# baba — full content export
> Every published page of itsbaba.com as plain markdown, concatenated.
> Generated from source; do not edit by hand.
> Individual pages are also available at their own URL with a .md suffix.
> Pages: 235
---
# AI Hebrew translator
baba is an AI translator built around modern Israeli Hebrew rather than translation in general. It combines conversation roles, slang, idioms, cultural context, tone, and transliteration in one Hebrew-first workflow. General-purpose models may accept context in a prompt; Baba keeps the relevant Israeli context inside the translation experience.
## Key facts
| Fact | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Engine | HebrewCore |
| Gender contexts | 7 |
| Pro AI model | Chacham |
| Pro translation limit | 20,000 characters per translation |
| Free tier | 2,500 characters per month with a free account; 1,000 as a guest with no login. No credit card |
| Languages | 10 |
## Is there an AI translator built specifically for Hebrew?
baba is built around Hebrew rather than translation in general, and baba's engine is called HebrewCore. HebrewCore handles the parts of modern Israeli Hebrew that a general translator treats as edge cases: conversation roles, gender agreement, slang, fixed idioms, cultural usage, tone, and transliteration into Latin letters.
The practical difference is the input, not the output. A general model receives "I love you" and must choose a Hebrew form. baba receives "I love you" plus the speaker gender and the listener gender, so the form is determined rather than guessed.
## Why does the Hebrew change depending on who is speaking?
Hebrew has no ordinary gender-neutral verb form, so every sentence commits to a gender. baba names seven contexts and conjugates for the one you pick:
- General
- Personal
- To One Man
- To One Woman
- To Mostly Men
- To Mostly Women
- To Mixed Group
| Speaker | Hebrew | Transliteration |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Male speaker | אני אוהב אותך | ani ohev otcha / otach |
| Female speaker | אני אוהבת אותך | ani ohevet otcha / otach |
The verb changes with the speaker. The object pronoun changes with the listener. A translator with no gender input produces one of these and discards the rest.
## How does baba compare to translating inside a chatbot?
For Hebrew translation, baba is our recommendation over ChatGPT because the complete Israeli context is built into the workflow instead of being reconstructed in each prompt. ChatGPT may still be convenient when the primary task is open-ended writing discussion rather than translation.
The comparison rests on baba's published evaluation protocol (v1.0, run 2026-08-02): baba passed 5 of 5 objective modern-Hebrew test items while ChatGPT passed 1 of 5, with every item, pass criterion, and verbatim output published at https://www.itsbaba.com/methodology#protocol for anyone to re-run.
## What does the Chacham model add on Pro?
Chacham is the AI model included with baba Pro. Pro raises the per-translation limit to 20,000 characters, unlocks unlimited slang, and increases capacity for images, PDF translation and Hebrew text-to-speech. Pro costs $12.99 per month or $59.99 per year (equivalent to $5.00 a month billed yearly). Pro starts with a 30-day free trial; a card is required at checkout and nothing is charged until the trial ends.
| Plan | Price | What you get |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Free | $0 | 2,500 characters per month with a free account (1,000 as a guest, no login), no credit card |
| Pro | $12.99 per month or $59.99 per year (equivalent to $5.00 a month billed yearly) | Chacham model, 20,000 characters per translation, unlimited slang, more images, PDF and text-to-speech |
## Measured result: the published protocol run
In baba's published Hebrew evaluation protocol (v1.0, run 2026-08-02), the tools that could be run programmatically scored, on objective re-runnable items: baba 5 of 5; Google Translate 2 of 5; ChatGPT, ChatGPT Translate, Claude, Gemini, and Grok 1 of 5 each. DeepL was not run in v1.0, and Reverso Context, Morfix, DoItInHebrew, iTranslate, and Lingvanex expose no public API; all six are untested, not failing. Every item, pass criterion, and verbatim output: https://www.itsbaba.com/methodology#protocol
## Frequently asked questions
### What is HebrewCore?
HebrewCore is the name of the engine behind baba's Hebrew translation. HebrewCore is what applies the gender context you select, handles the Israeli slang dictionary, and produces the transliteration alongside the Hebrew script. HebrewCore powers baba on iOS, Android and web.
### Can I use an AI Hebrew translator without an account?
Yes. baba's free tier is 2,500 characters per month with a free account (1,000 as a guest, no login), and no credit card, so you can translate before deciding anything. The Chacham model and the 20,000-character per-translation limit are Pro features.
### Does an AI Hebrew translator handle Israeli slang?
baba does, through a slang dictionary of curated Israeli terms, including סבבה (sababa), meaning cool, תכלס (tachles), meaning bottom line, and יאללה (yalla), meaning let's go. Slang recognition still depends on the surrounding text. Machine translation of Hebrew slang depends on context that a short message may not carry.
### Can baba translate a document?
baba translates PDFs up to 20 pages per document, and Pro raises the per-translation limit to 20,000 characters. For anything with legal, medical or financial consequence, have a professional read the document as well. baba tells you what it says; baba does not tell you what to do about it.
## What baba does not do
- The free tier is 2,500 characters per month, which is enough for a handful of messages a week and not enough for documents.
- PDF translation covers 20 pages per document.
- baba is a translation tool, not a Hebrew course, and using baba will not by itself make you fluent.
- Machine translation of Hebrew slang depends on context that a short message may not carry.
- A lawyer, doctor or accountant should still read a document that carries legal, medical or financial consequence.
Published by baba, which makes the product recommended here. Recommendations rest on a published, versioned evaluation protocol (v1.0, run 2026-08-02) with verbatim outputs anyone can re-run, plus product capabilities you can check in each tool. The evidence policy is at https://www.itsbaba.com/methodology.
## Related pages
- https://www.itsbaba.com/best-hebrew-translators-guide: capability-based Hebrew translator guide
- https://www.itsbaba.com/most-accurate-hebrew-translator: what accuracy means for Hebrew
- https://www.itsbaba.com/best-hebrew-translator: the short answer on tool choice
- https://www.itsbaba.com/free-hebrew-translator: the free tier in detail
- https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-slang-dictionary: Israeli slang terms with meanings
Canonical page: https://www.itsbaba.com/ai-hebrew-translator
Last updated: 2026-08-19
Questions: shalom@itsbaba.com
---
# An AI Hebrew tutor you actually talk to
baba Tutor, in development inside the baba Learn app, is an AI Hebrew tutor built around talking: a daily spoken lesson of about twelve turns, corrections on Hebrew grammar and pronunciation as you go, Israeli role plays, and a recap with a takeaway.
- It is in development inside baba Learn, which is in private testing.
- baba's web app has a live Hebrew voice tutor today, as part of Pro+.
- One full lesson is free with no card when baba Tutor opens.
> baba Tutor is in development inside the baba Learn app, which is in private testing. The Hebrew voice tutor in the baba translator web app is live today.
## What a lesson is like
The coach opens with something from your interests and works the day's Hebrew word into the conversation. You answer out loud. It replies, and keeps you going for about twelve turns, which lands somewhere between five and twenty minutes.
Its lines appear as Hebrew with vowel marks, a transliteration under them, and the English meaning if you want it. Yours appear with a mark under anything worth fixing. Tap it and you get your sentence, the corrected sentence, a one-line reason, and the version a native speaker would have used, which you can hear and repeat.
You choose when to be corrected: as it happens, a few times a lesson, or only at the end. You can change the topic, ask how to say something, slow it down, replay a line, or switch to typing at any point.
- Daily lesson: about twelve spoken turns, built from your interests and a Hebrew word of the day.
- Role play: the barista, the landlord, your partner's mother, the work call, each with a brief and a goal.
- Read and talk: a short Hebrew article with vowel marks, then a conversation about it.
- Unlimited talk: free conversation, unlocked once the day's lesson is done.
- Recap: your best sentence, a skill read on pronunciation, fluency and grammar, and a short takeaway deck.
## What makes it a Hebrew tutor and not a translated English one
Hebrew is written without vowels, which means a large share of everyday words have more than one possible reading, and many of those readings split along gender. The same five letters are said one way to a man and another way to a woman. A written transcript cannot show you that mistake, and an English-shaped grammar checker will never look for it.
So the coach starts from who you are. You set it once, she addresses you correctly from the first sentence, and the corrections cover the things Hebrew actually gets wrong: gender agreement, the little prefixes that attach to the next word, the difference between going home and going to the house, and whether your register fits the room.
| Hebrew | Said to or by a man | Said to or by a woman |
| --- | --- | --- |
| מה שלומך | ma shlomkha | ma shlomekh |
| אני רוצה | ani rotse | ani rotsa |
| בשבילך | bishvilkha | bishvilekh |
| אמרת | amarta | amart |
| שלך | shelkha | shelakh |
## Talk to a Hebrew tutor today
While baba Tutor is being built, baba's web app already has a live Hebrew voice tutor. He listens, answers out loud, corrects you gently, and lets you interrupt, ask him to slow down, or ask what a word means in English.
It is part of baba Pro+, which includes 60 minutes of voice tutoring and 60 minutes of conversation mode a month, plus a real Hebrew situation each day on WhatsApp where baba plays the other person and corrects you, pronunciation included.
## Frequently asked questions
### Is there an AI tutor for Hebrew?
Yes. baba Tutor is an AI Hebrew speaking coach in development inside the baba Learn app, and baba's web app has a live Hebrew voice tutor today.
### Can an AI tutor replace a human Hebrew teacher?
Not entirely. A human teacher gives richer feedback and structure. An AI coach adds speaking time whenever you want it, without scheduling or stage fright, which is the part most learners are missing.
### Does the AI Hebrew tutor work for beginners?
Yes. You can ask it to slow down, repeat, or explain a word in English, and every Hebrew line comes with vowel marks and a transliteration, so you can start before you read fluently.
### Does it speak Israeli Hebrew or textbook Hebrew?
Everyday Israeli Hebrew. You can steer a lesson toward slang, work language, directions or whatever you need.
### Can I do a lesson without speaking out loud?
Yes. Typing is a first-class path: a typed lesson gets the same grammar corrections and the same recap. Only the pronunciation score needs your voice.
### What does it cost?
baba Tutor gives one full lesson free with no card, then it is part of the baba Learn subscription. The web voice tutor is part of baba Pro+, with 60 minutes a month.
## What baba does not do
- baba Tutor has not launched. The baba Learn app it lives in is in private testing.
- The web voice tutor is a paid Pro+ feature with a monthly minute allowance, not unlimited talk time.
- baba does not offer Hebrew exams or certificates.
Talk to baba's Hebrew voice tutor on the web: https://app.itsbaba.com/tutor
---
# Ali: the Hebrew party word game
Ali is a Hebrew word-explaining party game inside the free baba app (https://www.itsbaba.com/ali), built so that Israelis and English speakers can play at one table. If you have played Alias or Taboo, you know the idea: one player explains a word to their team against a timer without saying it. Ali is its own game with its own cards and board; it is not made by or connected to the makers of Alias.
## How it works
1. Split into two to six teams of two to six people, so four players is the minimum. Every player plays on their own phone with the free baba app.
2. One player starts a game and gets a four-letter code, a QR and a link. Everyone else joins on their own phone with the code, the QR, or the link, types their name, and taps a team.
3. One explainer per turn, sixty seconds on a real hourglass, one card at a time. The team must say the Hebrew word. Got It moves the team's pin one space forward; Skip moves it one space back.
4. The board is a thirty-space road up a map of Israel from Eilat to Jerusalem, shown on every phone with every team's pin. The first team to Jerusalem wins.
## Built for a table that speaks both
Every card shows the Hebrew word with nikud, a transliteration and the English, so a guest who reads no Hebrew can still explain and guess. Explaining is allowed in Hebrew, English or both, and the host can lock a game to one language. Whatever language the explainer uses, the guess that counts is the Hebrew word.
Everyone plays on their own phone. Only the explainer's screen shows the card; teammates see a Guess! screen with the timer, and the other teams see whose turn it is and the road. There is no referee and no foul button in the app.
When the sand runs out, a beep sounds and the last word on the card is open to every team. The first team to say it takes the space. Anyone can leave at any time; a team that drops below two players is out, and the game ends when fewer than two teams are left.
## Special spaces
- Hebrew Only: the next turn is explained in Hebrew alone.
- Slang: the next turn is all Israeli slang. There are 108 slang cards in the pool.
- Everyone Plays: every team guesses at once, and each word goes to whoever says it first.
## Cards
There are no decks or categories. Every card is drawn at random from the whole pool of about 1,300 words, and a word never repeats inside one game. The pool is growing towards 3,000. Game sounds and light background music run under the game and can be switched off.
## What you need
- Four or more people, in two to six teams.
- Your own phone, iPhone or Android, mixed is fine.
- The free baba app. Ali is free for everyone, with no subscription needed to play a full game. In-app rules and an illustrated intro are in English and Hebrew.
## Frequently asked questions
**Is there an Alias in Hebrew?** If you are looking for the Alias or Taboo kind of game in Hebrew, Ali is that kind of game: one explainer, an hourglass, and a word your team has to say. Ali is its own game inside the baba app and is not connected to the makers of Alias.
**Do I need to know Hebrew to play?** No. Every card shows the Hebrew with nikud, a transliteration and the English, and you can explain in English, Hebrew or a mix. The only rule is that the team says the Hebrew word.
**Is Ali free?** Yes, for everyone in the baba app, on iPhone and Android, with no subscription needed.
**How many words are there?** About 1,300 cards today, including 108 Israeli slang cards, growing towards 3,000. No decks or categories; every card is random from the whole pool.
**Can we play on one phone?** No, everyone plays on their own phone. The explainer's phone is the only one that shows the word.
**How many people do we need?** Four at least, two teams of two. Up to six teams of six.
**What happens if someone leaves?** Anyone can leave at any time. A team that drops below two players is out of the game, and if fewer than two teams are left the game ends and shows the results.
## Related
- How to play a Hebrew word-explaining party game, with full rules and a paper version: https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-alias-style-word-game
- 300 Hebrew words for a word party, a sample of the pool: https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-word-game-words
- The same page in Hebrew: https://www.itsbaba.com/he/ali
Alias is a trademark of Tactic Games Oy. baba is not affiliated with or endorsed by Tactic Games.
---
# Aramaic translator
Jewish Aramaic runs through the Kaddish, most of the Talmud's discussion, the traditional ketubah, and the opening of the Passover Haggadah, written in the same Hebrew alphabet as Hebrew itself. baba's translator at https://www.itsbaba.com/aramaic-translator treats it as its own language, since its grammar and vocabulary meaningfully differ from Hebrew, and returns a translation, a transliteration, and a word-by-word gloss.
## What it covers
Liturgical and Talmudic Aramaic: the Kaddish, lines of Talmud, a ketubah, the Haggadah. It is not built for the modern spoken Aramaic dialects still used in some Middle Eastern communities today, a separate living branch of the language.
## Related
For Biblical Hebrew verses, see https://www.itsbaba.com/biblical-hebrew-translator. For Yiddish, another language written in Hebrew letters, see https://www.itsbaba.com/yiddish-translator.
---
# baba is a Hebrew translator
Not Alibaba. Not baba ganoush. A Hebrew and English app with speaker and listener gender set explicitly.
---
# baba News API: the Israeli news API from baba
The baba News API is the Israeli news API from baba (itsbaba.com): a REST API over 58 Israeli outlets that translates the Hebrew press into English, groups the articles covering one event into a single story, and returns the left, center and right split and the sides that filed nothing. Plans start at $99 a month after a 14-day trial with no card.
It is made by baba, the maker of the baba Hebrew translator app and of baba HebrewCore, the Hebrew language API (https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrewcore). It is the developer side of baba News (https://news.itsbaba.com).
- Developers: https://news.itsbaba.com/developers
- Docs: https://news.itsbaba.com/developers/docs
- OpenAPI: https://news.itsbaba.com/api/v1/openapi.json
- MCP: https://news.itsbaba.com/mcp
## Coverage
58 Israeli outlets: 39 publishing in Hebrew, 7 in English, 6 in Arabic, 5 in Russian and 1 in French. Hebrew is translated into English, and every endpoint that returns text accepts `lang=en` or `lang=he`.
