LPN to RN Online

Hebrew consists of 22 consonant letters, and vowels, or Nikud, which are sometimes printed above or below the consonants. Most Israeli adults learn to read Hebrew without vowels. In fact, newspapers and magazines are printed without the vowel dots.

Biblical Hebrew in Torah scrolls is also written without vowels. The Massorites later added the vowels in printed texts to resolve and standardize any differences in pronunciation. An example of a Hebrew vowel is the “Patach”, which looks like a small dash written under a letter. It adds the “AH” sound to that letter.

In the software tutorial “At Home with Hebrew”, letters are taught in pairs. Each lesson teaches a pair of letters, and introduces a new vowels or two. In this way, the student is not overwhelmed with too much information too fast.

When the student is beginning, English equivalents of Hebrew letters are used as part of the teaching methodology. For example, a “BET” without a dot is pronounced as “V”, and a “BET” with a dot is pronounced as “B”. Thus, in the first lesson, very few real Hebrew words can be taught; instead, nonsense syllables are presented to the student, such as: BEHBAH, VAHBAH, BEHVEH, BEHVAH, VAHV, BAHB.

Lesson number 2 then teaches two more letters (Gimmel and Dalet). In order not to overwhelm the student with too much new information at once, the new letters are rehearsed with vowels from the prior lesson. The syllables presented might include: DEHG, GEHD, DAHG, GAHD, DEHGAH, DEHDEH, DEHGEH, GAHGEH.

Then, slowly, two more vowels are introduced, for example the CHEEREK, which can be prounced like the “EE” sound. The same letter can then be practiced with the new vowels. For example: DEE, GEE, DAHDEE, DEED.

Finally, toward the end of a lesson, the letters learned previously return, and the exercises now mix up everything that the student knows. Example words might be: BAHBAH, BEED, GEEV, VEEBAH, GABAH, and so on.

From time to time, a new letter being taught might look like an existing letter already taught. For example, when the letter “RESH’ is introduced, the student has already learned the letter “DALET”. The tutorial program shows teh two letters, side-by-side, so the student can compare and see the sublte differences. Text also explains the differences to make sure it is obvious.

Each lesson proceeds with two additional consonants. By the Lesson 4, all the vowels have been introduced. By the end of Lesson 13, the student should be able to read, i.e. pronounce any Hebrew word that he sees.