🇮🇱 Hebrew Recommended Learning Material

The phrasesets below were recorded by native speaker friends of ours. How to unlock phrase sets and download phrases:

1. Download the Lingophant app from the app store
2. Go to the sharing tab and create an account
3. Unlock the phrases by clicking the unlock button on the page, and download them.
4. Find 30 minutes every day (public transport? toilet?) to memorise phrases from the Practice tab. Tap the number at the top and you will start your practice.

Here are basic phrase sets for beginners. With a teacher you will create your own personalised ones:

Below, a language introduction by LangFocus (great but nerdy).

In general about the grammar:

(1) Verbs consist 3-4 consonants (like skdftwqrtkh), and you put the some letters (mainly aeiou) between them to change their tense and sometimes meaning.

(2) But the root is almost always 3-4 letters.

(3) The language distinguishes between male and female actors, through pronouns and verb endings.

(4) Adjectives and nouns agree with each other, meaning they share the same form. (e.g. Sefer ka’tan = small book. Sfarim kta’nim = small books).

(5) In general a lot of morphing is done through the changing of the vowels, while the consonant roots stay the same.

These were the basics. The rest you’ll can discover while memorising phrases and listening. You can add notes on a phrase in the app when you notice a pattern.

Here’s a lovely language nerd’s overview of this old language (yay LangFocus!):

Hebrew pronunciation

There was this quite big Crowdfunding campaign out which came, among other things, four videos that go into all possible details, from spelling, phonetics, consonants, to writing rules. It’s useful to know this, but you’ll be practicing with audio anyways so you’ll also be fine without it for now:) They’re a great resource for making the details everything right, but might be a bit overwhelming without any phrases.

We recommend to come back to it later.

You can watch them anywhere, just like you can practice phrases and do some listening anywhere.

Let’s find out how listening-reading works! The following videos of Omer, a skater from Jerusalem who became a video artist, woodworker, and multi-talent. Sit down for the duration of one video and get to know the Listening-reading process step-by-step.

In the future, you can go through the same steps with any YouTube video or Netflix show. That content is interesting and made for native speakers.

There’s also EasyHebrew with some simple content (it gets a bit boring after some time, but hey). It’s also your first dip into actually reading the Hebrew alphabet, so we might want to create some more with latinized subtitles. These videos are great for on the road, because they have double subtitles included, and you can also start focusing on reading the Hebrew alphabet (hint: right-to-left [lol]).

If you’re on a computer, use the channels below with the Language Reactor extension, on chrome. Because you can quickly pause the video and look up words you hear. You can also explore the Hebrew content on their website without downloading the extension (if you prefer not using chrome).

Again: Have a note on your computer with a link to this page for starting with a few clicks or taps.

With the Google Chrome extension “LanguageReactor” installed, you can add double subtitles to any YouTube videos. And they pause and translate words when you hover your mouse over them.

They even have a selection of channels and video inside their app:

Here is a link that works on any browser about sweets and you can practice recognising words for 30 minutes. It is spoken in a slow way.

https://www.languagereactor.com/c/iw/yt/yc_UCduMxl0ur61T8YXIIN913GQ/yt_zD3l3tBjOGo

The lady has a channel where she speaks slowly and understandably: https://www.youtube.com/@hebrewtime

Then there are channels made for native speakers, but quite enjoyable:

• The Easy Way (or Hadrach Hakla). Nicely illustrated videos explaining concepts in the middle east: Like this one about the Druze people. Here’s his full channel.
• An calm family traveler vlog (Off Roads Living) about parenting, home projects, and traveling Scandinavia: Off Roads Living
• And here’s a long-form news channel with also some food vlogs:

That should be already enough material here to keep you busy for some weeks. Pick your 10 videos and rewatch them often. It’s great to review old videos because you already know the meaning and can focus on vocabulary a bit. Just switch often if it gets boring and take some notes.

Are you more the type of person that watches series?

Well, using Language Reactor in Google Chrome, you can watch and rewatch Netflix episodes with two subtitles. Even if the level seems too high, reading along in Hebrew and sometimes pausing to understand can help you feel the structure of sentences and the rhythm of the language.

Here’s our selection of original Hebrew series:

• Fauda – Fauda means chaos in Arabic and it follows a unite that operates to prevent attacks. Classic series that’s loved by both sides.
• Shtisel – About the life of Orthodox Jews in an orthodox neighborhood in Jerusalem and how they deal with their topics in life.
• Hashoter Hatov – Brooklyn 99 but with more nerdy characters. Hashoter is police agent. Tov is good. So it translates as like “the good cop”.
• A Body That Works – After years of trying to have a child, a married couple decides to give surrogacy a chance. But when it comes to people, three is a complicated number. (may not be available in all regions)
• The Beauty Queen of Jerusalem – In 1919 Jerusalem, housecleaner Rosa weds a shopkeeper who loves another woman, a choice that impacts her dynamic with eldest daughter Luna for decades. (may not be available in all regions)

In general you can book lessons with any teacher on iTalki.

Just say you’ll book five lessons so the teacher has an incentive to try out a new app. Then try it out together, using this page to explain how it works:

https://lingophant.com/for-teachers

We can for example recommend Tomer, a dancer and very kind person. He knows how to use the Lingophant app and has taught people with it. 🙂
https://www.italki.com/en/teacher/19362081/hebrew