Hebrew Podcasts

Lesson 1A – Prelude to Lesson 1

Easy Level

Hello and welcome to Hebrew Podcasts.

If you are just starting to learn Hebrew and find that our lesson 1 Transcription
goes too fast, then this easy-level lesson is for you. It’s designed to We’ll use transcription in our lesson
prepare you for lesson 1 by covering the basic vocabulary that guides to help you read Hebrew. You
you’ll need in that lesson. should read the transcription as if it was
Before we begin, I’d like to encourage you to download the read- English. We’ll use hyphens to help the
along lesson guide that goes together with this lesson. You can pronunciation. We’ll use é and à to better
download it from our web site at http://hebrewpodcasts.com. approximate the Hebrew sounds. Are you
familiar with the expression déjà vu, or
And please let us know what you think about our podcast and give the word résumé? If so, then you should
us any suggestions that you may have for how we can improve it. pronounce these two accents accordingly.
You can contact us by e-mail at learn@hebrewpodcasts.com or Otherwise, pronounce é like the e in let
using the Feedback form on our web site. and pronounce à like the a in bark.
I’m Danny and Noa is here to help me. Finally we’ll use h (the letter h with an
underscore) to denote the sound of the
!‫שלום נועה‬
letter Het (‫)ח‬. You should refer to lesson 2
!‫שלום דני‬ to learn more about this sound.
Let’s begin. You’ll see transcription in green. Here are
a couple of examples:
A great way to learn a language is to speak it out loud. So don’t be
shy! Repeat after us. Let’s give it a try. I’ll greet Noa Shalom and Shà-lom ‫שלום‬
you repeat after me: À-ni ‫אני‬
!‫שלום נועה‬
Shà-lom No-à
►the clock indicates that we pause here for you to repeat
!‫שלום נועה‬
Very good!
Now let’s see how to introduce ourselves. Now suppose that I wish
to say “I’m Danny”. First, let’s hear how to say “I”.
Let’s repeat after Noa
‫אני‬
À-ni
‫אני‬
Excellent!
Now I’m ready to say “I’m Danny”
‫אני דני‬
À-ni Dà-ni
‫אני דני‬
Noa, now it’s your turn
‫אני נועה‬
À-ni No-à
‫אני נועה‬
Well done!

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 Hebrew Podcasts
Lesson 1A – Prelude to Lesson 1
Easy Level

Now let’s use the second person. I’ll say “You’re Noa”
‫את נועה‬ Postcard from Israel
Àt No-à
‫את נועה‬
‫ את‬means you. This is the feminine form. Let’s hear the masculine
form. Noa will say “You’re Danny”
‫אתה דני‬
À-tà Dà-ni
‫אתה דני‬
‫ אתה‬mean you when speaking to a male.
Timna Valley Park is a National Park in
Next, let’s learn how to say thank you. Repeat after Noa6 the Negev desert near Eilat. The Park is
‫תודה‬ noted for its natural sandstone formations.
To-dà It includes what are believed to be the
oldest Copper mines in the world, dating
‫תודה‬
back to at least 4000 BC and worked
Wonderful! almost continuously by many civilizations
including the Egyptians and Romans.
Okay, Noa, let’s say some really simple sentences. To do that, let’s
learn a few nouns and a few verbs.
Let’s start with the nouns. Repeat after Noa, a book is
‫ספר‬
Sé-fér Postcard from Israel
‫ספר‬
Hebrew is
‫עברית‬
Iv-rit
‫עברית‬
A teacher is
‫מורה‬
Mo-ré Soreq Cave is an active cave with a
‫מורה‬ uniquely dense concentration of
stalactites. The cave was discovered in
And a house or a home is 1968 near Bet Shemesh. It is 83 meters
long, 60 meters wide and 15 meters high.
‫בית‬ Some of the stalactites have been dated
Bà-yit as 300,000 years old.
‫בית‬
Great!
Now for the verbs. The following verbs are all in the present tense.
We say these verbs differently depending on the gender of their
subject. In the following examples, Noa will speak about me, so
we’ll hear the masculine form. Repeat after Noa, “You can”
‫אתה יכול‬
À-tà yà-hol
‫אתה יכול‬

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 Hebrew Podcasts
Lesson 1A – Prelude to Lesson 1
Easy Level

