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How To Translate Hebrew Into English: 11 Steps (With Pictures)
How To Translate Hebrew Into English: 11 Steps (With Pictures)
Hebrew is a language of prayer, religious study, and conversation alike. The language is used often
by non-Hebrew speakers for a variety of reasons, and much of the terminology of Judaism and other
religions is derived from Hebrew. At the same time, written Hebrew can be a difficult language for
those who are not fluent.
Steps
6 Understand the concept of 'silent letters' in Hebrew. The Hebrew language has two letters
that are always silent: אand ע. The letters הand יare also sometimes used as silents. If a
silent letter appears with a vowel, it is pronounced plainly as that vowel with no consonant
sound. If a silent letter appears with no vowel, it is not pronounced.
7 Understand the letter vav ()ו. The vav can make the sounds of 4 English letters: O, U, V, and
W.
A vav with a vowel is typical pronounced as a V followed by the respective vowel sound.
A vav with a dot above (displayed as )וֹis pronounced O as in "rope." It is typically pronounced
in conjunction with the previous consonant and treated just like a vowel together with that
letter. This is known as a cholam.
A vav with a dot to the left (displayed as )וּis pronounced as U as in "glue."' It is typically
pronounced in conjunction with the previous consonant and treated just like a vowel together
with that letter. This is known as a shuruk.
The letter vav is used to represent the English letter W. Though common dialects of Hebrew
do not have a W sound, vav is used for loanwords in modern Israeli Hebrew.
8 Get to know the pronunciation of the letters חand כ. These letters make sounds not found
in the English language. The sound is very much like a K and an H sound put together, rolling
the back of the tongue. Sounds like this are also found in many Eastern European languages.
While these letters are viewed as many as having identical sounds, the חhas more of an H-sound
and the כhas more of a K-sound. Look at YouTube videos in Hebrew or Eastern European
languages to get a sense of how to pronounce these sounds if you do not already know.
9 Get to know the pronunciation of the letter Tav ()ת. Above, you see 3 versions of the Tav.
But the actual pronunciations vary by dialect.
In Ashkenazi dialect of Biblical Hebrew, when vowels are included, תּis used for a T-sound
and תis used for an S-sound. When no vowels are included, no dagesh is found, and the
reader is expected to know which sound to use.
In Sephardi dialect, תis used for a T-sound, with or without a dagesh. This is one of the most
notable differences between Ashkenazi and Sephardi Hebrew used in sacred texts.
Modern Israeli Hebrew is like Sephardi Hebrew with the תrepresenting a T-sound. But ת׳can
also be used for a Th-sound.
10 Get to know the shva. The shva, which appears as a colon (:) below a letter, can either be
pronounced as a short i (as in kid) or no sound at all. To determine whether or not to use a
sound, try to combine the letter under which it is found with the letter that follows as a cluster. If
it is possible to pronounce the two letters as a cluster, the shva is silent, and it is a cluster. A shva
can also be silent when it is at the end of syllable of a word, and another syllable follows. If
neither of these can be accomplished, the shva is pronounced as a short i. The shva is also
pronounced when it is beneath a prefix.
11 Once you understand these rules, you are ready to transliterate.
For consonants, use the English letter corresponding with the Hebrew letter as described.
For vowels, use the following:
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Tips
Some transliterations of words ending in a vowel sound, most commonly the A-sound, have an
H added to the end, and some don't. For example, Chanukah is sometimes spelled Chanuka.
Once again, this is not a solid rule.
Helpful?
Since the English short O (as in hot) sounds nearly identical to A as in father, the letter O is
often used to transliterate a patach or kamatz.
Helpful?
There is no exact rule for transliteration, and transliterations from different sources may vary in
how they are spelled. Some common examples of variances are:
The word ( שבתHebrew for Sabbath) is often spelled either as "Shabbat" or "Shabbos."
This is due to the different pronunciations of the letter tav ( )תand the differences in
vowel transliteration. The th in the English word Sabbath comes from the fact that שcan
also be pronounced as an S and the the תhaving the th in some dialects.
The word חנקהcan spelled as Chanukah or Hanukkah due to the variances in
transliterating the chet ()ח. The differences in the number of Ks is insignificant.
The letter tzadi ( )צhas a TS or TZ sound, but is often transliterated simply as an S or Z.
Helpful?
The English letter J is pronounced like a Y in many languages, and it shares the 10th position
with the letter yud. This leads a lot of transliterations to use J for a Y-sound.
Helpful?
See also the page How to How To Transliterate English into Hebrew, providing reverse
instructions from this one.
Helpful?
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Updated: 15 weeks ago
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