Biblical Hebrew לְשׁוֹן הַקֹּדֶשׁ
Reading Torah, Psalms and the Siddur in the original — gutturals, the construct state, the vav, and guided passages read line by line.
Reading & Alphabet
The Alphabet, Final Forms & the Gutturals
The 22 consonants from a reader’s view, the 5 final forms, and why guttural letters break the rules.
beginner · 5 min read
The Vowel Signs (Nikkud) — Full Chart
Qamats, patah, segol, tsere, hireq, holem, qibbuts, shureq, shewa and the hatef vowels — with examples.
beginner · 4 min read
Dagesh, Shewa & Syllables
Dagesh lene vs forte, the begadkefat letters, vocal vs silent shewa, and splitting words into syllables.
beginner · 4 min read
Nominals
The Definite Article הַ
He + dagesh forte, and the vowel changes before gutturals and resh — with a memory trick.
beginner · 3 min read
Inseparable Prepositions & the Vav Conjunction
בְּ, לְ, כְּ and מִן — how they attach, how their vowels change, and the many faces of וְ “and”.
beginner · 4 min read
The Construct State (Smikhut)
How Hebrew says “the house of the king” without “of” — the most frequent construction in the Bible.
beginner · 4 min read
Pronouns & Pronominal Suffixes
Independent pronouns table, then the suffixes that turn “house” into “my house / your house”.
beginner · 4 min read
Nominal Sentences, yesh / ein & the Object Marker אֵת
Verbless clauses (“the king is in the house”), existence words, and the little word אֵת before definite objects.
beginner · 3 min read
Verbs
Qatal (the Perfect) — Full Paradigm
שָׁמַר “he kept” in all persons: the suffix conjugation, its endings, and what it means.
beginner · 3 min read
Yiqtol (the Imperfect) — Full Paradigm
יִשְׁמֹר “he will keep” in all persons: prefixes AND suffixes, and the two meaning ranges.
beginner · 3 min read
Wayyiqtol — the Storyline Tense
The vav-consecutive that drives biblical narrative: form, the dagesh in the prefix, and a full paradigm.
beginner · 3 min read
The Seven Stems (Binyanim) — Overview
Qal, Nifal, Piel, Pual, Hifil, Hofal, Hithpael: the meaning patterns with one example each.
beginner · 4 min read
Reading
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I'm Yaacov — a native Jerusalemite teaching Modern Hebrew, Biblical Hebrew, Yiddish and Aramaic. This reference library and the daily words are open to anyone, no account needed. If you want someone to actually read with you, that's what the lessons are for.
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