Free Hebrew Classes for English Speakers – PBC Languages
Learn Hebrew from native speakers at PBC Languages: small group classes plus 1-to-1 exchanges, half in Hebrew, half in English.
Create your free accountNo card needed. Exchanges between members are always free.
Modern Hebrew sentence order lines up with English most of the time (subject-verb-object), and the present tense drops the verb 'to be' entirely: 'ani ayef' means 'I'm tired', literally 'I tired'. That's one less thing to conjugate than in English. Everyday Israeli speech also borrows straight from English - 'sorry', 'okay', 'telefon', 'internet' - words you already own before you start.
What trips people up first is the alphabet: it's new, and normal print skips vowels (they only show up as dots, niqqud, in children's books or prayer texts), so reading takes real practice before it stops feeling like decoding. Three sounds don't exist in English: ח (het, a scraped-throat sound like clearing it gently), ע (ayin, a pharyngeal squeeze most beginners just drop), and ר (resh, closer to a French r than an English one). Gender agreement also runs through the whole sentence, even in the word 'you' - atah (you, masculine) and at (you, feminine) take different verb endings, so you're choosing a gender every time you address someone.
Where things speed up: Hebrew verbs come from three-letter roots stuffed into fixed patterns (binyanim) instead of being conjugated like English verbs. Learn the root כתב (k-t-v, 'write') and you can predict katav (he wrote), kotev (writing), mikhtav (letter). Once two or three roots click, new verbs stop being memorization and start being pattern recognition.
Words you will actually hear
| Here | Elsewhere | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| or (אור) | or | False friend: sounds exactly like the English conjunction, but in Hebrew it means 'light'. |
| lo (לא) | low | Sounds like 'low' but means 'no' - you'll hear and use this one constantly. |
| ken (כן) | Ken | Not a name - it means 'yes'. Nod along when you hear it in class. |
| sof (סוף) | sofa | Means 'end', as in sof hashavua (end of the week) - nothing to do with furniture. |
| bar (בר) | bar | Means 'son' (Aramaic, as in Bar Mitzvah) or 'wild' - never a place to drink. |
| da (דע) | da | The imperative 'know!', not baby talk for 'dad'. |
| man (מן) | man | Biblical 'manna', the food from the sky - unrelated to gender. |
| telefon (טלפון) | telephone | A genuine loanword - say it almost like the English and you'll be understood. |
| sorry / okay (סורי / אוקיי) | sorry / okay | Used exactly as in English in casual Israeli speech - free vocabulary you already have. |
How it works here
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Sign up and say your level
Two minutes. If you do not know your level, we place you in the first class.
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Pick a class or an exchange
Classes are led by a native teacher. An exchange is with another member: half the time in their language, half in yours.
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Join by video, nothing to install
From your phone or your computer. If you cannot make it, cancel and get your place back.
Questions about this
How long does it take an English speaker to hold a real conversation in Hebrew?
It depends on how often you actually show up, but combining a weekly small-group class with regular 1-to-1 exchange practice speeds things up because you're forced to produce sentences, not just recognize them. The alphabet and the guttural sounds are the main early bottleneck - once reading stops being letter-by-letter decoding, speaking tends to move faster.
Is the exchange really free?
Yes - it's a straight swap. Half an hour you help your partner with their English, half an hour they help you with Hebrew. No one pays for the exchange itself.
What level do you need to join?
For the exchange, enough Hebrew to get through a slow conversation is fine - your partner is a native speaker used to helping learners through it. For the small-group classes with a native teacher, absolute beginners are welcome; groups are organized by level.
How is the hour split in the exchange?
Thirty minutes in Hebrew, thirty in English, with a clear switch in the middle. Some pairs use a timer, others just agree on a natural cut-off - either way, you get equal practice speaking, not just listening.
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A free account, a free first group class, and exchanges that never cost anything.
