How to learn Israeli Hebrew as an adult

1. Decide which Hebrew you are learning

There are two languages called Hebrew. Modern Israeli Hebrew is what nine million people speak in Israel today: the language of the street, the news, WhatsApp and work. Biblical Hebrew is the language of the Hebrew Bible; it shares the alphabet and much of the vocabulary, but nobody speaks it, and its grammar and idiom are different. Most courses, apps and books do not say which one they teach, and many quietly mix the two. If you want to talk with an Israeli, choose material that says modern or spoken or Israeli, and be suspicious of anything that opens with the alphabet and the verb tables.

2. Speak from the first day, before you can read

The alphabet is not the first step; it is the second. You can say שָׁלוֹם (shalom) and מָה נִשְׁמָע (ma nishma, how are you) on day one with transliteration, and you should, because the sound of a word is what you will meet first in Israel. Learn to read alongside speaking, a few letters a week. Reading comes fast once the words are already familiar sounds, and slow when they are only shapes. Adults who wait until they can read before they speak spend months silent and arrive in Israel able to read a menu and unable to order from it.

3. Learn the words Israelis use, in the order Israelis use them

Hebrew has a small core. The few hundred most common words cover most of everyday speech, and the first hundred appear in almost every sentence: אֲנִי (ani, I), זֶה (ze, this), שֶׁל (shel, of), יֵשׁ (yesh, there is), רוֹצֶה (rotse, want). Learn those first, each inside a sentence you would actually say, not as a list. Our daily word follows this order: core vocabulary on most days, then everyday topics, then nuance, and slang every Thursday. You can read the whole archive on the word of the day pages, each with its vowels, its sound and a sentence.

4. Grammar in small doses, when a sentence needs it

Hebrew grammar is regular and, compared with English, small: three tenses, no case endings, a root system that lets you recognise families of words. The trouble is not the amount; it is the order. A course that teaches all seven verb patterns before you can say "I want coffee" is teaching linguistics, not Hebrew. Take the grammar you need for the sentence in front of you: אֲנִי רוֹצֶה קָפֶה (ani rotse kafe) if you are a man, אֲנִי רוֹצָה קָפֶה (ani rotsa kafe) if you are a woman, and that is today's lesson on gender. The rest comes when the next sentence needs it.

5. Watch for the mistakes English makes for you

Most beginner mistakes are English habits carried into Hebrew, and they are predictable. English says Danny's book; Hebrew says הַסֵּפֶר שֶׁל דָּנִי (hasefer shel Dani), the book of Danny, and learners leave out שֶׁל for months. English puts wow at the end of a reaction; Israelis put וואלה (walla) at the start. English has one you; Hebrew has four, by gender and number. A teacher hears these in the first minute; on your own, the mistake of the day pages collect them one at a time, each with the sentence an Israeli would actually say.

6. Then street Hebrew, on purpose

The Hebrew in a Tel Aviv cafe is not the Hebrew in a textbook. It is shorter, it borrows from Arabic (סַבַּבָּה (sababa, great), וואלה (walla, wow, really), יַאלְלָה (yalla, come on)), and its meaning often lives in the tone rather than the word. Learn a little of it early, because it is what you will hear first, and learn it properly, because a slang word in the wrong tone sounds stranger than no slang at all. Our rule for the whole method is one sentence: grammar first in small doses, then street Hebrew and slang, because the short way is actually the long way.

7. Practise with a person, not only a screen

An app is good at two things: vocabulary, and keeping a daily habit. It is bad at the one thing that makes a language yours, which is being understood by a person and understanding them back. Speaking is a skill you build by speaking. If you have an Israeli in your life, ask them for ten minutes of Hebrew a day and tell them to correct you. If you do not, a teacher is the person whose Hebrew you answer to; that is why every task in Dochi, the Israeli Hebrew Institute's app, ends with your voice and then a native teacher's answer.

8. A week that works

• One real conversation a week, with a teacher or an Israeli who corrects you.
• One new word a day, said out loud inside a sentence. Ours arrives every morning on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and WhatsApp.
• The mistake of the day: read the wrong line and the right line, say the right one twice.
• The quiz: A, B or C. Getting it wrong in a comment costs nothing and teaches more than getting it right.
• Ten minutes of Israeli audio with the words you know: a song, a podcast for learners, the radio. Not to understand everything; to hear the tone. The podcasts we recommend, the songs, and everything else.

9. How long it takes

It depends on how often you speak, and on very little else. Students who keep to one lesson a week and a few minutes a day are usually holding simple conversations within a few months, and feeling at ease in everyday situations after about a year. The learners who stall are not the ones without talent; they are the ones who study Hebrew for a year without saying it to anyone.

10. Where to start today

Read today's word and say its sentence out loud. Answer today's challenge. If you want a teacher on the other side every morning, see Dochi below. And keep the one sentence that carries the whole method: מְדַבְּרִים מֵהַיּוֹם הָרִאשׁוֹן (medabrim mehayom harishon), we speak from the first day.