Guest Author - Julie L Baumler

There are a number of sounds that are common in European languages, including English, that the Hebrew alphabet can not represent. For example, there is no way to represent the ch in Charles Dickens. These unrepresented sounds are used in names of people, cities and countries, as well as in foreign loan words. In order to represent these sounds, certain consonants are used with an apostrophe, sometimes called a tag.

Representing Foreign Sounds in the Hebrew Alphabet

Sound	Symbol	Example
ch	'צ	צ'רלס	Charles
j	'ז	ז'ולי	Julie
g	'ג	'ג'יורג	George

A cognate is a word that sounds similar and has the same meaning in two different languages. For instance, the German word Lampe means lamp. Hebrew and English have many cognates, such as coffee (kafeh - קפה.) A loan word is a word from one language that is adopted by another. For instance, English has borrowed the word kibbutz (קיבוף) from the Hebrew. Likewise, the Hebrew word shalom (שלום) is also used in English. While English only has a few Hebrew loan words, Hebrew has many English loan words. Also, both English and Hebrew have borrowed some of the same words from other languages, such as goulash (גולש) from Hungarian and yogurt (יוגורט) from French.

Another issue language learners need to be aware of is the false cognate. A false cognate is a word that sounds the same in two different languages but has a different meaning. Probably the most difficult false cognate for English speakers who are beginning to learn Hebrew is היא, pronounced like he and meaning she.

Some Hebrew Cognates and Loan Words

English	Hebrew
	Transliterated	Spelled Out
fettuccine	fetuchine	פטוצ'יהי
ravioli	ravioli	רביולי
blintzes	blintzes	בלינצ'ס
mushroom	fungi	פונג'ו
bus	autoboos	אוטובוס
pajamas	pijama	פיג'מה
margarine	margarenah	מרגרינה
kiosk	kiosk	קיוסק
romantic	romanti	רומנטי
steak	steek	סטייק

So far, we've only looked at a few of the many Hebrew words that you already know because they are identical or very similar to English. Just for fun, try the How Much Hebrew Do You Already Know? quiz. You don't even have to know the Hebrew alphabet because I have included transliterations of each Hebrew word for you. If you don't know the alphabet and would like to, check out my resources for learning Hebrew, which include several articles to help you learn the Hebrew alphabet.

You may also be interested in ordering:
Everyday Hebrew - an excellent beginners book and CD or tape set for Hebrew self-study