You go
‫אתה הולך‬
À-tà ho-léh Postcard from Israel
‫אתה הולך‬
You love
‫אתה אוהב‬
À-tà o-hév
‫אתה אוהב‬
You play
‫אתה משחק‬ United Buddy Bears in Jerusalem
À-tà mé-sà-hék
In 2007, the “United Buddy Bears“ stood
‫אתה משחק‬
hand in hand in Cairo along the River
You learn or you study Nile, for the first time promoting their
international unifying message in an Arab
‫אתה לומד‬ country. In summer, they arrived in
À-tà lo-méd Jerusalem, where the municipality
‫אתה לומד‬ facilitated the exhibition on Safra Square
right in front of the town hall and in close
Outstanding! proximity to the Old City. The Buddy
Okay, we’re ready for a simple sentence. How would we say Bears advocate living together in peace
“Danny is learning Hebrew”? and harmony.

‫דני לומד עברית‬

Dà-ni lo-méd iv-rit
‫דני לומד עברית‬
Fantastic!
And “Danny loves Hebrew”?
‫דני אוהב עברית‬
Dà-ni o-hév iv-rit
‫דני אוהב עברית‬
Good job!
For the next two sentences we need a preposition. We want to use
the words “to the”, in Hebrew we simply add ַ‫ ל‬in front of the word.
So “to the house” is ‫לַ בית‬, and “to the city” is ‫לַ עיר‬.
So, Noa, how do we say “Danny is going to the house”?
‫דני הולך לבית‬
Dà-ni ho-léh là-bà-yit
‫דני הולך לבית‬
Bravo!
And “Danny is going to the city”, or “Danny is going to town”?
‫דני הולך לעיר‬
Dà-ni ho-léh là-ir
‫דני הולך לעיר‬
Nice!

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 Hebrew Podcasts
Lesson 1A – Prelude to Lesson 1
Easy Level

Now, a couple of adjectives. Those are words that describe a noun.

To say “new”, it’s
‫חדש‬
Hà-dàsh
‫חדש‬
And to say “nice”, it’s
‫נחמד‬
Néh-màd
‫נחמד‬
Awesome!
So now let’s add some words together. Noa, how about “a new
house”
‫בית חדש‬
Bà-yit hà-dàsh
‫בית חדש‬
“A new teacher”
‫מורה חדש‬
Mo-ré hà-dàsh
‫מורה חדש‬
“A new book”
‫ספר חדש‬
Sé-fér hà-dàsh
‫ספר חדש‬
“A nice teacher”
‫מורה נחמד‬
Mo-ré néh-màd
‫מורה נחמד‬
And “a nice house”
‫בית נחמד‬
Bà-yit néh-màd
‫בית נחמד‬
That’s grand!
Next, let’s learn how to ask a question. A simple question word that
means what is ‫מה‬
So I’ll call Noa and she’ll respond with what? Noa?
?‫מה‬
Mà?
?‫מה‬
We already know how to say new, so to ask what’s new, we say
?‫מה חדש‬
Mà hà-dàsh?
?‫מה חדש‬

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 Hebrew Podcasts
Lesson 1A – Prelude to Lesson 1
Easy Level

Good!
Now let’s learn to ask “How are you?”
?‫מה שלומך‬
Mà shlom-hà?
?‫מה שלומך‬
?‫ מה שלומך‬that's “how are you”? And to answer, let’s learn the word
for “good”
‫טוב‬
Tov
‫טוב‬
And we already know how to say thank you. So let’s practice
?‫מה שלומך‬
Mà shlom-hà?
?‫מה שלומך‬
And I answer
!‫טוב תודה‬
Tov to-dà!
!‫טוב תודה‬
That’s good, thank you!
You’re doing really well. Learning a language is all about practice,
repetition, and recitation. It helps consolidate all these new words in
the brain.
At this point it’s a good time to mention that in Hebrew nouns have
a gender and other parts of the sentence such as verbs and
adjectives also change form to agree with the gender of the subject.
So far we’ve heard a lot of the masculine form because Noa was
talking about me or to me. Now let’s go back and change some of
our examples to their feminine form by having Noa speak of herself.
Noa, how would you say that you love Hebrew?
‫אני אוהבת עברית‬
À-ni o-hé-vét iv-rit
‫אני אוהבת עברית‬
We see ‫ אוהב‬turns into ‫אוהבת‬.
Let’s see another example. How do you say “a new city”?
‫עיר חדשה‬
Ir hà-dà-shà
‫עיר חדשה‬
We see ‫ חדש‬turns into ‫חדשה‬. That’s because the word for city, ‫עיר‬,
is a feminine noun.
This concept of all nouns having gender feels very strange to
English speakers and makes learning Hebrew harder. But don’t be
discouraged. You’ll get the hang of it, I promise.