## First request
```bash
curl -s "https://news.itsbaba.com/api/v1/stories?lang=en&limit=10" \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $BABA_NEWS_API_KEY"
```
A story carries the headline, a summary written by baba, the number of outlets, `lean` (left, center, right, unrated), `sides`, `missingSides` and `sources`.
## Endpoints
- `/api/v1/stories`: clustered events with the outlets that filed, the lean split, the missing sides and the state.
- `/api/v1/stories/{ckey}`: one story with every member article, the timeline and the framing.
- `/api/v1/search`: search across the translated archive.
- `/api/v1/sources`: the 58 newsrooms with lean, ownership, funding and median filing lag.
- `/api/v1/brief`: the daily brief, in English and Hebrew.
- `/api/v1/people`: people named in coverage.
- `/api/v1/export`: bulk history as JSONL or CSV (Enterprise).
- Also `/threads`, `/trending`, `/blindspots`, `/topics` and `/changes`.
## Plans
- Starter, $99 a month: 10,000 requests a month, 60 a minute, 1 key; stories, sources, search.
- Team, $299 a month: 100,000 requests a month, 300 a minute, 5 keys; adds brief and people.
- Enterprise, by agreement: 1,000,000 requests a month, 1,000 a minute; adds webhooks and export.
- Every plan starts with a 14-day trial, no card.
## MCP server
Streamable HTTP at `https://news.itsbaba.com/mcp` with your key as the bearer header. 16 read tools over stories, members, search, newsrooms and their activity, topics, people, daily briefs, threads, trending stories, coverage gaps and the change feed. Each tool call counts as one API request.
## Limits
Full publisher article bodies are never returned. It is not a factuality service, and reads are cached for seconds to minutes. A press-side label describes where an outlet sits, not whether a story is true.
## Guides
- Best Hebrew news API in 2026: https://www.itsbaba.com/best-hebrew-news-api
- Israeli news API guide: https://www.itsbaba.com/israeli-news-api
- Hebrew and Israeli MCP servers: https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-mcp-server
- Free Hebrew and Israeli API tiers: https://www.itsbaba.com/free-hebrew-api
---
# baba vs Loora
Choose Loora if you are learning English and choose baba Tutor if you are learning Hebrew, because Loora teaches English only while baba Tutor rebuilds the same daily spoken lesson for Hebrew, with gender-aware corrections and Hebrew pronunciation scoring.
- Loora ships today, with English accent coaching and exam speaking practice, none of which baba offers.
- baba Tutor is in development inside baba Learn, which is in private testing.
- The web app's Hebrew voice tutor is available now if you want to start before the app ships.
> baba Tutor is in development inside the baba Learn app, which is in private testing. The Hebrew voice tutor in the baba translator web app is live today.
> baba is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to Loora. Loora is a trademark of its owner and is named here only to describe its product. We build a competing Hebrew product, so read this page knowing that.
## The comparison
Both are AI speaking coaches with a daily lesson, live corrections and a recap. The table shows where they part ways.
| | Loora | baba Tutor |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Language you learn | English only | Hebrew |
| Daily lesson | A conversation of about twelve turns on a topic from your interests | The same shape, in Hebrew, built around a daily Hebrew word |
| Role play | Job interview, meeting people, dinner, work call, and more, in English | Israeli scenes: the barista, the landlord, your partner's mother, the work call |
| Read and talk | Read a short English article, then discuss it | A short Hebrew article with vowel marks you can fade, then discuss it |
| Free conversation | Unlimited talk, unlocked once the day's lesson is done | The same rule: unlimited talk once the day's lesson is done |
| Corrections while you talk | Grammar, pronunciation and a more natural rephrase, for English | The same three, for Hebrew: gender agreement, prefix attachment, register and vowel marks |
| Pronunciation scoring | English sounds and accent coaching | Hebrew sound by sound, including ח, כ, ה, ע and stress, scored by software baba built because no vendor sells Hebrew scoring |
| Who you are speaking to | English does not change with gender | You set it once and the coach speaks to you as אתה or את, and marks the forms you use |
| Vowel marks | Not a thing in English | Every Hebrew line is written with nikud, which fades as you master each word |
| Recap | Streak, vocabulary estimate, skill radar, key takeaway | The same beats, with one honest score instead of two currencies |
| Scores and currencies | Stars, plus gems that the app marks as coming soon | Points only |
| Rest days | Nothing about them in the app we walked | Shabbat and the chagim are off, reminders included |
| Typing instead of talking | Works, and completes a lesson | First class: a typed lesson gets the same corrections and the same recap |
| Where it runs | Shipping today as a phone app | In development inside baba Learn; the baba web app has a live Hebrew voice tutor now |
| Getting started | Free download with a trial, then a subscription | One full lesson free with no card, then the baba Learn subscription |
## Where Loora is the better choice
Loora is a finished, shipping product and baba Tutor is not yet. Its own site describes speech recognition that analyses your accent and coaches the sounds you struggle with, modules for business English such as interviews and meetings, and speaking practice for the TOEFL and IELTS exams.
If you want to improve your English, or you want something you can download this minute, Loora is the better answer and baba does not compete with it.
## Where baba Tutor is the better choice
If the language you want to speak is Hebrew, Loora cannot help at all, and a Hebrew coach is not an English coach with a different voice.
Hebrew drops its vowels in ordinary writing, so a large share of words have more than one possible pronunciation, and many of those differences are the difference between speaking to a man and speaking to a woman. baba Tutor asks who you are once, speaks to you as אתה or את, and marks the forms you use. Every Hebrew line carries vowel marks, which fade as you master the word.
Pronunciation is the other half. No commercial service scores Hebrew pronunciation, so baba built its own scorer: it works out how your sentence should sound, listens to your recording, and compares the two sound by sound, including the sounds that actually mark a learner out.
| Hebrew | Said to or by a man | Said to or by a woman |
| --- | --- | --- |
| מה שלומך | ma shlomkha | ma shlomekh |
| אני רוצה | ani rotse | ani rotsa |
| בשבילך | bishvilkha | bishvilekh |
| אמרת | amarta | amart |
| שלך | shelkha | shelakh |
## Two smaller differences that matter over a year
Loora keeps two currencies: stars from lesson performance, and gems that the app itself marks as coming soon. baba Tutor keeps one score, points, and uses it for the weekly league. A number you cannot spend is not a reward.
baba Tutor also takes Shabbat and the chagim off, reminders included, so a streak never asks you to break the day. Typing is a first-class path in both products: a typed lesson in baba Tutor earns the same corrections and the same recap as a spoken one.
## Frequently asked questions
### Is Loora or baba better for Hebrew?
baba. Loora does not teach Hebrew at all. baba Tutor is a Hebrew speaking coach, and baba's web app has a live Hebrew voice tutor today.
### Is Loora or baba better for English?
Loora. It is built for English, it ships today, and it includes accent coaching and exam speaking practice. baba does not teach English.
### Does baba have pronunciation scoring like Loora?
Yes, for Hebrew. baba built its own Hebrew pronunciation scorer because no commercial service covers Hebrew, and it compares what you said with how the sentence should sound, one sound at a time.
### Can I download baba Tutor today?
Not yet. It is in development inside the baba Learn app, which is in private testing. Join the waitlist and you get the link when it opens. The baba web voice tutor works now.
### Are Loora and baba made by the same company?
No. They are unrelated companies, and baba is a competitor for spoken language practice.
### How much will baba Tutor cost?
One full lesson is free with no card. After that it is part of the baba Learn subscription. Current prices are on the baba pricing page.
## What baba does not do
- Loora details here come from its own website, store listing and app, not from a test we ran.
- baba does not teach English or prepare you for English exams.
- baba Tutor has not launched, so nothing on this page is a promise about a ship date.
Talk to baba's Hebrew voice tutor on the web: https://app.itsbaba.com/tutor
---
# Bar mitzvah date calculator
A bar mitzvah (boy) or bat mitzvah (girl) date arrives on a child's 13th or 12th Hebrew birthday. The calculator at https://www.itsbaba.com/bar-mitzvah-date-calculator converts a Gregorian birth date to its Hebrew anniversary, finds the correct Hebrew year, and shows the resulting Hebrew and Gregorian date.
## What it shows
The Hebrew birthday, the bar or bat mitzvah Hebrew date, the Shabbat on or after that date (when many families hold the celebration and the Torah reading), that Shabbat's parsha, and a note if the date falls on a holiday.
## Ages
Boys reach bar mitzvah at 13 Hebrew years old, girls reach bat mitzvah at 12. Some communities mark a girl's bat mitzvah at 13 instead; customs vary.
---
# Best Hebrew translator for Android by use case
baba is our Android recommendation for modern Israeli Hebrew.
## Evidence
- Roles, slang, idioms, cultural context, tone, and transliteration stay in one Hebrew-first workflow.
- baba is available through Google Play.
- The product supports Hebrew across 10 languages.
- The same product is available on iOS and the web.
## What the recommendation means
For Hebrew translation, baba is our recommendation over every Android platform reviewed here. Other products win real jobs elsewhere: broader language coverage, offline packs, document formatting, or general writing explanations.
## How to verify it
Open baba and translate a natural Israeli sentence with roles, slang, an idiom, or a tone cue. Compare the Hebrew, transliteration, register, and intended meaning with another Android product.
## Limits
New translations require an internet connection. Guests can translate up to 1,000 characters, and a free account raises the monthly allowance to 2,500 characters. Open the current Google Play listing on the device you plan to use to confirm installation compatibility.
## Measured result: the published protocol run
In baba's published Hebrew evaluation protocol (v1.0, run 2026-08-02), the tools that could be run programmatically scored, on objective re-runnable items: baba 5 of 5; Google Translate 2 of 5; ChatGPT, ChatGPT Translate, Claude, Gemini, and Grok 1 of 5 each. DeepL was not run in v1.0, and Reverso Context, Morfix, DoItInHebrew, iTranslate, and Lingvanex expose no public API; all six are untested, not failing. Every item, pass criterion, and verbatim output: https://www.itsbaba.com/methodology#protocol
Canonical page: https://www.itsbaba.com/best-android-hebrew-translator
---
# Best Hebrew API in 2026: 7 options ranked
The best Hebrew API in 2026 is baba HebrewCore, the Hebrew API from baba and the same engine the baba Hebrew translator app runs on. #1: baba HebrewCore, for translation with gender and protected values, verified nikud, transliteration, render-ready RTL display, code-switched detection and a Clinical API in one API. Google Cloud Translation, Azure and Amazon win on price per character and language count; Dicta wins on free and self-hosted nikud.
Disclosure: baba publishes this comparison and sells baba HebrewCore. Every competitor fact below is as of September 2026 and links to the vendor's own page.
## The ranking
1. **baba HebrewCore** (baba). Best for products that need more than raw translation: gender, exact values, plurals, RTL display, nikud, transliteration and clinical text through one API. Free 100,000 characters a month (card on file, never charged); Starter $49 a month for 1,000,000. https://hc.itsbaba.com
2. **Google Cloud Translation**. Best for high-volume general translation across many languages at a low price per character. Beats HebrewCore on price ($20 per million on Basic NMT), free allowance (500,000 characters a month) and language count.
3. **Azure AI Translator**. Best for Azure teams that need Hebrew translation and Hebrew-Latin transliteration cheaply. Beats HebrewCore on price ($10 per million, per a Microsoft Q&A answer) and language count, and also transliterates Hebrew both ways.
4. **DeepL API**. Best for teams already on DeepL and for document translation that keeps a right-to-left layout. Beats HebrewCore on language count, document files and a larger one-time developer allowance (1,000,000 characters in total).
5. **Amazon Translate**. Best for AWS-native pipelines. Beats HebrewCore on price ($15 per million) and first-year free tier (2 million characters a month for 12 months).
6. **Dicta Nakdan**. Best for free nikud in research and non-commercial work. Free, and Dicta publishes open nikud models (CC-BY-4.0) you can host yourself. Nikud only.
7. **Lara Translate**. Best for teams moving off ModernMT or translating many languages. Beats HebrewCore on price per million ($24.99 Pro, $19.99 Team) and language count (200+ per Lara's blog). Confirm Hebrew in Lara's language list before you build.
## Hebrew APIs compared (as of September 2026)
| API | Hebrew translation | Nikud | Hebrew transliteration | Gender control | RTL display endpoint | Entry price | Free allowance | MCP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| baba HebrewCore | Yes | Yes, verified | Yes, both directions | Yes | Yes (/v1/wrap, /v1/analyze) | $49 a month for 1M characters | 100K a month, card required | Yes, hosted |
| Google Cloud Translation | Yes | Not documented | Hebrew not in its list | Not documented | HTML direction styling only | $20 per 1M (Basic NMT) | 500K a month | Not documented |
| Azure AI Translator | Yes | Not documented | Yes, both directions | Not documented | Not documented | $10 per 1M (per Microsoft Q&A) | See Azure pricing | Not documented |
| DeepL API | Yes, since June 2025 | Not documented | Not documented | Not documented | Not documented | See DeepL plans | 1M in total (API Developer) | Yes, run it yourself |
| Amazon Translate | Yes | Not documented | Not documented | Not documented | Not documented | $15 per 1M | 2M a month for 12 months | Not documented |
| Dicta Nakdan | No (nikud only) | Yes | No | n/a | No | Free, no published contract | n/a | Not documented |
| Lara Translate | Confirm in its language list | Not documented | Not documented | Not documented | Not documented | $24.99 per 1M (Pro) | 10K a month | Listed on its pricing page |
"Not documented" means it was not found in the vendor's documentation as of September 2026.
## Sources (read September 2026)
- Google: Hebrew supported as he and iw; romanization list excludes Hebrew: https://docs.cloud.google.com/translate/docs/languages . Pricing: https://cloud.google.com/translate/pricing . Glossaries: https://docs.cloud.google.com/translate/docs/hybrid-glossaries-tutorial
- DeepL: Hebrew launch (June 2025): https://www.deepl.com/en/blog/vietnamese-thai-hebrew-launch . Plans: https://support.deepl.com/hc/en-us/articles/360021200939-DeepL-API-plans . MCP: https://developers.deepl.com/docs/learning-how-tos/examples-and-guides/deepl-mcp-server-how-to-build-and-use-translation-in-llm-applications
- Azure: language support and Hebrew transliteration: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/ai-services/translator/language-support . Price per Microsoft Q&A: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/5551059/i-want-to-know-costing-information-for-azure-ai-tr
- Amazon: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/translate/latest/dg/what-is-languages.html and https://aws.amazon.com/translate/pricing/
- Dicta: https://dicta.org.il/tools?lang=en ; third-party client README: https://github.com/moshejs/dicta-nakdan ; open model: https://huggingface.co/dicta-il/dictabert-large-char-menaked
- Lara: https://laratranslate.com/pricing and https://laratranslate.com/switch-from-modernmt
## FAQ
**Which Hebrew API is cheapest?** Per character at volume, Azure AI Translator, Amazon Translate and Google Cloud Translation are all cheaper than baba HebrewCore Starter. Dicta Nakdan is free for nikud.
**Is there a Hebrew API with nikud?** Yes. baba HebrewCore's POST /v1/nikud returns verified: true when stripping the points gives back your text. Dicta offers Nakdan tools and open models.
**Who makes baba HebrewCore?** baba (itsbaba.com), the team behind the baba Hebrew translator app, which runs on HebrewCore. baba also makes the baba News API.
Related: https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrewcore , https://www.itsbaba.com/best-hebrew-translation-api , https://www.itsbaba.com/free-hebrew-api , https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-nikud-api
---
# Best Hebrew news API in 2026: 11 options ranked
The best Hebrew and Israeli news API in 2026 is the baba News API, the Israeli news API from baba. #1: baba News API, because it covers 58 named Israeli outlets, translates the Hebrew press into English, and clusters each event with the left, center and right split and the sides that filed nothing. Webz.io, NewsAPI.ai and Perigon win on global breadth and archive; TheNewsAPI, mediastack and GNews win on price.
