoria Raz: Hello. Victoria Raz and the Ivrika project for learning Hebrew online are with you. And today I want to introduce you to Sveta Khachaturyan. Sveta repatriated from Russia 6 years ago. And I want to ask her a question about how she learned Hebrew, because she did it, in my opinion, simply brilliantly. Sveta, a few words about yourself and how you learned Hebrew.

Svetlana Khachaturyan: Hello. My name is Sveta, I do coaching in Israel. I am a psychologist and coach. How did I learn Hebrew? When I arrived in Israel, I didn’t know the language at all. Everything was new to me, and I was sure that studying would take me 10 years. Then I started going to ulpan in Tel Aviv. There was intensive training 5 days a week for 5 months. I believe the base should be intense based on my experience. After I completed the first Aleph course, I began to study a lot on my own: read, do some exercises. For example, study the forms of verbs - take words and run their gender to all the binyans. And she did this for many hours a day.

Victoria Raz: What helped you motivate yourself, because we are all too lazy to learn anything?

Svetlana Khachaturyan: I had strong motivation, because at that time I also had difficulties with English. Those. I had only language, and I needed to adapt to this country as quickly as possible. I wanted to study Hebrew and be part of the community. Those. a clearly defined goal - to learn the language as soon as possible - this is what helped me. And plus I had great support from my husband, who read with me and talked. I talked to different girls and asked why they don’t study with their husbands, although many have husbands who have been in the country for many years and speak the language. And many claim that their husbands have little patience. Maybe so, but it seems to me that this is simply not the right approach. We need to agree on this, we need to understand why he himself needs it. My husband has patience and the ability to teach people, so I'm lucky to have him.

Victoria Raz: You recently took a business course with me in Hebrew. How do you recommend starting learning Hebrew? Is it worth delaying this and waiting until you learn Hebrew perfectly, or is it better to jump straight into the water, take some course in Hebrew and try to understand as you go? Your experience.

Svetlana Khachaturyan: How did I do it? I learned Hebrew to such a level that I could speak and understand it in about 2 years, i.e. By this time I spoke freely on everyday topics. But I needed professional language, and that’s why I went to study coaching in Israel. It was a course for a year and 2 months, where there were very difficult things. It was necessary to write reports every week, i.e. I got a letter connected. And this was perhaps the most difficult thing. When I wrote these reports, I made a lot of mistakes - through sweat and blood I learned to write in Hebrew. My coach demanded the maximum from me, he did not make any discounts for me because I had only been in the country for 3 years. It was an academic language - psychology, everything connected with it. It was very difficult for me in class: while other people could express themselves easily and freely, I, who was used to expressing myself high level in Russian, in Hebrew she was more silent. But I must say that people here are somehow more relaxed about such things.

Victoria Raz: Many people are simply embarrassed to talk. In fact, there is nothing to be ashamed of here, everyone is very loyal.

Svetlana Khachaturyan: We Russian speakers have this language barrier. Its roots lie in school, where we were not allowed to make mistakes. You need to rebuild this in yourself, because in other countries in the world no one bothers with how you speak and whether you make mistakes. Well, maybe they'll laugh, at most. This psychological problem In fact. Now there are different teachers who help get rid of what is called horoda miasopha – those. apathy, phobia, fear of speaking foreign language. Those. language barrier, they treat it, they help you get over it. Yes, you can help yourself too.

Victoria Raz: Do you know any little technique you can use to help yourself overcome the language barrier? I think many users are interested in this question.

Svetlana Khachaturyan: Of course have. This technique will help overcome not only the language barrier, but any fear, any emotional condition, which prevents you from taking any step. We are used to doing this: if we are afraid, we try to hide this fear. Those. put on a confident face - and go ahead! This is a very bad way to overcome fear. In fact, fear must be felt: where it is located in the body. Typically, my fear is in my stomach - I already know because I study it all the time. And when I start to simply breathe into this area, not trying to hide this fear somewhere to show a beautiful, smart face, but just breathe into it - and after that go and do what is scary. Those. fear should become an assistant in overcoming it. It is very interesting. And when a person first discovers overcoming his fear in this way, he realizes how easy it is. Fear will not go away; it will accompany us until the end of our days.

