Bit at a time Hebrew -- Genesis 1:1 b

More about Genesis 1:1.

א בְּרֵאשִׁית בָּרָא אֱלֹהִים אֵת הַשָּׁמַיִם וְאֵת הָאָרֶץ:

Transliteration: B’reshit bara elohim et ha-shamayim v’et ha-arets.

Translation:    At the beginning Gd created the heaven and the earth

Letters in this lesson: בּ, ר, א, שׁ, י, ת, ל, וֹ, ה, ם, שּׁ, מ, ץ

Vocabulary in this lesson:

בְּ	on, in, at, by (swear by), with (by means of), against
בְּרֵאשִׁית	at the beginning
בָּרָא	created
אֱלֹהִים	Gd
אֵת	direct object particle
הַ, הָ	the
שָּׁמַיִם	heaven
וְ	and, or, continuation particle
אָרֶץ	earth, land, world

If you really want to hear this verse pronounced, use the link.  It takes about the first 17 seconds of the recording.  Play it over and over.

If you know French, you will hear this speaker pronouncing the letter resh somewhat like the French letter – which letter?  What sound does resh have? 

Now for the most important words in this lesson.

One is ha, and it means “the”.  One of these days you will hear it pronounced heh, and that will be because of the sound that follows it.  I’ll point it out when we get to one.

Notice that ha is spelled two different ways in this lesson.  The vowels in each version have the same sound.  But the marker used for the vowel depends on the rest of the word.  When it has the little “t” shaped thing, that’s because there’s an alef after it.  When it has the little dash, that’s because there’s a shin after it.  Also, the shin has to have dagesh in it because of the ha. 

The other is ve and it means “and”.  Today it is pronounced with a schwa e.  One of these days, it will be pronounce oo (usually transliterated u), and instead of a shva under it, it will have a dagesh next to it.  When there’s a dagesh next to the letter vav, sometimes it will be pronounced u and sometimes it will be pronounced ve or v’. 

 

© Patricia Jo Heil, 2013-2018 All Rights Reserved