HSC Modern Hebrew Continuers cheat sheet

Personal identity in Hebrew is expressed with pronouns (אני, אתה, היא) plus adjectives that must agree in gender and number: ילד חדש / ילדה חדשה / ילדים חדשים.

The verb system is built from three-letter roots (שורש) placed in seven בנינים; פעל and התפעל often mark active vs. reflexive or reciprocal action (למד 'he learned' vs. התלמד 'he trained').

Present tense in Hebrew is a participle and agrees with the subject in gender and number, so it carries no person marking: אני לומד / את לומדת / הם לומדים.

Definite direct objects take the particle את; indefinite objects do not: קראתי את הספר 'I read the book' vs. קראתי ספר 'I read a book'.

Social-issue vocabulary for essays: שוויון (equality), אפליה (discrimination), זכויות (rights), קהילה (community), ערכים (values), מחויבות (commitment).

Opinion writing uses evaluative frames: לדעתי 'in my opinion', נראה לי ש־ 'it seems to me that', מצד אחד... מצד שני 'on the one hand... on the other hand'.

Nouns are masculine or feminine; gender is often signalled by endings ־ה/־ת (feminine) or ־ים (masculine plural) but many nouns are irregular, e.g. אב (father, masculine), אם (mother, feminine).

Expressing obligation and permission uses modal patterns: צריך/צריכה ל־ 'must', אסור ל־ 'forbidden to', מותר ל־ 'permitted to', כדאי ל־ 'worthwhile to'.

Hebrew is written right-to-left with 22 consonants; five letters take final forms at word end: כ→ך, מ→ם, נ→ן, פ→ף, צ→ץ.

Vowel signs (ניקוד) are used in poetry, children's texts and prayer but are usually absent in modern prose; readers supply vowels from context and word patterns.

Modern Hebrew is a revived language: it was revived as a spoken vernacular in Palestine from the late 19th century and is now the official language of Israel.

Israeli Hebrew pronunciation drops many historical distinctions; the letters א, ה, ע, ח are often realized similarly, and בגדכפת without dagesh are fricatives (ב v, כ kh, פ f).

Loanwords from English, Arabic, Yiddish and Russian are common; the Academy of the Hebrew Language (האקדמיה ללשון העברית) coins official replacements.

Communities differ in pronunciation and lexicon: Ashkenazi traditions realize ח as a uvular fricative and stress some words differently from Sephardi and Israeli norms.

The definite article ה־ attaches as a prefix and doubles the following consonant in pointed text: הַסֵּפֶר 'the book'; it also marks adjectives agreeing with a definite noun.

Construct chains (סמיכות) express possession and compound nouns: בית ספר 'school' (lit. house of book), מורת הדרך 'the road's teacher'; only the last element takes the article.

Job and workplace vocabulary: קורות חיים (CV), ראיון עבודה (job interview), משרה (position), שכר (salary), מעסיק (employer), עובד (employee), משרה מלאה/חלקית (full/part-time).

Formal application register uses infinitives and impersonal forms: ברצוני להגיש מועמדות 'I wish to apply', אשמח לקבל 'I would be glad to receive'.

The preposition ל־ marks the indirect object and is fused with pronoun suffixes: לי, לך, לו, לה, לנו, לכם, להם.

Cause and purpose are expressed with כדי ל־ 'in order to', מפני ש־/כי 'because', ולכן 'therefore', על מנת ל־ 'in order to' (formal).

Workplace correspondence follows conventions: פנייה 'opening address' (לכבוד...), גוף העניין 'body', וסיום 'closing' (בברכה, בכבוד רב).

Numbers in salary and hours take the construct or absolute form depending on the noun: שלוש שעות 'three hours' vs. שלושה ימים 'three days' (gender agreement).

The passive בנינים נפעל, הופעל and פועל appear in formal work texts: מונה 'was appointed', הועסק 'was employed', נדרש 'is required'.

Tradition vocabulary: מסורת (tradition), מנהג (custom), חג (holiday/festival), טקס (ceremony), שינוי (change), מודרניזציה (modernization), זהות (identity).