Victoria Raz: Those. We are all afraid, and I was afraid, and Sveta was afraid of a lot of things. This is not something unique. Exactly the same emotions are experienced by all other people around us. It’s just that maybe they are masking it, they want to show themselves as so cool and invulnerable. Those. you have to be afraid - and do it.

Svetlana Khachaturyan: Yes, calmly acknowledge your fear. Sometimes I even warned that my Hebrew is not very good, so if possible, speak more slowly - i.e. I asked directly.

Victoria Raz: Do you remember exactly what phrase you said? How did you ask me to speak slower?

Svetlana Khachaturyan:

Victoria Raz: Here, friends, take this phrase into service.

Svetlana Khachaturyan: And you know, people begin to slowly, carefully explain the words. And to this day, when I sit in courses where only locals are around, and if they pronounce some word or verb that I have never heard, I understand the context, but it is important for me to clarify. I ask what this word means. Those. It is very important not to be shy to ask when you don’t understand.

Victoria Raz: This is very consistent with how I have always acted - i.e. with mistakes, but speak, go to study in Hebrew, ask even some basic words. Even if, for example, in the supermarket they forgot the name of something. And then everything will work out. And in conclusion, Svetlana, can you give me some summary, a wish for our listeners, those who are new to the country or are just about to move, who are afraid because of the language, because of their career, or work?

Svetlana Khachaturyan: Yes, sure. I am a psychologist, so I will speak “from my bell tower.” It is very important to overcome these limiting beliefs within yourself. For example, I don’t understand other languages ​​well, I have no hearing, poor memory, I’m slow at doing things - everything that was instilled in us as children. Very often you can hear this from pensioners who are trying to learn Hebrew. But quite the opposite, when pensioners teach new language, form new neurons in their brain, and thereby strengthen their memory. Those. on the contrary, it can be taken as a challenge that will help develop the brain. When a person understands why he is doing this and how quickly he needs to achieve a certain result, he will try. And of course, you shouldn’t believe promises to learn a language in 3 hours or, for example, in 9 days. I believe in systematic and persistent system training, just like any muscle training.

Victoria Raz: This analogy with sports is also very close to me - indeed, the language, the body, and memory - everything needs to be trained. Thank you, Svetlana, all the best!

Svetlana Khachaturyan: Believe in yourself and achieve your goals. All the best, bye!

In order to master the Hebrew language you will need three things - diligence, this site and several useful tips. If you take the recommendations in this article responsibly, your training will become much more effective and interesting. These 9 golden rules long years helped people who are starting to learn a new language. They will help you too!

1. Motivate yourself and set goals

Self-motivation is the key to all further study. To have the right mindset, you need to clearly understand why and why you are learning Hebrew. Imagine that you already speak Hebrew fluently. How will you benefit from this? How can knowing a language change your life?

Set clear goals for yourself and try to do it every day until it becomes a habit. Over time, you will become so involved in Hebrew that studying it will turn into an exciting hobby. By the way, it takes about 40-50 days for a person to form a habit.

2. Create your own training program

Learning Hebrew is purely individual lesson. Other people's training programs and recommendations will not help you, you need your own. The main thing is to realize that you won’t be able to master a language in just a month; this is the result of long and hard work.

Determine how much time you can consistently devote to studying every day. It is advisable that at this time you are as focused and collected as possible. For starters, 30 minutes a day will be enough for you. Think about where and how you will study, for example, you can learn grammar and writing at home, listen to pronunciation audio on the way to work, and repeat the words you have mastered during breaks at work.

3. Repeat and repeat

It’s not for nothing that they say that repetition is the mother of learning. It is impossible to understand and remember absolutely everything in one reading of the lesson. When repeated, previously unnoticed details often emerge, the picture becomes clearer, and knowledge is consolidated better. Set yourself a goal - to learn and repeat 5 new words every day. Write them down on a piece of paper, carry it with you and repeat in your spare time throughout the day.

Try not only to learn and repeat the pronunciation of the words you have learned, but also to practice writing them. With the help of writing, a person remembers 70% more information.

4. Talk to yourself

From the very beginning of learning Hebrew, try to use phrases and phrases rather than individual words. This makes it much easier to memorize words and later use them when speaking.
From the first lessons, start talking to yourself out loud, trying to create a structure for dialogue between two people. For example:

• Hi, how are you?
• Good afternoon, everything is fine, I’m learning Hebrew
• Great, is this a difficult language?