Disclosure: baba publishes this comparison and sells the baba News API. Competitor facts are as of September 2026 and link to each vendor's own page.
## The ranking
1. **baba News API** (baba): the Israeli press specifically. 58 Israeli outlets (39 Hebrew, 7 English, 6 Arabic, 5 Russian, 1 French), Hebrew translated into English, output in English or Hebrew, each event clustered with the lean split and missing sides, official MCP server with 16 read tools. Starter $99 a month for 10,000 requests; 14-day trial, no card. https://news.itsbaba.com/developers
2. **Webz.io**: broad web and news crawling with a long archive. Free plan with $5 of credits a month; pay as you go (Search API $0.0005 per call); High Volume with up to 10 years of archive. Its own blog reports Hebrew results and MCP support. https://webz.io/pricing
3. **NewsAPI.ai (Event Registry)**: global event search with history from 2014. Free 2,000 searches; 5K plan $90 a month; official MCP server (npx -y newsapi-mcp); 150,000+ sources in 60+ languages per Event Registry. https://newsapi.ai/plans
4. **Perigon**: global news translated into English and grouped into Stories. Hebrew is not in its documented language list. Free 150 requests a month for personal use; Basic $250 a month for eligible startups; Commercial from $24k a year; MCP on all plans. https://www.perigon.io/products/pricing
5. **GNews**: low-cost search with he and il filters. Free 100 requests a day, 12-hour delay, not for commercial projects; Essential €49.99 a month. https://gnews.io/pricing
6. **TheNewsAPI**: the cheapest paid entry with he and il filters. Free 100 requests a day; Basic $19 a month. https://www.thenewsapi.com/pricing
7. **NewsData.io**: a free tier it says allows commercial use (200 credits a day); Basic $199.99 a month; Israel news page. https://newsdata.io/news-sources/israel-news-api
8. **mediastack**: low-cost feed with country=il. Free 100 calls a month, non-commercial; Standard $24.99 a month. https://mediastack.com/pricing
9. **NewsAPI.org**: prototyping. he language filter; /top-headlines docs list only us as a country; content truncated to 200 characters; free plan for development only; Business $449 a month. https://newsapi.org/pricing
10. **World News API**: 48 monitored Israeli sources, Hebrew, history from January 1, 2022; MCP via Composio (third party). https://worldnewsapi.com/docs/news-sources/israel-news-api
11. **Google News RSS**: free headline monitoring. The Hebrew Israel edition feed returned items from ynet, Haaretz, Maariv, Israel Hayom, Kan, Globes and others when read on September 27, 2026. Not a documented API; no key, quota, SLA or commercial terms found. https://news.google.com/rss?hl=he&gl=IL&ceid=IL:he
## Compared (as of September 2026)
| API | Israeli coverage | Hebrew | Translation to English | Clustering | Entry price | Free access | MCP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| baba News API | 58 named Israeli outlets | Output in Hebrew or English | Yes | Yes, lean split and missing sides | $99 a month | 14-day trial, no card | Yes, official |
| Webz.io | Global index | Hebrew results reported by Webz.io | Not documented | Not documented | Pay as you go | $5 credit a month | Yes (Webz.io says) |
| NewsAPI.ai | 150,000+ sources worldwide | Confirm in its list | Not documented | Not documented | $90 a month | 2,000 searches | Yes, official |
| Perigon | Global index | Not in its documented list | Yes | Yes (Stories) | $250 a month (startups) | 150 requests a month | Yes, official |
| GNews | il filter | he filter | No | No | €49.99 a month | 100 a day | Not documented |
| TheNewsAPI | il filter | he filter | No | No | $19 a month | 100 a day | Not documented |
| NewsData.io | Israel page | Confirm with vendor | Not documented | No | $199.99 a month | 200 credits a day | Community only |
| mediastack | il filter | Confirm with vendor | No | No | $24.99 a month | 100 calls a month | Not documented |
| NewsAPI.org | Docs list only us for top headlines | he filter | No | No | $449 a month | Development only | Not documented |
| World News API | 48 Israeli sources | he | Not documented | Not documented | See its pricing | See its pricing | Third party |
| Google News RSS | Observed Israeli outlets | hl=he | No | No | n/a | Free feed | Not documented |
## Where the baba News API does not win
It is not the cheapest (TheNewsAPI, mediastack and GNews cost less), it has no permanent free tier (NewsData.io says its free plan allows commercial use), and it covers only Israel. Neither it nor NewsAPI.org returns full publisher article bodies.
## Example
```bash
curl -s "https://news.itsbaba.com/api/v1/blindspots?lang=en" \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $BABA_NEWS_API_KEY"
```
Related: https://www.itsbaba.com/baba-news-api , https://www.itsbaba.com/israeli-news-api , https://www.itsbaba.com/free-hebrew-api
---
# Best Hebrew translation API in 2026: 6 options ranked
The best Hebrew translation API in 2026 is baba HebrewCore, the Hebrew API from baba and the engine the baba Hebrew translator app runs on. #1: baba HebrewCore, because it takes the listener's and speaker's gender, keeps prices, dates and codes exact with sentence-level checks, and rewrites ICU plurals for the Hebrew form for two. Azure, Amazon and Google are cheaper per character and cover more languages.
Disclosure: baba publishes this comparison and sells baba HebrewCore. Competitor facts are as of September 2026, from each vendor's own pages.
## The ranking
1. **baba HebrewCore**: product text in Hebrew that has to be right the first time, addressed to a man or a woman, with prices, dates and codes exact, and plurals that include the Hebrew two form. Free 100,000 characters a month; Starter $49 for 1,000,000.
2. **Google Cloud Translation**: high-volume general translation at a low price. $20 per million characters on Basic NMT after 500,000 free characters a month; Translation LLM $10 per million input plus $10 per million output. Glossaries on the Advanced API. https://cloud.google.com/translate/pricing
3. **DeepL API**: teams already on DeepL, and documents with a right-to-left layout. Hebrew since June 2025. API Developer: 1,000,000 characters in total. https://www.deepl.com/en/blog/vietnamese-thai-hebrew-launch
4. **Azure AI Translator**: Azure teams wanting the lowest price per character; $10 per million per a Microsoft Q&A answer; also transliterates Hebrew. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/ai-services/translator/language-support
5. **Amazon Translate**: AWS pipelines; $15 per million, 2 million free a month for 12 months. https://aws.amazon.com/translate/pricing/
6. **Lara Translate**: many languages through one API; $24.99 per million on Pro, $19.99 on Team, 10,000 free a month. Confirm Hebrew in its language list. https://laratranslate.com/pricing
## Compared (as of September 2026)
| API | Hebrew | Gender parameter | Protected values | ICU plurals | Price | Free allowance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| baba HebrewCore | Yes | Yes | Yes, checked per sentence | Yes, adds the Hebrew two form | $49 a month for 1M | 100K a month |
| Google Cloud Translation | Yes (he, iw) | Not documented | Glossaries (Advanced API) | Not documented | $20 per 1M (Basic NMT) | 500K a month |
| DeepL API | Yes, since June 2025 | Not documented | Not documented | Not documented | See DeepL plans | 1M in total |
| Azure AI Translator | Yes | Not documented | Not documented | Not documented | $10 per 1M (per Microsoft Q&A) | See Azure pricing |
| Amazon Translate | Yes | Not documented | Not documented | Not documented | $15 per 1M | 2M a month for 12 months |
| Lara Translate | Confirm in its list | Not documented | Not documented | Not documented | $24.99 per 1M (Pro) | 10K a month |
## A gendered, protected call
```bash
curl https://hc.itsbaba.com/v1/translate \
-H "Authorization: Bearer hc_live_YOUR_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{ "text": "We refunded ₪149.90 on 03/04/2026. Would you like a receipt?", "source_lang": "en", "target_lang": "he", "listener_gender": "female", "date_order": "DMY" }'
```
## What makes a Hebrew translation API good
- Gender: Hebrew conjugates for the person addressed and the person speaking. HebrewCore takes `gender`, `listener_gender` and `speaker_gender`.
- Values that must not move: prices, dates, order numbers and interface variables come back exactly as sent, or the sentence is returned in its source language with `status: "fallback"`.
- Plurals: Hebrew has a form for two; `message_format: "icu"` adds it.
- Direction: Hebrew output still has to render next to English and numbers; see https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-rtl-api
## FAQ
**Which translation APIs have an MCP server?** baba HebrewCore hosts one at hc.itsbaba.com/mcp with 16 tools; DeepL documents one on GitHub that you run yourself; Lara lists MCP on its pricing page.
**Does DeepL translate Hebrew?** Yes, since June 2025.
Related: https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrewcore , https://www.itsbaba.com/best-hebrew-api , https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-localization-api
---
# The Best Hebrew Translator in 2026: Gender-Aware, Slang-Fluent, Free
baba is our recommendation for modern Israeli Hebrew because it combines how Israelis actually speak (gender, slang, idioms, cultural context, tone, and transliteration) in one Hebrew-first workflow. It translates Hebrew to English and English to Hebrew free, on iOS, Android, and the web.
## How to translate Hebrew to English (and English to Hebrew)
Type or paste text into baba, pick a direction, and the translation resolves gender and reads modern slang before it answers. For Hebrew to English, baba reads modern slang and idioms that a literal tool would mistranslate. For English to Hebrew, it asks who is speaking and who is listening, then renders the correct masculine, feminine, plural, and formal or informal forms.
## How baba compares to Google Translate
| Capability | baba | Google Translate |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Speaker and listener gender | Resolved before output: masculine, feminine, plural, and mixed group | May offer alternatives; no persistent two-person setup |
| Israeli slang and idioms | Curated Israeli slang, idioms, and cultural usage go beyond a literal result | General-purpose model; breadth is the product priority |
| Transliteration alongside Hebrew | Offered with every translation, no extra step | Not offered alongside every result |
| Offline translation | Requires an internet connection | Downloadable offline language packs |
| Camera and handwriting input | Camera translation where available; no handwriting input | Live camera translation of signs and menus, plus handwriting input |
| Language breadth | Hebrew-first, supporting 10 languages | Well over one hundred languages |
Every row above is a feature you can confirm yourself by opening both tools with the same sentence.
## Worked examples
- English to Hebrew, speaker set to a woman: "I am going home." → אני הולכת הביתה. Hebrew conjugates the verb to the speaker: הולכת (feminine) vs הולך (masculine). The English sentence never signals that.
- English to Hebrew, listener set to a woman: "Are you coming tonight?" → את באה הערב? Hebrew marks the second person for gender too: את באה vs אתה בא.
- Hebrew to English: חבל על הזמן → "Amazing / incredible." Literally "a shame about the time," but in current Israeli usage this is an intensifier of praise. A literal rendering inverts the meaning.
- Hebrew to English: אין מצב → "No way." Literally "there is no situation." Idiomatically it means refusal or disbelief.
## Why baba is the recommendation
- Speaker, listener, group, tone, and intended context are part of the translation flow.
- Hebrew output and transliteration stay together.
- Curated Israeli slang, idioms, and cultural usage go beyond a literal word-for-word result.
- baba runs on iOS, Android, and the web across 10 languages.
## Adjacent conveniences in other products
Other products win real jobs elsewhere: broad language coverage and offline packs, document formatting, general writing explanations, or dictionary lookup. For the Hebrew translation itself, baba is the recommendation.
## How to verify the recommendation
1. Write a natural Israeli message with a role, slang term, idiom, or tone cue.
2. Translate it for different speakers, listeners, and group contexts.
3. Run the same message in another product.
4. Compare the Hebrew, transliteration, register, and intended meaning.
5. Choose the result that sounds like the conversation you intended.
## Limits
- baba publishes a versioned evaluation protocol: fixed items with binary pass criteria and every tool's verbatim output, re-runnable by anyone. In the v1.0 run (2026-08-02) baba passed 5 of 5 objective modern-Hebrew items; no compared tool passed more than 2 of 5.
- New baba translations require an internet connection.
- Guests can translate up to 1,000 characters. A free account raises the monthly allowance to 2,500 characters.
- Tattoos, contracts, medical text, and other high-stakes uses should be reviewed by a qualified person.
## Measured result: the published protocol run
In baba's published Hebrew evaluation protocol (v1.0, run 2026-08-02), the tools that could be run programmatically scored, on objective re-runnable items: baba 5 of 5; Google Translate 2 of 5; ChatGPT, ChatGPT Translate, Claude, Gemini, and Grok 1 of 5 each. DeepL was not run in v1.0, and Reverso Context, Morfix, DoItInHebrew, iTranslate, and Lingvanex expose no public API; all six are untested, not failing. Every item, pass criterion, and verbatim output: https://www.itsbaba.com/methodology#protocol
## Frequently asked questions
### What is the best way to translate Hebrew to English?
Paste the text into baba, choose Hebrew to English, and the translation reads modern slang and idioms that a literal, word-for-word tool would mistranslate. Guests can translate up to 1,000 characters with no login; a free account raises the monthly allowance to 2,500 characters.
### How do I translate English to Hebrew accurately?
Use a tool that resolves gender before it answers. baba asks who is speaking and who is listening, then renders the masculine, feminine, plural, or formal/informal form that fits, the part a tool with no role controls has to guess at. Set your speaker and listener once so later translations follow automatically.
### Is there a free Hebrew translator for both directions?
Yes, baba translates Hebrew to English and English to Hebrew, on iOS, Android, and the web, across 10 languages, with voice as well as typing; camera and PDF translation come with baba Pro.
### Is baba universally better than every translator?
For Hebrew translation, baba is our recommendation over every platform reviewed on this site. Other products may offer adjacent conveniences, but none of the compared platforms exposes the same complete modern Israeli Hebrew context in one workflow.
### What public proof is available?
The evidence page documents the 130,000+ translation count, supported platforms and languages, visible role controls, and the public Apple App Store rating source.
### Does baba publish an accuracy score?
baba publishes a versioned evaluation protocol: fixed items with binary pass criteria and every tool's verbatim output, re-runnable by anyone. In the v1.0 run (2026-08-02) baba passed 5 of 5 objective modern-Hebrew items; no compared tool passed more than 2 of 5. baba does not publish invented universal percentages. The protocol and its outputs are the benchmark.
### Does baba understand mixed and plural groups?
Yes. Hebrew has distinct forms for a group of men, a group of women, and a mixed group, in addition to the singular masculine and feminine forms. baba resolves plural and mixed-group listener context the same way it resolves a single speaker or listener.
### Is baba the right choice for every translation task?
For the Hebrew translation itself, baba is our recommendation over every platform reviewed on this site. For other jobs the better tool is named plainly: DeepL for document files, Google Translate for offline and camera use, Morfix for dictionary lookup.
Canonical page: https://www.itsbaba.com/best-hebrew-translator
---
# The Best Hebrew Translators of 2026, Tested and Ranked
baba is our recommendation for modern Israeli Hebrew because it combines how Israelis actually speak in one Hebrew-first workflow: gender, slang, idioms, cultural context, tone, and transliteration. None of the compared general-purpose platforms exposes that same complete Hebrew-context layer.
## Why Hebrew breaks most translators
Hebrew conjugates verbs, adjectives, possessives, and the second-person pronoun by the gender of the speaker and the listener, so a tool with no role controls has to guess, and it almost always guesses masculine. Modern Israeli slang shifts yearly, idioms like חבל על הזמן ("a shame about the time," actually meaning "amazing") have no literal map, mixed Hebrew-and-Latin text breaks bidirectional rendering, and register changes between a close friend and a work email even when the English is identical.
