How to Transliterate Hebrew Words

Learning how to work with transliterations of Greek and Hebrew words will elevate your level of Bible study skills tremendously. We have created a number of Bible Study Tools to help you and the first tool we will use is the Hebrew Transliterator -- click here to download / print.   Print the Hebrew Translator so you can use it for this exercise.

The transliterator is divided into columns and rows.
    Columns A, E & I show the number of the Hebrew letter or symbol.
    Columns B, F & J show the Hebrew consonants, vowels & other symbols.
    Columns C, G & K show the equivalent English letters for the corresponding Hebrew letters.
    Columns D & H show the names of the Hebrew letter and the lexicon page numbers.
    Column K also shows the names of the Hebrew vowels.

Now let's transliterate the following Hebrew word:

The graphic below will show you the sequence in which we read the Hebrew letters and vowels. The first thing to know is that Hebrew is read from right to left, instead of left to right like English. 

The first letter is located on the right side where you will find a hand followed by "#1 B-1." This will help you find the letter on the transliterator. "#1 B-1" is explained below:

    #1 is the number of the letter in the word.
    B is the column in which the Hebrew letter is located.
    1 is the number of this letter and is found in column A.
    The letter is an "Aleph" (see D-1).
    It is a silent letter and has no English equivalent, so we use "/" to indicate that we transliterated it.

We now go the symbol located below the letter -- "#2 J-34."
    #2 indicates it is the second letter.
    J is the column in which it is located.
    34 is the number of the letter.
    Its English equivalent is "A."

To this point, our transliteration is "/A."

Find "#3 B-5".
    #3 indicates it is the third letter.
    B is the column in which the Hebrew letter is located.
    5 is the number of the letter.
    Its English equivalent is "D."

Our transliteration now is "/AD."

We now go the symbol located below the letter -- "#4 J-34."
    #4 indicates it is the second letter.
    J is the column in which it is located.
    34 is the number of the letter.
    Its English equivalent is "A."

Our transliteration now is "/ADA."

The last letter "#5 F-17."

    #5 indicates it is the second letter.
    F is the column in which it is located.
    17 is the number of the letter.
    Its English equivalent is "M."

Our transliteration now is "/ADAM." This is the Hebrew transliterated "Adam" in the Bible. However, when it isn't the name of a man, it is translated as either "man" or "mankind," depending in its context.

Now I have one for you to transliterate:

For the answer CLICK HERE.

Congratulations!