5. Learn to listen to the language

To effectively learn a language, you simply need to listen to it live. Moreover, you will have to not just listen, but analyze the pronunciation and. Try to catch unfamiliar words in the recording, then try to translate them. Believe me, such a serious approach to Hebrew will very soon give you amazing results. By the way, you can practice by listening.

6. Create your learning environment

To make the most of your studies, you need to literally surround yourself with Hebrew on all sides. Read, write, listen and watch in Hebrew. Take an individual approach and learn the language the way you want. You can put stickers with words on all your household items, talk to your friends in a language they don’t understand, or anything else, but most importantly, you should have fun with it. Learning should be lively, not dry and boring.

7. Talk to people

Communicating in Hebrew with real people - The best way practice and learn something new. If you live in Israel, this will not be difficult for you. To make Israeli friends, all you have to do is smile and ask more questions, and believe me, they will pick it up. Israelis are by nature a very kind and talkative people.

If you live in Russia, find out about special courses in your city. And if there still weren’t any, the only way out- find someone to talk to on the Internet. A lesson about will help you with this.

8. Don't be afraid of mistakes and ridicule

Anyone who is just starting to learn Hebrew, especially during live communication, has a fear of making mistakes in pronunciation or difficulty answering the interlocutor’s question. You need to overcome yourself as quickly as possible and become a little bolder and more talkative. In Israel, no one laughs at the mistakes of people just starting to speak; everyone has long since become accustomed to it, because there are hundreds of thousands of Russian repatriates in the country.

9. Constantly improve

Under no circumstances should you stop learning halfway through, otherwise your interest will quickly fade away and you will abandon the matter without ever reaching the victorious end. If you are bored with reading, try writing, watching a movie, listening to songs or the radio, that is, somehow diversify your activities. This will give you new strength for further learning.

Finally, we suggest watching this video advice for new repatriates:

Hello, dear subscribers and guests of my channel. Today I want to tell you about how I learned Hebrew. I was asked about this and therefore I fulfill this request.

So, learning Hebrew, but “learning” is a strong word; I started trying to learn Hebrew before I came to Israel. Let's start with the fact that about six months before moving to Israel, I first came here to visit. I had relatives living here, and at the end of 1989 there was an opportunity to get a visa and come - and I came. I did this because I was not sure of my decision and thought that I would come, see everything with my own eyes and be able to finally decide what to do. Then he just fell iron curtain", and just started letting people go abroad.

I flew to Israel for 3 weeks, met relatives and friends who had lived here for a long time. And of course, while in Israel, I heard speech in Hebrew, which in itself is good, because if you listen to speech in Hebrew and don’t even understand anything, you get used to the sounds of this language, and you don’t get shocked, no nothing unexpected anymore, the language sounds familiar to you.

Thanks to the fact that I was in Israel and heard speech in Hebrew, I learned some of the most everyday words: “shalom” - hello, “leitraot” - goodbye, “toda” - thank you, “beseder” - everything is fine. These, of course, were maybe some 10 words, but 10 words are also good.

About 3 months before moving to Israel, when permission had already been received, my husband and I began to learn Hebrew; or rather, my husband began to teach properly - he took courses from a very famous Hebrew teacher in Riga, who taught very well. And my husband brought me home some crumbs from the master’s table, that is, he told me the basics, simple things that were taught in the courses.

What did we decide to do? We understood that in this bustle we would not learn any Hebrew; but we can learn something, we can make further learning easier for ourselves, and so we started with something simple: we wrote in Russian letters the designation of the simplest Hebrew words and hung them up. For example, they wrote the word “ceiling” and hung it on the ceiling; they wrote “wall” and hung it on the wall; This is where we started; “floor”, “door”, “window” were written in Hebrew in Russian letters and hung in the appropriate places. And every time I came across a word, like “wall,” I said it out loud.

We started to teach simple words, and then moved on to furniture, studying the words: “refrigerator”, “cabinet”, “table”, “chair”, “bed”. Even later, my husband found a Hebrew tutorial somewhere, and an audio cassette was attached to it. What’s good is that this tape recorded the speech of the Sabrs, that is, people for whom Hebrew is native language. They spoke correctly, and everything that was written in the tutorial was spoken out on the audio cassette. So we heard from the very beginning correct pronunciation- this is very important point. Of course, mistakes can be corrected later, but from the very beginning we knew how to pronounce the word correctly. Otherwise, how will you teach? If you are not sure that you pronounce words correctly, then how can you learn a language?