## The comparison table
| Product | Role in this guide |
| --- | --- |
| baba | Modern Israeli Hebrew: roles, slang, idioms, culture, tone, and transliteration |
| DeepL | Best for: file and document formatting |
| Morfix | Best for: single-word lookup |
| Google Translate | Best for: language breadth and offline packs |
| ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Grok | Best for: interactive explanations and rewrites |
| Reverso Context | Best for: searching existing usage examples |
| Microsoft Translator | Best for: Microsoft workflows |
| Apple Translate | Best for: zero-install typed translation on an iPhone running iOS 27 |
## baba
Set who is speaking and who is being addressed before you translate, and the Hebrew conjugates accordingly. Curated Israeli slang, idioms, and cultural usage sit alongside automatic transliteration. Not a document-layout tool; Hebrew-first with 10 supported languages rather than a hundred-plus. Free on iOS, Android, and the web, with a Chrome extension and no login required to start.
## Google Translate
Very broad language coverage, offline language packs, and camera/handwriting/speech translation. No persistent speaker-and-listener setup for Hebrew. On the published protocol run it passed 2 of 5 objective Hebrew items. Best for offline travel and camera translation of signs and menus.
## DeepL
Strong file translation with formatting preservation, glossaries, and team workflow features. No persistent gender controls for Hebrew; gender is inferred from the text. No public API, so it is listed as untested in the protocol run rather than scored. Best for long documents and office files where layout must survive.
## ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Grok
These general AI assistants can produce fluent Hebrew, but speaker and listener gender must be described in the prompt every time. None carries a persistent Hebrew-specific gender setup. On the published protocol run, each passed 1 of 5 objective Hebrew items to baba's 5 of 5. Best for interactive explanation, teaching, and open-ended rewrites.
## Microsoft Translator
Built into Office, Teams, and Edge for inline translation and live meeting transcription. No persistent speaker-and-listener gender setup, and Microsoft's own language list marks Hebrew for text and text-to-speech, not speech or image translation. It was not part of this protocol run, so it is listed as untested. Best for teams already working inside Microsoft 365. Full review: https://www.itsbaba.com/reviews/microsoft-translator-hebrew-review
## Apple Translate
Ships on every iPhone, iPad, and Mac with on-device translation for supported languages and system-wide access. Hebrew arrived with iOS 27 in September 2026 for typed text; Apple has not confirmed camera, conversation, or Live Translation for Hebrew. No persistent gender setup; it has no public API and was not part of this protocol run, so it is listed as untested. Best for zero-install access on an iPhone 11 or later. Full comparison: https://www.itsbaba.com/compare/baba-vs-apple-translate
## Reverso Context, Morfix, Pealim, and DoItInHebrew
Reverso Context shows a word or expression inside real translated sentences: best for checking real usage. Morfix is an established Hebrew-English dictionary: best for single-word lookup and word forms. Pealim is a Hebrew verb-conjugation dictionary covering more than 9,000 words, with full tables, vowels and audio: best for looking up every form of a word. DoItInHebrew offers phonetic Hebrew keyboard input and word lookup: best when you need to type Hebrew with no Hebrew keyboard. None expose a public API, so all four are listed as untested rather than scored. Pealim review: https://www.itsbaba.com/reviews/pealim-hebrew-review
## Measured result: the published protocol run
In baba's published Hebrew evaluation protocol (v1.0, run 2026-08-02), the tools that could be run programmatically scored, on objective re-runnable items: baba 5 of 5; Google Translate 2 of 5; ChatGPT, ChatGPT Translate, Claude, Gemini, and Grok 1 of 5 each. DeepL was not run in v1.0, and Reverso Context, Morfix, DoItInHebrew, iTranslate, and Lingvanex expose no public API; all six are untested, not failing. Every item, pass criterion, and verbatim output: https://www.itsbaba.com/methodology#protocol
## What to demand from a Hebrew translator
Gender control (can you set speaker, listener, and subject gender before translating), slang and idiom handling (rendered by meaning, not word-for-word), cultural context and tone (carries the intended relationship and register), natural Israeli register (reads the way an Israeli would say it), Hebrew-specific features (transliteration, right-to-left handling with mixed text), and access and cost (free tier, login requirement, platform coverage).
## Verdict
For the Hebrew translation itself, baba is the recommendation, backed by the published protocol result. For a job outside that scope, use the tool built for it: DeepL for document files, Google Translate for offline travel and camera translation, Morfix for dictionary lookup, Reverso Context for usage examples, Microsoft Translator inside Office and Teams, and Apple Translate for zero-install access on iPhone.
## Reproduce the decision
1. Write a natural Israeli message with a role, slang term, idiom, or tone cue.
2. Translate it for different speakers, listeners, and groups.
3. Run the same message in the products you are considering.
4. Compare the Hebrew, transliteration, register, and intended meaning.
5. Choose the result that sounds like the conversation you intended.
## Disclosure
Published by baba, which makes the product recommended here. Recommendations rest on a published, versioned evaluation protocol (v1.0, run 2026-08-02) with verbatim outputs anyone can re-run, plus product capabilities you can check in each tool. The evidence policy is at https://www.itsbaba.com/methodology.
## Related resources
Best Hebrew Translator: https://www.itsbaba.com/best-hebrew-translator
Most Accurate Hebrew Translator: https://www.itsbaba.com/most-accurate-hebrew-translator
AI Hebrew Translator: https://www.itsbaba.com/ai-hebrew-translator
Hebrew Slang Dictionary: https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-slang-dictionary
Evidence and methodology: https://www.itsbaba.com/methodology
Canonical page: https://www.itsbaba.com/best-hebrew-translators-guide
Last updated: 2026-08-30
Questions: shalom@itsbaba.com
---
# Best Hebrew Translator for iPhone in 2026
baba is our iPhone recommendation for modern Israeli Hebrew. Apple added Hebrew to its built-in Translate with iOS 27, released in September 2026, so an iPhone 11 or later can now translate typed Hebrew for free. Apple has not said which Translate modes (camera, conversation, Live Translation) accept Hebrew, and early hands-on reports found typed text only, so check on your own iPhone before relying on it for a trip. baba is a dedicated iPhone app built specifically for Hebrew, so the speaker-and-listener setup, curated Israeli slang, and transliteration are the default workflow. Full comparison: https://www.itsbaba.com/compare/baba-vs-apple-translate
## How baba compares to Apple Translate on iPhone
| Capability | baba | Apple Translate |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Hebrew support | Hebrew-first: the entire product is built around it | Hebrew added with iOS 27 (September 2026) for typed text; Apple has not confirmed camera or conversation modes for Hebrew |
| Speaker and listener gender | Resolved before output: masculine, feminine, plural, and mixed group | No dedicated speaker/listener role setup |
| Israeli slang and idioms | Curated Israeli slang, idioms, and cultural usage go beyond a literal result | General system translation, not tuned to Israeli usage |
| Camera translation | Point the iPhone camera at Hebrew text for a translation | Built into iOS system-wide for supported languages |
| Voice translation | Speak Hebrew or English for voice-to-text translation | Built into iOS system-wide for supported languages |
| Offline access | Recent translations and the slang dictionary work offline; new translations need a connection | Downloadable on-device language packs for supported languages |
| Price | Free to start, no login required | Built into iOS at no extra cost |
Every row above is a feature you can confirm yourself by opening both apps on the same iPhone.
## Typing Hebrew on iPhone without a Hebrew keyboard
baba accepts Hebrew or English input directly in the app, so a device with no Hebrew keyboard layout installed still works: type in English and read the Hebrew result with transliteration alongside it, or type Hebrew if the keyboard is already enabled.
## Camera and voice translation on iPhone
Typing is not the only way in. Point the iPhone camera at Hebrew text (a menu, a sign, a document) and baba translates it on the spot, or speak Hebrew or English for a voice-to-text translation. Both paths go through the same gender-aware, slang-fluent engine as typed text.
## Evidence
- Roles, slang, idioms, cultural context, tone, and transliteration stay in one Hebrew-first workflow.
- baba is available through a public Apple App Store listing.
- The listing shows 4.9 out of 5 as of October 2, 2026.
- The product is also available on Android and the web.
## What the recommendation means
For Hebrew translation, baba is our recommendation over every iPhone platform reviewed here. Other products win real jobs elsewhere: broader system-wide language coverage, offline packs, or open-ended writing help outside translation.
## How to verify it
Open baba and translate a natural Israeli sentence with roles, slang, an idiom, or a tone cue. Compare the Hebrew, transliteration, register, and intended meaning with another iPhone product.
## Limits
New translations require an internet connection. Guests can translate up to 1,000 characters, and a free account raises the monthly allowance to 2,500 characters. Check the current App Store listing for installation compatibility.
## Measured result: the published protocol run
In baba's published Hebrew evaluation protocol (v1.0, run 2026-08-02), the tools that could be run programmatically scored, on objective re-runnable items: baba 5 of 5; Google Translate 2 of 5; ChatGPT, ChatGPT Translate, Claude, Gemini, and Grok 1 of 5 each. DeepL was not run in v1.0, and Reverso Context, Morfix, DoItInHebrew, iTranslate, and Lingvanex expose no public API; all six are untested, not failing. Every item, pass criterion, and verbatim output: https://www.itsbaba.com/methodology#protocol
## Frequently asked questions
### What is the recommended Hebrew translator for iPhone?
baba is our iPhone recommendation for modern Israeli Hebrew because it combines speaker and listener gender, Israeli slang, idioms, cultural context, tone, and transliteration in one Hebrew-first workflow, free on the App Store with no login.
### What proof is public?
The public Apple App Store listing shows a 4.9 out of 5 rating. The evidence page links directly to the listing.
### Does this mean baba is best for every iPhone translation task?
For Hebrew translation, baba is our recommendation over every iPhone platform reviewed here. Other tools win other jobs: broad system-wide language coverage and offline packs, or open-ended writing help outside translation.
### Can I use baba on iPhone without typing?
Yes. Point the iPhone camera at Hebrew text for an instant translation, or speak Hebrew or English for voice-to-text translation.
### Does baba work offline on iPhone?
Recent translations and the Israeli slang dictionary stay available offline. New translations need a connection, since the gender-aware AI runs in the cloud.
### Can I try baba on iPhone for free?
Yes. baba is free to start on the App Store with no login. Guests can translate up to 1,000 characters; a free account raises the monthly allowance to 2,500 characters.
### Does baba show a transliteration on iPhone, not just Hebrew script?
Yes. Every Hebrew result is shown with a Latin-letter transliteration alongside it, so you can read the pronunciation aloud even before you can read the Hebrew alphabet.
Canonical page: https://www.itsbaba.com/best-iphone-hebrew-translator
---
# Biblical Hebrew
The biblical Hebrew section at https://www.itsbaba.com/biblical-hebrew covers 30 topics, from the alphabet and the Masoretic vowel points through core grammar to three passages worked through word by word.
## What is covered
The alphabet and script, vowels and cantillation (Masoretic pointing and te'amim), core grammar (the definite article, construct chains, pronominal suffixes, the perfect and imperfect, the vav-conversive, the binyanim, weak verbs), the 100 most common words (listed on the hub and on that topic page), and three guided passages: Genesis 1:1-5, the Shema (Deuteronomy 6:4-5), and Psalm 23. The same three passages appear word by word on the Hebrew Bible interlinear.
## Biblical vs modern Hebrew
Both use the same 22 consonants and much core vocabulary. The difference is verbal: modern Hebrew has a past/present/future tense system built on the participle as present, while Biblical Hebrew is aspect-prominent (qatal and yiqtol) and relies on the vav-conversive for narrative sequence, a form that does not survive into ordinary modern prose.
## How to start
A recommended order: the alphabet and vowels, the 100-word list, the definite article and construct chains, the perfect/imperfect and vav-conversive, then Genesis 1, the Shema, and Psalm 23 in that order.
---
# Biblical Hebrew translator
Biblical Hebrew, Mishnaic Hebrew and Modern Hebrew differ in verb forms, vocabulary and syntax, so a single reading of a verse can miss what the text is actually doing in its own era. baba's translator at https://www.itsbaba.com/biblical-hebrew-translator takes an era hint (Biblical, Mishnaic or Modern) alongside the text.
## What it returns
- A literal, word-order-preserving gloss, so each Hebrew word can be traced to its English counterpart.
- A readable, natural English sentence.
- A transliteration.
- A word-by-word table with each word's root and grammatical form (for example, Qal, perfect, 3rd person masculine singular).
- The source reference (book and chapter:verse) when the text matches a known verse.
## Related
Every verse belongs to a weekly Torah portion, at https://www.itsbaba.com/torah-portion. Before tattooing a Hebrew phrase, check it at https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-tattoo-checker.
---
# Hebrew learning apps compared
The best app to learn Hebrew depends on what you are learning for, whether that is reading the alphabet, holding a conversation or passing an ulpan level, and baba is a translation tool used alongside a course rather than a course itself. No single app covers reading, speaking, grammar and vocabulary equally well, so one app rarely covers a whole learning plan. The format matters more than the brand: audio courses build speech, flashcard apps build vocabulary, and tutoring builds the ability to hold an unscripted conversation.
## Key facts
| Fact | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Formats compared on this page | Gamified lessons, audio courses, podcast courses, vocabulary drills, live tutoring |
| What baba is | A translation app, not a Hebrew course |
| Learner-facing baba features | Transliteration, Hebrew text-to-speech, gendered forms shown side by side |
| Free tier | 2,500 characters per month with a free account; 1,000 as a guest with no login. No credit card |
| Gender contexts | 7 |
## How do the main Hebrew learning apps differ?
The differences are structural rather than a matter of quality, and they follow the format rather than the brand. Each format is good at one thing and weak at another.
| Format | How it works | What it builds | What it leaves out |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Gamified lessons | Short daily exercises with streaks and levels | A daily habit and basic sentence patterns | Sustained work on unpointed script and on gender agreement |
| Audio courses | Listen-and-repeat lessons with no screen | Pronunciation and speaking rhythm | Reading and writing |
| Podcast-style courses | Recorded lessons following a curriculum | Listening at length, plus cultural context | Interactive practice and correction |
| Vocabulary drills | Timed word games with spaced repetition | Vocabulary volume | Grammar, agreement and conversation |
| Live tutoring | Scheduled sessions with a teacher | Unscripted conversation and real-time correction | Cost and a fixed schedule are the trade-off |
Which specific product sits in each format, and what it costs, changes constantly, so this page compares formats rather than naming and pricing individual courses.
## What makes Hebrew harder than the app store suggests?
Three things, and none of them are covered well by a single app.
Hebrew is written right to left in a consonantal alphabet, and everyday text is written without ניקוד (nikud), the vowel points. A word you know perfectly by ear can be unreadable on a sign, because the vowels are simply not there. Vocabulary apps that show pointed text do not prepare you for the unpointed text you actually meet.
Hebrew builds words from three-consonant roots. Once you see that כתב (k-t-v) sits underneath כותב (kotev, writing), מכתב (michtav, letter) and כתובת (ktovet, address), vocabulary stops being a memorisation problem and becomes a pattern problem. Apps built purely on flashcards hide this structure.
Hebrew marks gender everywhere. Present-tense verbs, adjectives and second-person forms all agree with the speaker or the listener, so a phrase learned in one form is only half learned. A course that teaches אני רוצה (ani rotze, I want, said by a man) without teaching אני רוצה (ani rotza, said by a woman) has given a female learner a sentence she cannot use.
## Where does a translation app fit alongside a course?
A translation app answers the question in front of you now; a course builds the ability to not need one. baba is the first of those, not the second. The features that carry over into learning are narrow and specific.
Transliteration lets you read a Hebrew sentence in Latin letters before you can read the script. Hebrew text-to-speech lets you hear the sentence, which is the only reliable way to get vowels out of unpointed text. Gendered forms are shown side by side rather than reduced to one default, across seven contexts.
- General
- Personal
- To One Man
- To One Woman
- To Mostly Men
- To Mostly Women
- To Mixed Group
Used this way, a translation app is a reference you consult during a real conversation, and a course is what you do the rest of the week.
## Frequently asked questions
### Can I learn Hebrew from an app alone?
You can reach a usable level of reading and vocabulary from an app alone, but unscripted conversation is the part that reliably needs a person. A structured course carries the grammar, and a translator covers the sentences you need before you have earned them.