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 Hebrew Podcasts
Lesson 1A – Prelude to Lesson 1
Easy Level

Some nouns, like animals or professions have two forms, one for
male and one for female. There are examples of that in English too,
like an actor and an actress and a rooster and a hen.
In our lesson, we learned how to say a teacher, ‫מורה‬. Well, that
was the word for a male teacher. For a female teacher the word is
‫מורה‬
Mo-rà
‫מורה‬
And to say “new teacher” speaking of a female teacher
‫מורה חדשה‬
Mo-rà hà-dà-shà
‫מורה חדשה‬
And to say “nice teacher” speaking of a female teacher
‫מורה נחמדה‬
Mo-rà néh-mà-dà
‫מורה נחמדה‬
Very good!
Let’s look at another example. I learn Hebrew, when spoken by a
woman, it’s
‫אני לומדת עברית‬
À-ni lo-mé-dét iv-rit
‫אני לומדת עברית‬
Excellent!
Noa, I hope you’re not tired yet because we have some more words
to learn so we can make some more sentences. Let’s learn how to
say he and she.
Let’s repeat after Noa, “he is learning Hebrew”
‫הוא לומד עברית‬
Hoo lo-méd iv-rit
‫הוא לומד עברית‬
And “she is learning Hebrew”
‫היא לומדת עברית‬
Hee lo-mé-dét iv-rit
‫היא לומדת עברית‬
Well done!
Now let’s see a couple of verbs in the infinitive. The infinitive is the
form of the verb that describes the action: to tell and to sing. Let’s
hear these two verbs in the infinitive. To tell is
‫לספר‬
Lé-sà-pér
‫לספר‬

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 Hebrew Podcasts
Lesson 1A – Prelude to Lesson 1
Easy Level

And to sing is
‫לשיר‬
Là-shir
‫לשיר‬
Wonderful!
Now let’s see two examples with these two verbs. To say “She can
tell” or “she is able to tell” is
‫היא יכולה לספר‬
Hee yé-ho-là lé-sà-pér
‫היא יכולה לספר‬
Fantastic!
Noa, how would you say “she can sing”?
‫היא יכולה לשיר‬
Hee yé-ho-là là-shir
‫היא יכולה לשיר‬
Good job!
The word for a song is ‫שיר‬. In plural, the word for songs is ‫שירים‬.
So to say “she can sing songs”, we would say
‫היא יכולה לשיר שירים‬
Hee yé-ho-là là-shir shi-rim
‫היא יכולה לשיר שירים‬
Nice!
Noa, how do you say “with us”?
‫איתנו‬
Ee-tà-noo
‫איתנו‬
So “she is learning with us” or “she is studying with us” would be
‫היא לומדת איתנו‬
Hee lo-mé-dét ee-tà-noo
‫היא לומדת איתנו‬
Very good!
Let’s see a variation. “She is coming with us”
‫היא באה איתנו‬
Hee bà-à ee-tà-noo
‫היא באה איתנו‬
‫ באה‬that's the verb for coming. It’s the feminine form. To hear the
masculine form, which is ‫בא‬, let’s see how to say “He is coming
with us”
‫הוא בא איתנו‬
Hoo bà i-tà-noo
‫הוא בא איתנו‬
Super!

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 Hebrew Podcasts
Lesson 1A – Prelude to Lesson 1
Easy Level

That’s it for today. Please remember that learning to speak a new

language requires practice. You need to speak out loud and
repeatedly. I hope that this lesson will make lesson 1 easier to learn
and more enjoyable.
Now you’re ready for lesson 1 where we’ll meet Rina. She’ll tell us
about her school and about her teacher. We’ll practice some
greetings and learn some new words.
Until then
!‫שלום ולהתראות‬
Oh, yes, ‫להתראות‬, that’s goodbye.
!‫שלום ולהתראות‬

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 Hebrew Podcasts
Lesson 1A – Prelude to Lesson 1
Easy Level

Lesson 1A – Exercise

Match each picture with the correct Hebrew word. Draw a line between the word and the
picture.

‫ מורה‬mo-rà

‫ ספר‬sé-fér

‫ בית‬bà-yit

‫ עיר‬eer

‫ לשיר‬là-shir

‫ חדש‬hà-dàsh

‫ לומדת‬lo-mé-dét

‫ מה‬mà

‫ הולכת‬ho-lé-hét

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