So, our goal was to collect as many basic words as possible. Then we moved on to names of products, clothes; but only the simplest things, nothing complicated. If clothes, then it should be “shirt”, “pants”, “skirt”, “dress” - and of course, not “lace”, “cuffs” - nor anything more complex was taken into account.

During this period, everyone learned Hebrew. I was once riding on a trolleybus and I heard a woman sitting behind me with a girl who looked about six years old and asking her: “What will the sun be like?” - the girl says: “‘Shemesh’.” - “Like “tree”?” - the girl is silent. I turn back and say, 'Ets.' A lot of people left, and a lot of people learned Hebrew, and it was natural.

Is it possible learn Hebrew on your own?

It's real and possible!

Hebrew will be published short lessons, With concrete examples, voiceover and necessary explanations. No prior knowledge is required to start classes! Start learning Hebrew from scratch!

Hebrew self-teacher and 7 learning principles for those who learn Hebrew on their own

I'll tell you how to learn Hebrew correctly so that it YOU learn. That is, to communicate freely in Hebrew, read and write in Hebrew.

By observing the following rules, you certainly achieve success in learning Hebrew.

1. Regularity

Your classes should be regular. On initial stage learning this is critical. If you study rarely and irregularly, you will not learn anything and will only waste your time.

SPEND AT LEAST HALF AN HOUR TO HEBREW DAILY

Half an hour is the most minimum minimum.

It is ideal to devote a total of about 2 hours to studying Hebrew daily. It could be half an hour in the morning on the way to work - listening to audio in Hebrew. Half an hour during lunch break - reading in Hebrew and repeating new words. An hour in the evening - writing, reading and reciting in Hebrew.

2. Intensity

At the initial stage, it is very important to study intensively. What does it mean?

This means that if you learn one word a day, you will not learn Hebrew. Every day you need to write, and read, and compose phrases, and repeat the texts you have learned, and learn words.

Have you ever lit a fire? At first the flame is weak, and a slight breeze of wind can extinguish it. But if you add some wood and fan the fire harder, the fire will soon flare up.

So it is with Hebrew. At the beginning of learning, you need to protect and support the first fragile knowledge. And then your fire of study will burn so strong that it will constantly demand new information. And you will no longer be stopped.

START LEARNING HEBREW FROM ZERO INTENSIVELY

3. Integrated approach

Learn to write, read, listen and speak at the same time. Complex classes greatly increase the efficiency of material absorption.
While working on the text, listen to it, read it out loud, rewrite it and retell it in your own words.

READ, WRITE, LISTEN AND SPEAK HEBREW

4. Effectiveness

Achieve specific results in each lesson. Read the text until reading Hebrew becomes smooth and easy, and the text is familiar and understandable. Write the words until you write them without mistakes. Practice a new rule in different contexts to help you remember it better. Practice your pronunciation by repeating loudly after the announcers.

ACHIEVE RESULTS IN EVERY HEBREW LESSON

5. From simple to complex

Keep the expressions you want to say in Hebrew as simple as possible. Many phrases cannot be translated word for word from Russian into Hebrew. Use simple statements and familiar words.

As it expands vocabulary and knowledge of Hebrew syntax, you will be able to build more complex sentences and convey your thoughts more accurately.

USE SIMPLE HEBREW WORDS AND EXPRESSIONS

6. Less is more

It's better to take small text and completely disassemble it rather than grab a huge book and quit on the first page.

It is better to learn 10 words well than to review and forget 100.

Be realistic about your strengths. Focus on quality, not quantity.

YOUR KNOWLEDGE SHOULD BE QUALITY

7. Repetition

I really don’t want to be banal, but...

Repetition is the mother of learning!

Today it seems that I have learned everything perfectly, everything is clear and simple. And after a week you can’t even string together words, and you don’t remember the rule and you don’t understand the text.

Everything that you have successfully analyzed and completed must be regularly repeated and refreshed.

REPEAT WHAT YOU HAVE PASSED

7. Pleasure

You must study with enthusiasm, interest and pleasure. You learn Hebrew on your own, for yourself. Don't do it under pressure. The result will be negative.

Every time you learn something new, enjoy interesting discoveries!

You have a goal - fluency in Hebrew. I'm sure you can do it! Prove it to yourself.