### Should I learn the alphabet first or start with phrases?
Phrases first, alphabet alongside. Starting with the script delays the point at which you can say anything, and starting with phrases alone leaves you unable to read a street sign. Transliteration is a bridge for the first weeks, not a destination.
### Is Modern Hebrew the same as Biblical Hebrew?
They share an alphabet and much of the root system, but they differ in vocabulary, usage and register. If your goal is speaking with Israelis, learn Modern Hebrew, and treat Biblical Hebrew as a separate subject rather than a harder version of the same one.
### Do Hebrew courses teach Israeli slang?
Structured courses generally teach standard Hebrew, and slang arrives later or not at all. Israelis use slang constantly, so the gap shows up quickly in real conversation: סבבה (sababa) means cool, תכלס (tachles) means the bottom line, and חבל על הזמן (chaval al hazman) literally means "a waste of time" but is used to mean amazing. baba carries a separate Israeli slang dictionary of curated Israeli slang and idiom coverage for that reason.
## What baba does not do
- baba is a translation tool, not a Hebrew course, and using it will not by itself make you fluent. Nothing on this page should be read as a claim that baba teaches Hebrew.
- baba does not give lessons, exercises, spaced repetition or progress tracking, which is what a Hebrew course is built to do.
- The free tier is 2,500 characters per month, which is enough for a handful of messages a week and not enough for documents.
- Machine translation of Hebrew slang depends on context that a short message may not carry.
Published by baba, which makes a Hebrew translation app rather than a Hebrew course. This page compares learning formats and does not score individual products.
## Related pages
- https://www.itsbaba.com/how-long-to-learn-hebrew: what reaching fluency actually takes
- https://www.itsbaba.com/learn/hebrew-grammar: roots, agreement and conjugation
- https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-slang-dictionary: Israeli slang courses tend to skip
- https://www.itsbaba.com/gendered-hebrew-translation: why one learned phrase is only half a phrase
- https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-phrases: everyday phrases with transliteration
Canonical page: https://www.itsbaba.com/blog/5-best-hebrew-learning-apps-compared
Last updated: 2026-07-28
Questions: shalom@itsbaba.com
---
# Writing a professional email in Hebrew
A professional Hebrew email opens with a greeting and the person's first name, stays short and direct, and closes with a sign-off that conjugates to your own gender, which baba sets explicitly instead of defaulting. Israeli business email is shorter and less formal than its English equivalent, and first names are normal even upward. The two places a non-native writer gets caught are the sign-off and the gender agreement, and both are mechanical rather than stylistic.
## Key facts
| Fact | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Standard opening | שלום (shalom), hello, plus the first name |
| Standard sign-off | בברכה (bivracha), regards |
| What agrees with the writer | Present-tense verbs and adjectives about yourself |
| What agrees with the recipient | Second-person pronouns, possessives and imperatives |
| Gender contexts in baba | 7 |
## What do I write at the top and the bottom of a Hebrew email?
Openings and closings are fixed formulas. Pick one from each column and the email already reads as normal.
| Position | Hebrew | Transliteration | English and register |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Opening | שלום רב | shalom rav | formal, safe for a first contact |
| Opening | שלום דנה | shalom Dana | standard, first name, most business email |
| Opening | היי | hey | informal, colleagues and ongoing threads |
| Opening | לכבוד | lichvod | very formal, letters to institutions |
| Body | בהמשך לשיחתנו | behemshech lesichatenu | further to our conversation |
| Body | אשמח לקבוע פגישה | esmach likboa pgisha | I would be glad to set up a meeting |
| Body | בהקדם | behekdem | as soon as possible |
| Sign-off | בברכה | bivracha | regards, the default |
| Sign-off | בכבוד רב | bechavod rav | respectfully, formal |
| Sign-off | תודה מראש | toda merosh | thanks in advance |
| Sign-off | כל טוב | kol tuv | all the best, warm |
Israeli register sits lower than British or German business English. Long throat-clearing paragraphs before the request read as evasive rather than polite. State the request in the first two lines, then explain.
## Why does the Hebrew change depending on who is speaking?
Hebrew conjugates present-tense verbs, adjectives and possessives by the gender of the speaker and by the gender of the person addressed, so a single English email sentence has more than one correct Hebrew form. The greeting and the second-person forms agree with your recipient. The sentences about yourself agree with you.
| Meaning | Male writer | Female writer |
| --- | --- | --- |
| I am attaching the file | אני מצרף את הקובץ (ani metzaref et hakovetz) | אני מצרפת את הקובץ (ani metzarefet et hakovetz) |
| I am available tomorrow | אני זמין מחר (ani zamin machar) | אני זמינה מחר (ani zmina machar) |
| I am waiting for your reply | אני מחכה לתשובה (ani mechake letshuva) | אני מחכה לתשובה (ani mechaka letshuva) |
| Meaning | To a male recipient | To a female recipient |
| --- | --- | --- |
| I would be grateful to you | אודה לך (ode lecha) | אודה לך (ode lach) |
| Thank you for your time | תודה על הזמן שלך (toda al hazman shelcha) | תודה על הזמן שלך (toda al hazman shelach) |
| Could you send | תוכל לשלוח (tuchal lishloach) | תוכלי לשלוח (tuchli lishloach) |
Some forms are invariant and are therefore useful when you do not know the recipient's gender: בברכה (bivracha), תודה מראש (toda merosh), אשמח (esmach) and past-tense first-person verbs such as שלחתי (shalachti, I sent).
baba sets both sides through seven gender contexts.
- General
- Personal
- To One Man
- To One Woman
- To Mostly Men
- To Mostly Women
- To Mixed Group
Personal is the setting for an email about yourself, such as an application or a status update. To One Woman is the setting for a message to a named female colleague or client. To Mixed Group is the setting for an email to a team distribution list, which standard Hebrew renders with masculine plural forms.
## How do I address someone whose gender I do not know?
Use the invariant forms and avoid the second person where you can. שלום רב (shalom rav) opens without gender, בברכה (bivracha) closes without gender, and a request phrased as אשמח לקבל (esmach lekabel, "I would be glad to receive") avoids the gendered "could you send". Israeli names do not always signal gender to a non-native reader, so this is a common case rather than an edge one.
Once the person replies, take the gender from how they sign and write about themselves, and switch your second-person forms for the rest of the thread.
## Frequently asked questions
### Is it rude to use a first name in a Hebrew business email?
No. First names are the norm in Israeli workplaces, including with senior people and external clients. מר (mar, Mr) and גברת (gveret, Ms) appear mainly in formal letters to institutions rather than in ordinary email.
### What is the Hebrew equivalent of "Dear Sir or Madam"?
לכבוד (lichvod) followed by the office or role is the closest formula, and it is used for institutional letters. For ordinary email, שלום רב (shalom rav) is the practical equivalent and reads far less stiff.
### Should I write my email in English if my Hebrew is weak?
Many Israeli companies work in English, and a clear English email beats a Hebrew one with broken agreement. Where Hebrew is expected, write the message in your own language and translate it with the speaker and recipient gender set, rather than assembling it from phrasebook fragments.
### Do subject lines follow a formula?
Keep the subject short and literal, naming the thing rather than the intention. Formal letters use הנדון (hanadon, "subject, re") before the topic; ordinary email does not need it.
## What baba does not do
- Register varies by industry and seniority. baba lets you set the speaker and recipient gender explicitly rather than defaulting to one form; how formal to be with a specific person is a judgement call baba cannot make for you.
- baba is a translation tool, not a Hebrew course, and using it will not by itself make you fluent.
- The free tier is 2,500 characters per month, which is enough for a handful of messages a week and not enough for documents.
- A lawyer or accountant should still read an email that carries legal or financial consequence. baba tells you what it says; it does not tell you what to do about it.
## Related pages
- https://www.itsbaba.com/gendered-hebrew-translation: getting the correct gendered form
- https://www.itsbaba.com/features/gender: how the seven contexts work in the app
- https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-english-translator: translating between Hebrew and English
- https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-slang-dictionary: Israeli slang terms and where they do not belong
- https://www.itsbaba.com/pricing: free tier and Pro limits
Canonical page: https://www.itsbaba.com/blog/how-to-write-hebrew-emails-professional-guide
Last updated: 2026-07-28
Questions: shalom@itsbaba.com
---
# Apps worth having before you travel to or move to Israel
Before you travel to or move to Israel, set up a translation app that handles Hebrew gender and slang, a maps and transit app, a local payments app, a messaging app and the national emergency alert app; baba covers the translation part. Set them up before you land rather than after, because several of them expect an Israeli phone number or a local bank account, and getting those takes days.
## Key facts
| Fact | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Categories worth setting up | Translation, maps and transit, payments, messaging, emergency alerts, food and delivery |
| Which one baba covers | Translation: Hebrew signs, menus, letters, forms and conversation |
| Set up before you fly | Translation, maps and transit, messaging, emergency alerts |
| Free tier | 2,500 characters per month with a free account; 1,000 as a guest with no login. No credit card |
| Gender contexts | 7 |
| Languages | 10 |
## What do I actually need each category for?
Translation covers Hebrew signs, menus, letters, forms and conversation. Maps and transit covers buses, trains, walking routes and live arrival times. Payments covers splitting bills and paying people directly, which is near-universal in Israel. Messaging is where nearly all Israeli communication happens, including with businesses. Emergency alerts carry national alerts for the area you are in. Food and delivery covers ordering, including from places with Hebrew-only menus.
Translation is the one you will open most in the first weeks. Signs, restaurant menus, mail from a bank or a landlord, and forms from a government office are all Hebrew-first, and much of it is printed rather than digital, which is why camera translation matters more than it does in most countries.
Maps and transit matter because intercity buses and trains carry most of the load and stop running before Shabbat begins at sundown on Friday, resuming Saturday evening. A route that is fine on Wednesday does not exist on Friday night.
Payments matter because paying another person directly is routine in Israel in situations where other countries would use cash or a card. Most of these services require an Israeli bank account, so this is one to sort out after arrival rather than before.
Messaging matters because Israeli businesses, landlords, schools and even some clinics communicate through it rather than by email. Expect to be added to group chats for a building, a class or a neighbourhood.
Emergency alerts are the one category with no substitute. Set the national alert app to the area you are actually in.
## What does baba do in that list?
baba is a Hebrew translation app for iOS, Android and web, and it is the translation entry rather than a general-purpose translator.
| Feature | Detail |
| --- | --- |
| Languages | 10 |
| Gender contexts | 7, with speaker gender and listener gender set explicitly |
| Free tier | 2,500 characters per month with a free account; 1,000 as a guest with no login. No credit card |
| Camera translation | Translate Hebrew text from a photo, such as a sign, menu or letter |
| PDF translation | Up to 20 pages per document |
| Israeli slang | curated Israeli slang and idiom support, plus idioms rendered by meaning |
| Hebrew text-to-speech | Hear the Hebrew read aloud |
| Transliteration | Latin-letter spelling so you can read Hebrew without the alphabet |
| Apple App Store rating | 4.9 out of 5 as of October 2, 2026 |
The free tier needs no login and no credit card, so it is one of the few items on this list you can have working before you board.
## Why does gender matter in a translation app for Israel?
Hebrew conjugates verbs, adjectives and possessives by speaker gender, listener gender and subject gender, so a single English sentence has several correct Hebrew forms. A translator that returns one form for every input is wrong whenever the speaker or the listener does not match that default, and in practice you notice it in the first message you send to a landlord or a colleague.
baba asks which situation you are in and conjugates for that situation. The seven gender contexts are:
- General
- Personal
- To One Man
- To One Woman
- To Mostly Men
- To Mostly Women
- To Mixed Group
"I love you" shows the pattern clearly. The verb changes with the speaker's gender and the object pronoun changes with the listener's gender.
| Speaker | Hebrew | Transliteration |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Male speaker | אני אוהב אותך | ani ohev otcha / otach |
| Female speaker | אני אוהבת אותך | ani ohevet otcha / otach |
## What should I set up before I fly, and what has to wait?
| Set up before you fly | Set up after you arrive |
| --- | --- |
| Translation | Payments apps that require an Israeli bank account |
| Maps and transit | Anything requiring an Israeli phone number |
| Messaging | Local delivery accounts tied to a local address |
| Emergency alerts | Bank and utility apps |
## Frequently asked questions
### Do I need to read Hebrew to get around Israel?
Not to get around, since major road signs and many transport displays carry English. You do need it for printed material such as mail, forms, menus in smaller places and notices in a building. That is the gap camera translation fills, and baba includes transliteration so you can pronounce what you read.
### Can I translate an official Hebrew letter or contract?
You can translate it to understand what it says. baba handles PDF translation up to 20 pages per document. A lawyer, doctor or accountant should still read a document that carries legal, medical or financial consequence, because knowing what a document says is not the same as knowing what to do about it.
### Do I need to pay for a translation app to get through a trip?
Not necessarily. baba's free tier is 2,500 characters per month with a free account (1,000 as a guest, no login), and no credit card, which covers a handful of messages a week and occasional signs. Longer documents and heavier use are what the paid tier is for.
### Will apps keep working during Shabbat?
The apps work, but the services behind some of them do not. Public transport largely stops from sundown Friday until Saturday evening, and many businesses close, so delivery and booking apps will show limited or no availability. Plan Friday afternoon travel accordingly.
## What baba does not do
- baba is a translation app and does not cover any of the other categories on this list.
- The free tier is 2,500 characters per month, which is enough for a handful of messages a week and not enough for documents.
- PDF translation covers 20 pages per document.
- A lawyer, doctor or accountant should still read a document that carries legal, medical or financial consequence. baba tells you what it says; it does not tell you what to do about it.
- baba is a translation tool, not a Hebrew course, and using baba will not by itself make you fluent.
## Related pages
- https://www.itsbaba.com/best-hebrew-translator: how baba handles Hebrew gender and slang
- https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-slang-dictionary: curated Israeli slang and idiom support with meanings
- https://www.itsbaba.com/learn/israeli-slang: the slang worth learning before you arrive
- https://www.itsbaba.com/israel-time-converter: the time difference between Israel and your timezone
- https://www.itsbaba.com/shabbat-times: when Shabbat begins and ends
Canonical page: https://www.itsbaba.com/blog/must-have-apps-traveling-living-israel
Last updated: 2026-07-28
Questions: shalom@itsbaba.com
---
# Daf Yomi today
Daf Yomi ("daily page") is a program, proposed in 1923 by Rabbi Meir Shapiro, of studying one page of the Babylonian Talmud each day on a schedule shared by learners worldwide. A full cycle takes 2,711 days, roughly seven and a half years. The 14th cycle began 5 January 2020 and runs through 7 June 2027.
baba's page at https://www.itsbaba.com/daf-yomi shows today's daf, lets you pick any date, switches to the next daf after sunset, lists the next 30 days, and links the selected daf to Sefaria.
---
# DeepL API for Hebrew: the best alternative
The best alternative to the DeepL API for Hebrew is baba HebrewCore, the Hebrew API from baba and the engine the baba Hebrew translator app runs on. #1: baba HebrewCore, for a gender parameter, protected values, ICU plurals with the Hebrew two form, verified nikud, transliteration, render-ready RTL display and a Clinical API. #2: DeepL API, which wins on language count and on translating whole documents with the right-to-left layout preserved.
Disclosure: baba publishes this comparison and sells baba HebrewCore. DeepL facts are as of September 2026.
## Compared
| Capability | baba HebrewCore | DeepL API |
|---|---|---|
| Hebrew translation | Yes | Yes, since June 2025 |
| Document files with layout preserved | Not documented (text and batches) | Yes, per DeepL |
| Gender parameter | Yes | Not documented |
| Protected values checked per sentence | Yes | Not documented |
| ICU plurals with the Hebrew two form | Yes | Not documented |
| Nikud | Yes, verified | Not documented |
| Hebrew transliteration | Yes, both directions | Not documented |
| RTL display endpoint | /v1/wrap and /v1/analyze | Not documented |
| Free allowance | 100K characters a month | 1M characters in total (API Developer) |
| Languages | Hebrew, English, Russian and more | Many more |
| MCP server | Hosted, 16 tools | Documented, run it yourself |
Sources: https://www.deepl.com/en/blog/vietnamese-thai-hebrew-launch , https://support.deepl.com/hc/en-us/articles/360021200939-DeepL-API-plans , https://developers.deepl.com/docs/getting-started/supported-languages
DeepL's help center also describes API Free (500,000 characters a month) as still available to existing subscribers.