Major Jewish holidays named in texts: ראש השנה, יום כיפור, פסח, חנוכה, פורים, שבועות, סוכות; each has distinctive customs and vocabulary.

Shabbat vocabulary: הדלקת נרות (candle lighting), קידוש (blessing over wine), הבדלה (separation ceremony at its close).

Contrast structures for change essays: בעבר... כיום 'in the past... today', פעם... היום, לעומת זאת 'in contrast', בעוד ש־ 'whereas'.

Expressing continuity and change: לשמר 'to preserve', לאמץ 'to adopt', לוותר על 'to give up', להסתגל ל־ 'to adapt to'.

The future tense is formed from prefixes plus the root: אלמד 'I will learn', תלמדי 'you (f) will learn', נלמד 'we will learn'; the conjunction ו־ before a future verb often means 'and'.

Relative clauses use the particle ש־: הספר שקראתי 'the book that I read'; the resumptive pronoun may appear inside the clause.

Hebrew stress is usually final or penultimate; listening for stress helps distinguish forms such as ילד 'child' vs. ילדה 'girl'.

Question words to listen for: מה (what), מי (who), איפה (where), מתי (when), למה (why), איך (how), כמה (how much/many).

Discourse markers signal structure in spoken texts: קודם כל 'first of all', אחר כך 'afterwards', לעומת זאת 'in contrast', לסיכום 'in summary'.

Numbers, dates and times are frequent listening targets; Hebrew reads numbers left-to-right even inside right-to-left text.

Distinguish negation from affirmation: לא 'no/not', אין 'there is not', אף אחד 'nobody', לעולם לא 'never' versus כן 'yes', יש 'there is'.

Note register cues: informal speech uses contracted forms and English loanwords; formal announcements use passive verbs and construct chains.

When taking notes, record speaker, topic, key claim and supporting detail separately, since HSC items typically ask for main idea, detail and inference.

Skim for cognates and root patterns first: words sharing a root (כתב, כתיבה, מכתב, כתוב) cluster around one meaning field.

Identify text type from layout and opening formula: מכתב (letter) opens with לכבוד or שלום; מודעה (advertisement) uses imperatives and short lines; כתבה (article) has a headline and byline.

The particle ש־ introduces complements and relative clauses; את marks definite direct objects; של marks possession (הספר של דני).

Infinitive constructs with prefixes carry modal and purpose meaning: כדי ל־ 'in order to', לפני ש־ 'before', אחרי ש־ 'after', בלי ל־ 'without'.

Pronominal suffixes attach to nouns, prepositions and verbs: ספרי 'my book', עליו 'on him', אמרתי לו 'I said to him'.

Sequence connectors guide comprehension: תחילה 'at first', לאחר מכן 'afterwards', בסופו של דבר 'in the end', כתוצאה מכך 'as a result'.

Answer questions in Hebrew using the tense and person of the question; a why-question (למה/מדוע) expects a clause introduced by כי or מפני ש־.

Text types and their conventions: מכתב רשמי (formal letter), מכתב אישי (personal letter), חיבור (essay), דיווח (report), הודעה (notice), סיפור (narrative).

A formal Hebrew letter uses לכבוד + name at the top, an opening, body paragraphs, and a closing such as בברכה or בכבוד רב followed by the signature.

Cohesion in writing comes from connectors: עם זאת 'however', בנוסף 'in addition', לעומת זאת 'in contrast', לכן 'therefore', לדוגמה 'for example'.

Verb tense consistency: past narrative uses the past conjugation, present description uses the participle, and future forms express plans or predictions.

Adjective–noun agreement must be maintained in gender, number and definiteness: הספר החדש, הספרים החדשים, המחברת החדשה.

Word count and register are assessment criteria; formal writing avoids slang and contractions and prefers full pronouns and passive or impersonal constructions.

Direct speech is introduced with אמר/אמרה and a colon or quotation marks; indirect speech shifts pronouns and tense.