Like are they completely interchangeable?

שלומ רהדדית! (I hope that was a good attempt to write Reddit haha)

I’ve been using the app Drops to learn Hebrew from scratch for almost a month and by now I can make a somewhat educated guess on how to read a word I haven’t seen yet. However, as any beginner I’m confused by the fact that there are multiple letters that make the same sound and I haven’t been able to find a good explanation why. The letter vav also seems to be a placeholder of sorts that makes whatever sound convenient like in the word qonus (קומוס)

I’m also confused by when to use ש and when to use ס.

I would highly appreciate it if someone would be able to help me make sense of the system!

תודה!

So my family had a big thoughtful discussion about cultural appropriation tonight, and it inspired me to make this post. I have been considering getting a tattoo for several years, and more recently have fallen in love with “Anavah” and the concept of humility tied to its meaning (I don’t know how to write it in Hebrew or want to try and get it wrong, from what I’ve read that’s easy to do). I am considering getting this word as a tattoo, but would like opinions on whether this would be seen as cultural appropriation or offensive in any way to those of you who are native speakers and/or Jewish, or if there are ways I should tweak it to avoid that.

To give more detail below, I have really thought out a few things to try and avoid being offensive, but still want to check with people who actually speak the language and can give me perspectives I may not have considered.

1. The reason I want the tattoo is tied up in my faith, I am not picking the word because it sounds pretty or I think it is trendy. For me, the meaning of “Anavah” being along the lines of “taking up the space God has set apart for you, not more or less” rather than “humility” as the English word (and its implications of making yourself less important) makes me think the Hebrew language is an important component in this tattoo. The word’s meaning has connection to my beliefs (I am a Christian, and while much of the New Testament was in Greek, a significant portion of our bible is deeply rooted in Hebrew), my personal struggles, and even some language my therapist and I have used in overcoming trauma.

2. I would not get the tattoo using Hebrew characters. It didn’t take much searching to see that there are a million ways that can go wrong when you or your artist don’t speak the language. In addition, the meaning of the word is more important to me than having Hebrew characters in the word itself, so having it in an English spelling seems like a way I can avoid appropriating a language I don’t know or have a deeper cultural connection to. It would simply be written as “Anavah”. Would any of you agree with that as actual Hebrew speakers?

3. I would not get the tattoo on my wrist. The last thing I want is to tie in any kind of Holocaust symbolism or implications.

Please let me know what you think of this idea, my concept of the word Anavah, and whether it could be seen as offensive or I am missing some cultural context that could be important. Thank you in advance!

Google for some reason also doesn't have sound available for hebrew. What are some resources to hear how words are pronounced besides youtube videos?

#ProtoCulture

https://www.redcircleauthors.com/factbook/some-believe-that-the-origin-of-one-of-japans-four-alphabets-katakana-is-ancient-hebrew/

https://preview.redd.it/lbwtelr574f61.jpg?width=657&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=384662642342d746d22f393186da6cdee10a4a92

I am aware that Hebrew does not have vowels in its alphabet, but I am also wondering whether there are any differences between the consonants in the Hebrew alphabet and those in Yiddish? Do they all have the same names and correspond to the same sounds?

If you study Hebrew from online sources, you have probably seen by now that transliteration of Hebrew is not uniform across sources. I wrote a few short guidelines based on how I transliterate.

Hope you find this useful.

https://www.hebrewwithben.com/post/hebrew-transliteration-to-english-alphabet

Hebrew to Cyrillic ש to Ш צ to Ц ץ to Ч

Now it’s your turn!

Is there a Hebrew alphabet reference/chart that uses the font that duolingo uses? I have memrise on my phone but I get confused sometimes as the fonts are different!

I want to learn Hebrew but I don't know how to read the alphabet. Duolingo just threw me in with words and I dunno how I'd be expected to read it without understanding the alphabet.