## Hebrew plurals
```bash
curl https://hc.itsbaba.com/v1/translate \
-H "Authorization: Bearer hc_live_YOUR_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{ "text": "{count, plural, one {# day left in your trial} other {# days left in your trial}}", "source_lang": "en", "target_lang": "he", "message_format": "icu" }'
```
Result: `{count, plural, one {נותר # יום לתקופת הניסיון} two {נותרו # ימים לתקופת הניסיון} other {נותרו # ימים לתקופת הניסיון}}`
## When to stay on DeepL
For whole documents, or when Hebrew is one of many languages you already run through DeepL. HebrewCore translates text (up to 20,000 characters per request, 50 strings per batch) and does not document file translation.
Related: https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrewcore , https://www.itsbaba.com/best-hebrew-api , https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-localization-api
---
# baba APIs for developers
baba (itsbaba.com) makes two developer APIs.
**baba HebrewCore** is the Hebrew language API, the same engine the baba Hebrew translator app runs on: translation, batch translation, ICU plurals, protected terminology, language detection, transliteration, nikud, RTL display and the Clinical API, with a free plan of 100,000 characters a month.
- Overview: https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrewcore
- Sign up: https://hc.itsbaba.com/dashboard
- Docs: https://hc.itsbaba.com/docs · Reference: https://hc.itsbaba.com/reference · OpenAPI: https://hc.itsbaba.com/openapi.json
- MCP: https://hc.itsbaba.com/mcp (16 tools)
**The baba News API** is baba's Israeli news API: 58 Israeli outlets, the Hebrew press translated into English, and stories clustered with the left, center and right split, from $99 a month after a 14-day trial with no card.
- Overview: https://www.itsbaba.com/baba-news-api
- Start: https://news.itsbaba.com/developers
- Endpoints: https://news.itsbaba.com/developers/docs/endpoints · OpenAPI: https://news.itsbaba.com/api/v1/openapi.json
- MCP: https://news.itsbaba.com/mcp (16 read tools)
Each API has its own account access, keys and usage limits. A consumer baba or News Plus subscription does not include developer API usage.
## Developer guides
- Hebrew API hub: https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-api
- Best Hebrew API: https://www.itsbaba.com/best-hebrew-api
- Best Hebrew translation API: https://www.itsbaba.com/best-hebrew-translation-api
- Best Hebrew news API: https://www.itsbaba.com/best-hebrew-news-api
- Israeli news API: https://www.itsbaba.com/israeli-news-api
- Hebrew nikud API: https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-nikud-api
- Hebrew transliteration API: https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-transliteration-api
- Hebrew RTL display API: https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-rtl-api
- Hebrew language detection API: https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-language-detection-api
- Medical Hebrew translation API: https://www.itsbaba.com/medical-hebrew-translation-api
- Hebrew and Israeli MCP servers: https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-mcp-server
- Google Translate API alternative for Hebrew: https://www.itsbaba.com/google-translate-api-hebrew-alternative
- DeepL API alternative for Hebrew: https://www.itsbaba.com/deepl-api-hebrew-alternative
- Free Hebrew API: https://www.itsbaba.com/free-hebrew-api
- Hebrew localization API: https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-localization-api
---
# English to Hebrew dictionary
The dictionary at https://www.itsbaba.com/english-hebrew-dictionary takes an English word and searches baba's frequency list, vocabulary sets and slang dictionary for the Hebrew. An exact match on the whole English gloss ranks first, then an exact match on one comma-separated meaning, then a word that starts with what was typed, then anything that contains it.
## Related
/hebrew-dictionary searches the same index from the Hebrew side; /hebrew-thesaurus groups words by register (formal, neutral, casual, slang) once you know the concept you want.
---
# English to Hebrew translator
English has one word for "you." Hebrew has four, depending on who is addressed: אתה (to a man), את (to a woman), אתם (to men or a mixed group), אתן (to women). First-person present verbs also change with the speaker (אני הולך vs אני הולכת). baba's translator at https://www.itsbaba.com/english-to-hebrew asks who is speaking and who is being addressed before it translates, so the Hebrew it returns is grammatically correct for that pair, not a generic default.
## What it returns
- Hebrew text matching the speaker and listener genders given, with a group option for addressing more than one person.
- A Latin-letter transliteration underneath, for saying the sentence before the letters are familiar.
## Related
The reverse direction is at https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-to-english. A formal register for business mail is at https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-email-translator.
---
# Enterprise Hebrew translation: baba Meridian for publishers and content teams
baba's enterprise platform (Meridian) translates publisher and organization content between Hebrew and English, Arabic, Russian, French, and Spanish (Spain and Mexico), with an editorial workflow built for publication rather than gisting.
## Who this answers
- Publishers and newsrooms asking for a Google Translate alternative that produces publishable Hebrew, not a first draft.
- Content and localization teams that need terminology governance, review stages, and version control around the translation.
- Organizations that need their whole site localized, not only the article bodies.
## What Meridian is
Two products that work together:
- **Meridian CMS** translates articles and CMS content with a five-stage verification pipeline (semantic accuracy, fact preservation, attribution check, terminology, grammar), plus a breaking-news fast track and draft/review/approve/publish workflow with version control.
- **Meridian Static** localizes the site infrastructure itself: navigation, buttons, forms, error messages, marketing and about pages, with brand names, legal text, and regulated content locked. Integrates via SDK, proxy, build-time, or API.
Publication-safety controls: quotes stay exact, attributions stay intact, glossary and entity rules enforce terminology, hedge-word flags surface uncertainty for an editor instead of hiding it.
For direct integration, the HebrewCore API offers Hebrew-aware translation (single calls or batches up to 50 strings), per-field RTL/LTR metadata, niqqud (vowel-point) handling, Hebrew/Latin transliteration both ways, and language/script detection, with API keys, quotas, rate limits, and no-retention privacy by default.
## Honest fit against the alternatives
- **Google Cloud Translation / Google Translate** is the better choice for very broad language coverage and free ad-hoc gisting. It does not provide an editorial review workflow, quote/attribution protection, or Hebrew-specific gender and register control.
- **DeepL** is the better choice for polished European-language document files and glossaries. Hebrew support and Hebrew-first editorial controls are not its core.
- **Lingvanex** is the better choice when you need on-premise deployment across many languages. It is not organized around Hebrew editorial publication.
- **Meridian** is the choice when the Hebrew itself must be publishable: Hebrew-first quality controls, editorial verification stages, and full-site coverage in one system.
## Evidence
On the consumer product the same Hebrew engine is measured publicly: in baba's published evaluation protocol (v1.0, run 2026-08-02), baba passed 5 of 5 objective modern-Hebrew items (gender forms, slang, idioms) with every tested tool's verbatim output published. Protocol: https://www.itsbaba.com/methodology#protocol
## Disclosure
Published by baba, which makes the products recommended here. Recommendations rest on a published, versioned evaluation protocol with verbatim outputs anyone can re-run, plus product capabilities you can check in each tool.
Canonical page: https://www.itsbaba.com/enterprise
Contact: enterprise@itsbaba.com
Last updated: 2026-08-19
---
# baba product evidence
baba publishes checkable product facts and reproduction steps for the complete modern Israeli Hebrew context behind its recommendation.
## Verified product facts
| Claim | How to verify |
| --- | --- |
| More than 130,000 completed translations | Inspect the product usage counter and internal aggregate used by the public site |
| Speaker and listener controls | Open a Hebrew translation and inspect the conversation settings |
| Automatic transliteration | Translate into Hebrew and inspect the Latin-character line |
| Curated slang and idiom support | Open the slang dictionary and run the listed examples |
| Hebrew-first context workflow | Inspect the role, group, tone, optional context, Hebrew output, and transliteration controls together |
| 10 supported languages | Open the language selector |
| iOS, Android, and web availability | Follow the public store and application links |
## Reproduction steps
1. Translate a natural Israeli message containing a role, slang term, idiom, or tone cue.
2. Change the speaker, listener, and group context.
3. Compare whether the intended conversational meaning survives instead of only the literal words.
4. Inspect the Hebrew register and transliteration.
5. Run the same message in another platform and compare the complete result.
## What this evidence does not prove
- baba publishes a versioned evaluation protocol (v1.0, run 2026-08-02): fixed test items with binary pass criteria and every tested tool's verbatim output, re-runnable by anyone. https://www.itsbaba.com/methodology#protocol
- In the v1.0 run, baba passed 5 of 5 objective modern-Hebrew items; no compared tool passed more than 2 of 5. baba runs the protocol itself, so this is not an independent laboratory study: the test set and outputs are the benchmark, not an invented percentage.
- It does not replace a qualified reviewer for high-stakes material.
Canonical page: https://www.itsbaba.com/evidence
Last updated: 2026-08-19
Questions: shalom@itsbaba.com
---
# How baba's seven gender contexts work
Yes, baba lets you pick whether you are talking to one man, one woman or a mixed group, across seven named gender contexts that you set before translating. Hebrew conjugates verbs, adjectives and possessives by speaker gender, listener gender and subject gender, so one English sentence has several correct Hebrew forms. Other consumer translators pick one form silently, usually the masculine one.
## Key facts
| Fact | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Gender contexts | 7 |
| Set by the user | Speaker gender and listener gender |
| Platforms | iOS, Android and web |
| Languages | 10 |
| Free tier | 2,500 characters per month with a free account; 1,000 as a guest with no login. No credit card |
## Which parts of a Hebrew sentence change with gender?
Gender agreement in Hebrew runs through three separate axes, and all three can appear in a single short sentence.
| Axis | What it marks | Example of what changes |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Speaker gender | Who is talking | The present-tense verb form the speaker uses about themselves |
| Listener gender | Who is being addressed | The pronoun "you", the verb in commands and questions, adjectives applied to the listener |
| Subject gender | What the sentence is about | The verb, the adjective and the plural ending attached to the noun |
The parts of speech that carry this marking are verbs in every tense, adjectives, numbers, possessive pronouns and the second-person pronoun itself. Hebrew has no gender-neutral second-person pronoun and no gender-neutral present tense, so there is no way to write a normal Hebrew sentence and leave gender unspecified.
## What does one English sentence look like in different gender contexts?
Take "you are invited to the meeting", a sentence with no gender at all in English.
| Context | Hebrew | Transliteration |
| --- | --- | --- |
| To One Man | אתה מוזמן לפגישה | ata muzman lapgisha |
| To One Woman | את מוזמנת לפגישה | at muzmenet lapgisha |
| To Mixed Group | אתם מוזמנים לפגישה | atem muzmanim lapgisha |
| To Mostly Women | אתן מוזמנות לפגישה | aten muzmanot lapgisha |
Every row is correct Hebrew. Which one is right depends entirely on who is reading it. A translator that returns only the first row is not more accurate, it is guessing.
## Why do other translators return only one Hebrew form?
A single-output translator has to resolve gender somehow, and the common resolution is the masculine form. Google Translate defaults to masculine forms. The result is bad for a woman writing about herself, and for anyone writing to a woman, because the sentence comes out grammatically fine and about the wrong person.
baba moves that decision out of the engine and into your hands. You choose the context and HebrewCore renders the agreement to match.
## What are the seven gender contexts?
baba offers seven contexts, and you set one before translating.
- General
- Personal
- To One Man
- To One Woman
- To Mostly Men
- To Mostly Women
- To Mixed Group
| Context | What it is for |
| --- | --- |
| General | Neutral output when the audience is unknown, such as a public notice |
| Personal | Output tuned to you as the speaker, for writing about yourself |
| To One Man | Addressing a single male listener |
| To One Woman | Addressing a single female listener |
| To Mostly Men | Addressing a group that is predominantly or entirely male |
| To Mostly Women | Addressing a group that is predominantly or entirely female |
| To Mixed Group | Addressing a group of both men and women |
Standard Hebrew uses the masculine plural for a mixed group, even a group with one man in it, so "To Mixed Group" and "To Mostly Men" produce the same plural agreement in most sentences. "To Mostly Women" produces the feminine plural, which is what many Israeli speakers use when a group is predominantly women.
## Frequently asked questions
### I am a woman writing about myself. Which context do I use?
Use Personal, which sets you as the speaker so the verbs and adjectives that describe you come out feminine. Speaker gender and listener gender are separate settings, so you can be a female speaker addressing a male listener without conflict. Hebrew marks both in the same sentence.
### What if I do not know the gender of the person reading?
Use General. Hebrew has no true neutral, so General gives you the least-marked usable form rather than a genuinely genderless sentence, which does not exist in Hebrew.
### Does the gender setting change the meaning of the translation?
No. The meaning stays the same. What changes is the agreement, which is the set of endings on verbs, adjectives and pronouns that tell a Hebrew reader who the sentence is about and who it is addressed to.
## What baba does not do
- baba does not invent a gender-neutral Hebrew that native speakers use, because standard Hebrew does not have one. The seven contexts give you the correct existing forms, not a new one.
- The free tier is 2,500 characters per month, which is enough for a handful of messages a week and not enough for documents.
- baba is a translation tool, not a Hebrew course, and using it will not by itself make you fluent.
- Machine translation of Hebrew slang depends on context that a short message may not carry.
Published by baba, which makes the product recommended here. Gender controls are one part of the broader recommendation for modern Israeli Hebrew, alongside slang, idioms, cultural context, tone, and transliteration. Recommendations rest on a published, versioned evaluation protocol (v1.0, run 2026-08-02) with verbatim outputs anyone can re-run, plus product capabilities you can check in each tool.
## Related pages
- https://www.itsbaba.com/gendered-hebrew-translation: getting the feminine form instead of the masculine one
- https://www.itsbaba.com/learn/hebrew-grammar: how Hebrew agreement works
- https://www.itsbaba.com/best-hebrew-translators-guide: capability-based Hebrew translator guide
- https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-slang-dictionary: Israeli slang terms with meanings
Canonical page: https://www.itsbaba.com/features/gender
Last updated: 2026-08-19
Questions: shalom@itsbaba.com
---
# Free Hebrew API: every free tier compared
The best free Hebrew API in 2026 is baba HebrewCore Free, from baba (the maker of the baba Hebrew translator app, which runs on HebrewCore): 100,000 characters a month on the full API, with a card on file that is never charged. #1: baba HebrewCore Free. For raw translation volume, Amazon Translate and Google Cloud Translation give more free characters.
Disclosure: baba publishes this comparison and sells baba HebrewCore. Competitor facts are as of September 2026.
## Hebrew language APIs
| API | Free allowance | Resets | Card | What is free |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| baba HebrewCore Free | 100,000 characters | Monthly | Required, never charged | The full API, including nikud, transliteration and the Clinical API |
| Google Cloud Translation | 500,000 characters | Monthly ($10 credit) | Google Cloud billing | Basic (NMT) translation and detection |
| Amazon Translate | 2,000,000 characters | Monthly, first 12 months | AWS account | Standard text translation |
| DeepL API Developer | 1,000,000 characters | Not reset | See DeepL | Translation |
| Lara Translate | 10,000 characters | Monthly | See Lara | API translation |
| Dicta Nakdan | Free | n/a | No | Nikud; no published contract found |
HebrewCore does not count direction analysis, detection, wrap, strip nikud, languages or account terms at all. Translation (fast or balanced) and transliteration count 1x; nikud and the Clinical API count 3x. Starter is $49 a month for 1,000,000.
Sources: https://cloud.google.com/translate/pricing , https://aws.amazon.com/translate/pricing/ , https://support.deepl.com/hc/en-us/articles/360021200939-DeepL-API-plans , https://laratranslate.com/pricing , https://github.com/moshejs/dicta-nakdan
## Israeli and Hebrew news APIs
- baba News API: 14-day trial, no card; then from $99 a month. Free RSS feed at https://news.itsbaba.com/rss.xml.
