Learning Modern Hebrew vocabulary as an English speaker

Modern Hebrew looks harder than it is. There is a new alphabet, it runs right to left, and the vowels are mostly missing. But its vocabulary has a logic that an English speaker can use from the first week, and the grammar happens to remove a few words you would otherwise have to learn early. Here is how to approach it.

First, the script

Hebrew has 22 letters, five of which take a different shape at the end of a word, and it is written from right to left. It is mostly written without vowels: a system of dots and dashes called niqqud marks them, but it is normally used only in children’s books, poetry and texts for learners (Wikipedia: Hebrew alphabet). Readers fill the vowels in from the word’s pattern and the context.

Two practical consequences. Learn every word with its sound, from a recording or a transcription, because the spelling will not tell you how to say it. And learn the letters alongside your first words rather than before them: reading words you already know is the best letter practice there is.

Roots: one word teaches you the next

Most Hebrew words are built from a root of three consonants (sometimes four), set into a pattern of vowels and extra letters. Verbs come in seven such patterns, called binyanim (Wikipedia: Modern Hebrew grammar). Take the root k-t-v, which has to do with writing:

• כָּתַב katav, he wrote
• מִכְתָּב mikhtav, a letter
• כְּתֹבֶת ktovet, an address

Or l-m-d, learning: לָמַד lamad, he learned, and תַּלְמִיד talmid, a pupil. Note the root of every word you learn. The second word from the same root is already half learned, and a word you have never seen often gives away its meaning.

Grammar that changes which words come first

• Usually no “to be” in the present. אֲנִי סְטוּדֶנְט ani student is simply “I student”: I am a student. You need pronouns early, but not “am”, “is” and “are”.
• No verb “to have”. “I have a dog” is יֵשׁ לִי כֶּלֶב yesh li kelev, literally “there is to me a dog”. So yesh (there is) and ein (there isn’t) belong among your very first words.
• Gender everywhere. Adjectives agree with their noun, and verbs change with the speaker even in the present: a man says ani kotev, I write, and a woman ani kotevet. “You” is ata to a man and at to a woman. Learn the two forms together from the start.

Words you already know

Modern Hebrew has taken in plenty of international words: טֶלֶפוֹן telefon, שׁוֹקוֹלָד shokolad, קָפֶה kafe, פִּיצָה pitsa, מוּזִיקָה muzika. They cost almost nothing to learn, and they are perfect reading practice: you know the word, so you can check whether you decoded the letters right.

Which words to learn first

In every language that has been measured, a few very common words make up most of what people say and write (Piantadosi, 2014). We have not found a published coverage study for Hebrew, so we will not quote percentages, but the principle holds: start with the words you will meet constantly.

• Pronouns: ani I, ata/at you, hu he, hi she, anakhnu we.
• Questions: ma what, mi who, eifo where, lama why.
• The small words: ken yes, lo no, gam also, shel of, yesh and ein.
• Everyday verbs: lirtsot to want, lalekhet to go, lada’at to know.

Making the words stick

One of the classic tests of the keyword method used a language none of its English-speaking students had studied: Russian. You link the new word to an English word that sounds like it, then picture the two meanings together. Students who learned Russian words this way recalled 72% of them the next day, against 46% for students who studied as they liked (Atkinson & Raugh, 1975).

Then test yourself rather than rereading: in one study of foreign words, students who kept recalling them remembered about 80% a week later, against 36% for those who stopped testing and only reread (Karpicke & Roediger, 2008). Review new words the next day, then at growing gaps. The same routine is laid out in more detail in how to remember Spanish words; it works just as well for Hebrew.

How associlang teaches it

Our Modern Hebrew course for English speakers orders its words by how often they are really used, up to 3000. Every word comes with native-accent audio, so the missing vowels never leave you guessing, plus a picture and one sentence that links its sound to its meaning. International words like telefon are marked as ones you already know, and every word returns just before you would forget it.