Things to know about Hebrew
Hebrew is primarily spoken in Israel. It belongs to the family of Semitic languages and originally dates back to Old Testament times.
If your Hebrew lessons require you to type Hebrew characters, follow the instructions immediately below to do so. If your lessons use transliterated Hebrew, see the Using Transliterated Hebrew Lessons section further down.
Using Hebrew Lessons
The Hebrew alphabet consists of 22 letters and a system of vowel marks represented by dots and lines that may be written above, in between, or underneath the letters. Hebrew text can be written with or without these vowel marks. The vowel marks are usually omitted by native speakers, but they are commonly used by learners. Each Hebrew letter has only one form, so there are no capital letters vs. lowercase letters. Hebrew is written from right to left, the opposite of English.
To type Hebrew characters:
- Position your cursor somewhere where you can type, and verify that the virtual keyboard layout is set to Hebrew.
- Locate the character you want on the virtual keyboard, then click on it or press the corresponding key on your physical keyboard. See Typing special scripts for details.
- To type a Hebrew vowel mark, first type the consonant to which that vowel mark will be attached, or position your cursor to the left of that consonant if it is already typed. Click
beside the virtual keyboard and select the appropriate vowel from the set that appears. You can also see the vowel marks on the virtual keyboard by holding down the Shift and Caps Lock keys at the same time.
Note that because Hebrew vowel marks are usually omitted in Hebrew texts, they are not required when you type Hebrew answers in the activities. You can type your answers without any vowel marks at all and they will still be considered correct. However, if you do choose to type the vowel marks because you want to learn them, you must get all the vowel marks in an answer right to have that answer considered correct. If you enter some vowel marks but do not enter all of them, or if you enter an incorrect vowel mark, your answer will be considered wrong.
Using Transliterated Hebrew Lessons
Some of the Hebrew lessons in this application are transliterated - written with the letters of the Latin alphabet, from left to right. Transliterated lessons can help you master vocabulary and pronunciation before tackling a new writing system.
You do not have to type actual Hebrew characters in transliterated Hebrew lessons. You can type the transliterations in any activity or assessment that requires typed answers. Transliterated Hebrew does not require any special characters.