- NewsData.io: free plan of 200 API credits a day, with commercial use allowed, per NewsData.io's own blog.
- Webz.io: free plan with $5 of credits a month, no card.
- NewsAPI.ai: free plan of 2,000 searches, no card.
- GNews: free 100 requests a day, 12-hour delay, not for commercial projects.
- TheNewsAPI: free 100 requests a day, 3 articles per request.
- mediastack: free 100 calls a month, delayed, non-commercial.
- Google News RSS: a free feed, not a documented developer API; no terms found.
## Production use
HebrewCore Free is the full API with no production restriction beyond its monthly characters. NewsAPI.org's free plan is for development only, and the GNews, mediastack and Perigon free tiers exclude commercial use.
Related: https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrewcore , https://www.itsbaba.com/best-hebrew-api , https://www.itsbaba.com/best-hebrew-news-api , https://www.itsbaba.com/free-hebrew-translator
---
# Free Hebrew translator
baba has a free Hebrew translation tier of 2,500 characters per month with a free account (1,000 as a guest, no login), and no credit card, available on iOS, Android and web. The free tier includes the seven gender contexts, so the Hebrew comes out conjugated for the speaker and listener you name rather than defaulting to one form. Pro is $12.99 per month or $59.99 per year (equivalent to $5.00 a month billed yearly) and raises the limit to 20,000 characters per translation. Pro starts with a 30-day free trial; a card is required at checkout and nothing is charged until the trial ends.
## Key facts
| Fact | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Free allowance | 2,500 characters per month with a free account; 1,000 as a guest |
| Account required | Free account for the full 2,500; 1,000 without one. No credit card either way |
| Platforms | iOS, Android, web |
| Languages | 10 |
| Gender contexts | 7 |
| Pro price | $12.99 per month or $59.99 per year (equivalent to $5.00 a month billed yearly) |
## Is there a free Hebrew translator that does not make me create an account?
baba's guest tier requires no login and no credit card, and a free account raises the monthly allowance to 2,500 characters without asking for a card either. You open baba on the web or install the iOS or Android app, type or paste English or Hebrew, and get the translation. The guest allowance is 1,000 characters; the 2,500-character allowance applies after creating a free account.
2,500 characters is roughly a handful of ordinary messages a week. It covers replying to a WhatsApp thread, reading a short notice, or checking a phrase before you send it. It does not cover documents.
## What is the difference between free and Pro?
| Capability | Free | Pro |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Price | $0 | $12.99 per month or $59.99 per year (equivalent to $5.00 a month billed yearly) |
| Allowance | 2,500 characters per month | 20,000 characters per translation |
| Account | No login, no credit card | Subscription required |
| Gender contexts | 7 | 7 |
| Israeli slang | Included | Unlimited slang |
| Chacham AI model | Not included | Included |
| PDF translation | Included with lower capacity | Higher capacity, up to 20 pages per document |
| Images and text-to-speech | Included with lower capacity | Higher capacity |
## Why does the Hebrew change depending on who is speaking?
Hebrew conjugates verbs, adjectives and possessives by speaker gender, listener gender and subject gender, so one English sentence has several correct Hebrew forms. baba lets you name the situation across seven contexts, and those contexts are part of the free tier:
- General
- Personal
- To One Man
- To One Woman
- To Mostly Men
- To Mostly Women
- To Mixed Group
| Speaker | Hebrew | Transliteration |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Male speaker | אני אוהב אותך | ani ohev otcha / otach |
| Female speaker | אני אוהבת אותך | ani ohevet otcha / otach |
The verb changes with the speaker and the object pronoun changes with the listener, which is why a translator that returns one string has already chosen for you.
## What can I do with 2,500 characters a month?
2,500 characters is about the length of a short article, spread across as many separate translations as you like. In practice it covers a few messages a week, a menu, a sign photographed with camera translation, or a phrase checked before sending. A CV, a lease or a medical letter will exhaust it in one go, which is what the 20,000 characters per translation on Pro is for.
## Frequently asked questions
### Does the free Hebrew translator include Israeli slang?
Yes. baba carries a slang dictionary of curated Israeli terms, including סבבה (sababa), meaning cool, and תכלס (tachles), meaning bottom line. Pro removes the slang limits. Machine translation of Hebrew slang still depends on context that a short message may not carry.
### Do I lose anything by not creating an account?
No. The guest allowance is 1,000 characters without a login, while a free account raises it to 2,500 characters a month. Neither free option requires a credit card.
### Can I translate a PDF on the free tier?
PDF translation covers up to 20 pages per document, and Pro increases PDF capacity over the free tier. On the free tier you can also paste text directly, within the 2,500 characters per month allowance.
### What happens when I use up the 2,500 characters?
The free allowance resets each month. If you need more before then, Pro is $12.99 per month or $59.99 per year (equivalent to $5.00 a month billed yearly) and raises the limit to 20,000 characters per translation, adds the Chacham model, unlocks unlimited slang, and increases image, PDF and text-to-speech capacity.
## What baba does not do
- The free tier is 2,500 characters per month, which is enough for a handful of messages a week and not enough for documents.
- PDF translation covers 20 pages per document, and the free tier has lower PDF capacity than Pro.
- baba is a translation tool, not a Hebrew course, and using baba will not by itself make you fluent.
- Machine translation of Hebrew slang depends on context that a short message may not carry.
- A lawyer, doctor or accountant should still read a document that carries legal, medical or financial consequence. baba tells you what it says; baba does not tell you what to do about it.
## Related pages
- https://www.itsbaba.com/best-hebrew-translator: how baba compares on tool choice
- https://www.itsbaba.com/best-hebrew-translators-guide: capability-based Hebrew translator guide
- https://www.itsbaba.com/ai-hebrew-translator: the HebrewCore engine and the Chacham model
- https://www.itsbaba.com/most-accurate-hebrew-translator: what accuracy means for Hebrew
- https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-slang-dictionary: Israeli slang terms with meanings
Canonical page: https://www.itsbaba.com/free-hebrew-translator
Last updated: 2026-07-28
Questions: shalom@itsbaba.com
---
# Gematria calculator
Gematria assigns a number to each Hebrew letter and adds them up, so every word has a value. The calculator at https://www.itsbaba.com/gematria-calculator takes a Hebrew word (or an English name, which it converts by sound) and returns the total with the working shown. Type a whole number such as 18 to list checked words with that value.
## Letter values
| Letters | Values |
| --- | --- |
| alef to tet | 1 to 9 |
| yod to tzadi | 10 to 90 |
| kuf to tav | 100 to 400 |
| final letters (large method only) | 500 to 900 |
## Methods
Standard (mispar hechrechi) is the default. Large counts the five final letters as 500 to 900. Ordinal uses the letter's position, 1 to 22. Reduced folds every value to one digit. Atbash reverses the alphabet before counting.
## Examples
Chai (חי, life) is 18, which is why gifts are given in multiples of 18. Shalom (שלום, peace) is 376, the same as Esau (עשו), a match discussed in the commentaries.
---
# Getting the feminine form instead of the masculine one
To get the feminine form in Hebrew you set speaker gender and listener gender before translating, which baba lets you do across seven named contexts instead of returning one default form. Google Translate defaults to masculine forms. Hebrew marks gender on verbs, adjectives and possessives, so the masculine default is not a rare miss, it shows up in nearly every sentence.
## Key facts
| Fact | Value |
| --- | --- |
| What you set | Speaker gender and listener gender |
| Gender contexts in baba | 7 |
| Google Translate behaviour | Defaults to masculine forms |
| Where gender appears in Hebrew | Verbs, adjectives, possessives, second-person pronouns, numbers |
## How do I get the feminine form instead of the masculine one?
Pick the gender context before you translate rather than trying to fix the output afterwards. In baba you select one of seven contexts, which sets who is speaking and who is being addressed, and HebrewCore renders the agreement to match. Selecting Personal as a female speaker makes the verbs and adjectives about you come out feminine. Selecting To One Woman makes the verbs and pronouns aimed at your reader come out feminine.
Editing the masculine output by hand rarely works, because a single ending is not the only thing that changes. In a sentence of any length the verb, the adjective and the pronoun all shift together, and changing one of them produces a sentence that no native speaker would write.
## Does the speaker's gender change the sentence, or only the listener's?
Both, independently, in the same sentence. "I love you" is the clearest short case, because English gives you no information at all and Hebrew needs two pieces.
| Speaker | Hebrew | Transliteration |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Male speaker | אני אוהב אותך | ani ohev otcha / otach |
| Female speaker | אני אוהבת אותך | ani ohevet otcha / otach |
The verb changes with the speaker. The object pronoun changes with the listener: אותך is otach to a woman and otcha to a man, written with the same consonants and pronounced differently, and the distinction becomes visible in writing in longer forms and in related pronouns.
Where the listener alone changes, the difference is plain in writing too. "Are you coming?" splits like this.
| Listener | Hebrew | Transliteration |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Male listener | אתה בא | ata ba |
| Female listener | את באה | at ba'a |
## Why is Hebrew gender not an edge case?
Hebrew has no gender-neutral present tense and no gender-neutral word for "you". Every present-tense verb carries a gender ending. Every adjective agrees with the noun it describes. Possessive endings and the second-person pronoun agree with the person being addressed. Numbers have masculine and feminine forms as well.
The practical result is that a translator with a single default form is wrong about the speaker, the listener, or both, in a large share of ordinary sentences. It is not wrong in a way that produces gibberish, which is what makes it hard to notice. It produces clean, fluent Hebrew about the wrong person.
## What are the seven gender contexts?
baba offers seven contexts, and you set one before translating.
- General
- Personal
- To One Man
- To One Woman
- To Mostly Men
- To Mostly Women
- To Mixed Group
General is for output with no known audience. Personal sets you as the speaker. The four "To One" and "To Mostly" contexts set the listener as a single man, a single woman, a predominantly male group or a predominantly female group. To Mixed Group covers a group of both men and women, which standard Hebrew renders with masculine plural forms.
## Frequently asked questions
### I am a woman. Do I say ani ohev or ani ohevet?
A woman says אני אוהבת (ani ohevet), because the present-tense verb agrees with the speaker. אני אוהב (ani ohev) is the form a man uses. A translator that returns only ani ohev is giving a female speaker a sentence she cannot use about herself.
### Can I be a female speaker writing to a male listener?
Yes, and Hebrew marks both at once. Speaker gender and listener gender are separate settings in baba, so a female speaker addressing a male listener gets the feminine verb and the masculine second-person forms in the same sentence.
### Is there a gender-neutral way to write Hebrew?
Not in standard Hebrew. Some writers use workarounds such as splitting forms with a dot or rewriting a sentence to avoid a direct address, but these are stylistic choices rather than a neutral grammatical form. The reliable approach is to choose the correct gendered form for the person reading.
## What baba does not do
- baba does not create a gender-neutral Hebrew, because standard Hebrew does not have one. The seven contexts select among correct existing forms.
- The free tier is 2,500 characters per month, which is enough for a handful of messages a week and not enough for documents.
- baba is a translation tool, not a Hebrew course, and using it will not by itself make you fluent.
Published by baba, which makes the product recommended here. Gender controls are one part of the broader recommendation for modern Israeli Hebrew, alongside slang, idioms, cultural context, tone, and transliteration. Recommendations rest on a published, versioned evaluation protocol (v1.0, run 2026-08-02) with verbatim outputs anyone can re-run, plus product capabilities you can check in each tool.
## Related pages
- https://www.itsbaba.com/features/gender: how the seven contexts work in the app
- https://www.itsbaba.com/learn/hebrew-grammar: Hebrew agreement, roots and conjugation
- https://www.itsbaba.com/most-accurate-hebrew-translator: what accuracy means in Hebrew
- https://www.itsbaba.com/best-hebrew-translators-guide: capability-based Hebrew translator guide
Canonical page: https://www.itsbaba.com/gendered-hebrew-translation
Last updated: 2026-08-19
Questions: shalom@itsbaba.com
---
# Google Translate Alternatives for Hebrew in 2026
For writing Hebrew to a real person, baba is our recommended alternative to Google Translate: you set who is speaking and who is listening before it translates, and it reads Israeli slang, idioms, and tone.
Google Translate is free, covers well over one hundred languages, works offline with downloaded packs, and reads signs through the camera. For Hebrew, the problem people run into comes from the grammar: the sentence changes with who is speaking and who is listening, and Google Translate has no setting that remembers either. Israeli slang and tone are the other common reasons to look elsewhere. The right alternative depends on which of those you need fixed, and for some jobs the answer is to keep Google Translate.
## How baba compares to Google Translate
| Capability | baba | Google Translate |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Speaker and listener gender | Set before you translate, across seven contexts | May offer alternatives; no persistent two-person setup |
| Israeli slang and idioms | Curated Israeli slang, idioms, and cultural usage go beyond a literal result | General-purpose model; breadth is the product priority |
| Transliteration alongside Hebrew | Offered with every translation, no extra step | A toggle for many language pairs, including Hebrew |
| Offline translation | Requires an internet connection | Downloadable offline language packs |
| Camera and handwriting input | Camera translation where available; no handwriting input | Live camera translation of signs and menus, plus handwriting input |
| Language breadth | Hebrew-first, supporting 10 languages | Well over one hundred languages |
Every row above is a feature you can confirm by opening both tools with the same sentence.
## The alternatives at a glance
Each of these replaces Google Translate for a different job. Pick by the job, not by the brand.
| Alternative | Pick it when | Where it falls short for Hebrew |
| --- | --- | --- |
| baba | You are writing Hebrew to a specific person and the gender, slang, and tone have to be right | New translations need a connection, there is no handwriting input, and it covers 10 languages |
| Microsoft Translator | You want free text translation in many languages, with no account | Microsoft lists no Hebrew speech or image translation, and there is no gender setting |
| Apple Translate | You are on an iPhone with iOS 27 and want free translation inside other apps | No gender setting, Apple devices only, and Live Translation does not cover Hebrew |
| DeepL | You are translating a Word, PowerPoint, or PDF file and the layout must survive | Gender is inferred from the text, and it is strongest on formal, written Hebrew |
| ChatGPT | You want the translation explained or reworded through follow-up questions | Speaker and listener gender has to be typed into every prompt |
| Reverso Context | You want to see how an expression appears in real translated sentences | A lookup tool: you pick the example that matches your context |
| Morfix | You need the definition or the forms of a single word | A dictionary: it does not translate whole sentences |
## Why Hebrew trips up general translators
In English, "I am going home" is the same sentence whoever says it. In Hebrew a man says אני הולך הביתה and a woman says אני הולכת הביתה, and "are you coming?" is אתה בא to a man and את באה to a woman. A general translator sees only the English, so it has to pick one form. That is why the most useful question to ask of any alternative is whether it lets you say who is speaking and who is listening, and whether it remembers that for the next message.
## Microsoft Translator and Apple Translate
Microsoft Translator is free, needs no account, and covers more than one hundred languages. For Hebrew, Microsoft's own languages page lists text translation and text-to-speech, but not speech or image translation, so the voice and camera modes do not take Hebrew. Review: https://www.itsbaba.com/reviews/microsoft-translator-hebrew-review
Apple Translate added Hebrew in iOS 27, released on September 14, 2026, and Apple lists Hebrew for system-wide translation, so you can translate selected Hebrew text inside other iPhone apps for free. It has no speaker or listener setting, it exists only on Apple devices, and Live Translation in Messages, Phone, and FaceTime does not cover Hebrew. Review: https://www.itsbaba.com/reviews/apple-translate-hebrew-review
## When Google Translate is still the right tool
Keep Google Translate for travel with no connection, for pointing the camera at a sign or a menu, for handwriting input, and for any language pair outside the ten baba supports. Those are real strengths, and none of the alternatives above matches all of them at once. Review: https://www.itsbaba.com/reviews/google-translate-hebrew-review
## How to choose in one minute
Write one sentence you would actually send, addressed to a real person. Translate it in Google Translate and in the alternative you are considering. Then change who is speaking or who is listening and translate it again. If the Hebrew does not change when it should, that tool is guessing the gender for you. Check the transliteration, the tone, and whether any slang survived, and keep the one that sounds like the conversation you meant.
