Key Hebrew sounds, guttural letters, and stress patterns, with plain-English pronunciation notes and minimal pairs. Front: the letter or sound pattern (romanization in parentheses). Back: the meaning plus a pronunciation note.
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- ח (Chet)
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A guttural, throat-clearing "kh" sound, like the ch in the Scottish "loch." Example: לחם (lechem, bread).- כ without dagesh (Chaf)
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Also pronounced like the guttural "kh," identical to chet in modern Hebrew. Example: לך (lecha, to you).- ע (Ayin)
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Historically a deep guttural stop; in most modern Israeli speech it is pronounced silently, like the letter aleph. Example: עברית (Ivrit, Hebrew).- ר (Resh)
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A guttural r, produced at the back of the throat, similar to the French r, not rolled like Spanish. Example: רחוב (rechov, street).- ק vs כ with dagesh (Kuf vs hard Kaf)
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Both are pronounced as a hard k sound in modern Hebrew. Example: קפה (kafe, coffee).- Word stress
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Most Hebrew words are stressed on the last syllable, unlike English's varied stress patterns. Example: "shalom" is stressed sha-LOM.- Vowel: a
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Pronounced like the a in "father," a short open sound. Example: אבא (aba, dad).- Vowel: i
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Pronounced like "ee" in "see." Example: אני (ani, I).- Vowel: e
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Pronounced like "eh" in "bed." Example: אחד (echad, one).- Vowel: o
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Pronounced like "oh" in "go." Example: שלום (shalom, hello).- Vowel: u
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Pronounced like "oo" in "food." Example: שולחן (shulchan, table).- Dagesh (dot)
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A dot inside a letter can harden or change its sound; in modern Hebrew this mainly affects the b/v, k/kh, and p/f letter pairs.- ב with/without dagesh (Bet/Vet)
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"ב" with a dot is pronounced "b" as in "boy"; without the dot it's pronounced "v" as in "victory." Example: בית (bayit, house) uses the hard b.- פ with/without dagesh (Pe/Fe)
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"פ" with a dot is pronounced "p"; without the dot it's pronounced "f." Example: ספר (sefer, book) uses the soft f.- ש dot placement (Shin/Sin)
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A dot on the right of the letter makes it "sh" (shin); a dot on the left makes it "s" (sin). Example: שלום (shalom) uses the "sh" sound.
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