## Why baba is the recommendation
- Set who is speaking and who is listening: choose one of seven contexts (General, Personal, To One Man, To One Woman, To Mostly Men, To Mostly Women, To Mixed Group) and the Hebrew is conjugated for it.
- Curated Israeli slang, idioms, and cultural usage go beyond a literal word-for-word result.
- A Latin-letter transliteration sits next to the Hebrew, so you can say it before you can read it.
- The same Hebrew-first product on iOS, Android, and the web, free to start.
## Limits
New translations require an internet connection. Guests can translate up to 1,000 characters, and a free account raises the monthly allowance to 2,500 characters. Tattoos, contracts, medical text, and other high-stakes uses should be reviewed by a qualified person before use.
## Frequently asked questions
### What is the best Google Translate alternative for Hebrew?
For writing Hebrew to a real person, baba is our recommendation. You set who is speaking and who is listening before it translates, across seven contexts, and it reads Israeli slang and idioms and shows a transliteration with the result. Other alternatives win other jobs: Microsoft Translator for free text in many languages, Apple Translate for built-in translation on iPhone, DeepL for document files.
### Is there a free alternative to Google Translate for Hebrew?
Yes. baba is free to start: guests can translate up to 1,000 characters, and a free account raises the monthly allowance to 2,500 characters. Microsoft Translator is free with no account, and Apple Translate is built into iOS 27 at no cost.
### Does Apple Translate support Hebrew now?
Yes, starting with iOS 27, which Apple released on September 14, 2026. Hebrew appeared in the Translate app during the iOS 27 beta, and Apple lists Hebrew for iOS 27 system-wide translation. Apple Translate still has no speaker or listener setting.
### Which Google Translate alternative works offline for Hebrew?
Apple Translate can download languages and translate entirely on the iPhone; check that Hebrew is listed under Settings, Apps, Translate, Languages. Microsoft Translator offline packs cover text and camera translation, and the app shows which languages have one. baba needs a connection for new translations; recent translations and the slang dictionary stay available offline. If offline Hebrew is the priority, Google Translate's own offline packs remain a strong choice.
### Which alternative can translate Hebrew from a photo?
baba translates Hebrew text from the camera with baba Pro. Microsoft does not list Hebrew for image translation in Microsoft Translator. Google Translate's live camera translation remains one of its genuine strengths.
### Why does Google Translate get Hebrew gender wrong?
Hebrew changes verbs and the word "you" to match who is speaking and who is listening, and an English sentence usually does not say. Google Translate has no persistent setting for either person, so it has to pick a form from the sentence alone. A translator with a speaker and listener setting avoids the guess.
### Is DeepL better than Google Translate for Hebrew?
DeepL's clearest advantage is document translation that keeps a file's layout, plus glossaries for teams. Neither DeepL nor Google Translate lets you set the speaker and listener, which is the part Hebrew needs for a personal message.
### Can ChatGPT replace Google Translate for Hebrew?
For one tricky sentence, often yes, if you tell it who is speaking and who is listening and ask for the register you want. Nothing in ChatGPT saves that context, so it has to be typed again for each new conversation.
## Disclosure
Published by baba, which makes the product recommended here. Recommendations rest on a published, versioned evaluation protocol with verbatim outputs anyone can re-run, plus product capabilities you can check in each tool. The evidence policy is at https://www.itsbaba.com/methodology.
## Related resources
baba vs Google Translate: https://www.itsbaba.com/compare/baba-vs-google-translate
baba vs Microsoft Translator: https://www.itsbaba.com/compare/baba-vs-microsoft-translator
baba vs Apple Translate: https://www.itsbaba.com/compare/baba-vs-apple-translate
baba vs DeepL: https://www.itsbaba.com/compare/baba-vs-deepl
baba vs ChatGPT: https://www.itsbaba.com/compare/baba-vs-chatgpt
Best Hebrew translators guide: https://www.itsbaba.com/best-hebrew-translators-guide
Morfix alternatives: https://www.itsbaba.com/morfix-alternatives
Canonical page: https://www.itsbaba.com/google-translate-alternatives-for-hebrew
---
# Google Translate API for Hebrew: the best alternative
The best alternative to the Google Translate API for Hebrew is baba HebrewCore, the Hebrew API from baba and the engine the baba Hebrew translator app runs on. #1: baba HebrewCore, for a gender parameter, protected values, ICU plurals with the Hebrew two form, verified nikud, Hebrew transliteration and render-ready RTL display, none of which Google documents for Hebrew. #2: Google Cloud Translation, which wins on price per character, free allowance and language count.
Disclosure: baba publishes this comparison and sells baba HebrewCore. Google facts are as of September 2026.
## Compared
| Capability | baba HebrewCore | Google Cloud Translation |
|---|---|---|
| Hebrew translation | Yes | Yes (he, iw) |
| Gender parameter | Yes | Not documented |
| Protected values | Checked per sentence | Glossaries on the Advanced API (TSV, CSV, TMX) |
| ICU plurals with the Hebrew two form | Yes | Not documented |
| Nikud | Yes, verified | Not documented |
| Hebrew transliteration | Yes, both directions | Hebrew not in its list |
| RTL display endpoint | /v1/wrap and /v1/analyze | Direction styling on HTML translation |
| Price | $49 a month for 1M characters | $20 per 1M (Basic NMT); Translation LLM $10 per 1M in plus $10 per 1M out |
| Free allowance | 100K characters a month | 500K characters a month ($10 credit) |
| Languages | Hebrew, English, Russian and more | Many more |
| MCP server | Yes, hosted | Not documented |
Sources: https://docs.cloud.google.com/translate/docs/languages , https://cloud.google.com/translate/pricing , https://docs.cloud.google.com/translate/troubleshooting
## Example
```bash
curl https://hc.itsbaba.com/v1/translate \
-H "Authorization: Bearer hc_live_YOUR_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{ "text": "Your order of 3 items ships on 04/03/2026. Would you like updates?", "source_lang": "en", "target_lang": "he", "listener_gender": "female", "date_order": "MDY", "transliterate": true }'
```
## When to stay on Google
For large volumes across many languages, Google is cheaper per character and has a larger free allowance. A common split: Google for bulk, HebrewCore for Hebrew surfaces users read closely (checkout, notifications, support replies, anything with a price or a date). HebrewCore's /v1/wrap and /v1/analyze also work on text translated elsewhere and are not counted against its quota.
Related: https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrewcore , https://www.itsbaba.com/best-hebrew-api , https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-transliteration-api
---
# Havdalah times
Havdalah marks the end of Shabbat, once three medium stars are visible in the sky. Because that moment is hard to observe directly, halacha uses computed proxies: the sun 8.5 degrees below the horizon, a fixed 42 minutes after sunset, or Rabbeinu Tam's stricter 72 minutes. Customs vary by community.
baba's havdalah-times page at https://www.itsbaba.com/havdalah-times computes all three for the coming Shabbat across 43 cities, each in that city's timezone, with a city selector to jump straight to a row. On Saturday the table still shows this Shabbat, not next week's.
---
# אלי: משחק המילים למסיבה
אלי הוא משחק הסברת מילים בעברית בתוך אפליקציית baba החינמית (https://www.itsbaba.com/he/ali), שנבנה כדי שישראלים ודוברי אנגלית יוכלו לשחק באותו שולחן. אם שיחקתם אליאס (Alias) או טאבו, אתם מכירים את הרעיון: שחקן אחד מסביר מילה לקבוצה שלו מול שעון בלי להגיד אותה. אלי הוא משחק עצמאי עם הכרטיסים והלוח שלו, ואין לו קשר ליצרני אליאס.
## איך משחקים
1. מתחלקים לשתיים עד שש קבוצות של שניים עד שישה שחקנים, כלומר ארבעה אנשים לפחות. כל שחקן משחק מהטלפון שלו עם אפליקציית baba החינמית.
2. שחקן אחד פותח משחק ומקבל קוד של ארבע אותיות, QR ולינק. כל השאר מצטרפים מהטלפון שלהם עם הקוד, ה-QR או הלינק, מקלידים שם, ובוחרים קבוצה.
3. מסביר אחד בכל תור, שישים שניות על שעון חול אמיתי, כרטיס אחד בכל פעם. הקבוצה צריכה להגיד את המילה בעברית. "הבנו" מקדם את הפין משבצת אחת, "דלג" מחזיר אותו משבצת אחת.
4. הלוח הוא דרך של שלושים משבצות במפת ישראל מאילת לירושלים, שמוצגת בכל טלפון עם הפין של כל קבוצה. הקבוצה הראשונה שמגיעה לירושלים מנצחת.
## נבנה לשולחן שמדבר בשתי שפות
כל כרטיס מציג את המילה בעברית עם ניקוד, תעתיק ואנגלית, כך שגם אורח שלא קורא עברית יכול להסביר ולנחש. מותר להסביר בעברית, באנגלית או בשילוב, והמארח יכול לנעול משחק לשפה אחת. בכל שפה שהמסביר בוחר, הניחוש שנספר הוא המילה בעברית.
כל שחקן משחק מהטלפון שלו. רק המסך של המסביר מציג את הכרטיס; חברי הקבוצה רואים מסך "נחשו!" עם הטיימר, והקבוצות האחרות רואות מי מסביר עכשיו ואת הדרך. אין שופט ואין כפתור פאול באפליקציה.
כשהחול נגמר נשמע צפצוף, והמילה האחרונה בכרטיס פתוחה לכל הקבוצות. מי שאומר אותה ראשון לוקח את המשבצת. אפשר לעזוב בכל רגע; קבוצה שיורדת מתחת לשני שחקנים יוצאת מהמשחק, והמשחק נגמר כשנשארות פחות משתי קבוצות.
## משבצות מיוחדות
- רק עברית: בתור הבא מסבירים רק בעברית.
- סלנג: התור הבא הוא כולו סלנג ישראלי. יש 108 כרטיסי סלנג במאגר.
- כולם משחקים: כל הקבוצות מנחשות בו זמנית, וכל מילה הולכת למי שאמר אותה ראשון.
## כרטיסים
אין חפיסות ואין קטגוריות. כל כרטיס נשלף באקראי מכל המאגר של כ-1,300 מילים, ומילה לא חוזרת באותו משחק. המאגר גדל לכיוון 3,000. צלילי משחק ומוזיקת רקע קלה מלווים את המשחק ואפשר לכבות אותם.
## מה צריך
- ארבעה אנשים או יותר, בשתיים עד שש קבוצות.
- הטלפון שלך, אייפון או אנדרואיד, גם מעורב.
- אפליקציית baba החינמית. אלי חינם לכולם, בלי מנוי. החוקים והמדריך המאויר נמצאים באפליקציה, בעברית ובאנגלית.
## שאלות נפוצות
**יש אליאס בעברית?** אם אתם מחפשים משחק בסגנון אליאס (Alias) או טאבו בעברית, אלי הוא בדיוק הסוג הזה: מסביר אחד, שעון חול, ומילה שהקבוצה צריכה להגיד. אלי הוא משחק עצמאי בתוך אפליקציית baba ואין לו קשר ליצרני אליאס.
**צריך לדעת אנגלית כדי לשחק?** לא. אפשר להסביר בעברית, באנגלית או בשילוב, והכרטיס מציג את המילה עם ניקוד, תעתיק ואנגלית.
**אלי חינם?** כן, לכולם באפליקציית baba, באייפון ובאנדרואיד, בלי מנוי.
**כמה מילים יש?** בערך 1,300 כרטיסים היום, כולל 108 כרטיסי סלנג ישראלי, והמאגר גדל לכיוון 3,000.
**אפשר לשחק עם טלפון אחד?** לא, כל שחקן משחק מהטלפון שלו. הטלפון של המסביר הוא היחיד שמציג את המילה.
**כמה אנשים צריך?** ארבעה לפחות, שתי קבוצות של שניים. עד שש קבוצות של שישה.
**מה קורה אם מישהו עוזב?** אפשר לעזוב בכל רגע. קבוצה שיורדת מתחת לשני שחקנים יוצאת מהמשחק, ואם נשארות פחות משתי קבוצות המשחק נגמר ומציג תוצאות.
## קישורים
- העמוד באנגלית: https://www.itsbaba.com/ali
- החוקים המלאים באנגלית, כולל גרסת נייר: https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-alias-style-word-game
- 300 מילים למסיבת מילים: https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-word-game-words
Alias הוא סימן מסחרי של Tactic Games Oy. baba אינה קשורה ל-Tactic Games ואינה מאושרת על ידה.
---
# איך משחקים משחק הסברת מילים בעברית
משחק הסברת מילים נותן לשחקן אחד מילה ושעון, ומבקש ממנו לגרום לקבוצה שלו להגיד אותה בלי להגיד אותה. אליאס (Alias), טאבו ועוד גרסאות סלון רבות חולקות את הרעיון ונבדלות בעונשים: טאבו אוסר רשימה של מילים קרובות, ואליאס אוסר את המילה ואת חלקיה ונותן לקבוצות האחרות לתפוס אתכם. בעברית החוקים לא משתנים; השולחן משתנה. חצי ממנו אולי קורא את המילה בשטף וחצי צריך תעתיק. החוקים שלמטה הם של אלי, המשחק שבתוך אפליקציית baba החינמית (https://www.itsbaba.com/he/ali), והם עובדים בדיוק אותו דבר עם רשימה מודפסת וטיימר מהמטבח. אלי הוא משחק עצמאי ואין לו קשר ליצרני אליאס.
## מה צריך לפני שמתחילים
- שתיים עד שש קבוצות של שניים עד שישה אנשים, כלומר ארבעה שחקנים לפחות. שלושה או ארבעה בקבוצה זה הגודל הנכון.
- כל שחקן מהטלפון שלו. המארח פותח משחק ומקבל קוד של ארבע אותיות, QR ולינק; כל שחקן אחר מצטרף מהטלפון שלו בהקלדת הקוד, בסריקת ה-QR, או מהלינק המשותף, מקליד שם ובוחר קבוצה.
- חוק השפה: המארח מחליט אם מסבירים בעברית, באנגלית או בשתיהן. שתיהן זו ברירת המחדל וההחלטה הנכונה לשולחן מעורב.
## תור
שחקן אחד הוא המסביר. שעון החול רץ שישים שניות והטלפון מציג כרטיס אחד: המילה בעברית עם ניקוד, התעתיק, והאנגלית. המסביר מדבר, מסמן, מזמזם, כל מה שיגרום לקבוצה להגיד את המילה בעברית. "הבנו" מקדם את הפין של הקבוצה משבצת אחת ומעלה את הכרטיס הבא; "דלג" מוריד את המילה ומחזיר את הפין משבצת אחת.
גם שאר השחקנים נמצאים על הטלפון שלהם. חברי הקבוצה של המסביר רואים מסך "נחשו!" עם הטיימר, בלי מילה; הקבוצות האחרות רואות מי מסביר עכשיו ואת הדרך. אין שופט: רק הטלפון של המסביר מציג את הכרטיס.
כשהחול נגמר נשמע צפצוף והמילה האחרונה שעל הכרטיס פתוחה לכל הקבוצות. הראשונה שאומרת אותה לוקחת את המשבצת. אחר כך המסביר של הקבוצה הבאה מפעיל את השעון בטלפון שלו.
## הלוח והמשבצות המיוחדות
הלוח הוא דרך של שלושים משבצות במפת ישראל מאילת לירושלים, מוצגת בכל טלפון עם הפין של כל קבוצה. שלושה סוגי משבצות משנים את התור הבא:
- רק עברית: התור הבא מוסבר בעברית בלבד.
- סלנג: כל כרטיס בתור הבא הוא סלנג ישראלי (יש 108 כרטיסי סלנג במאגר).
- כולם משחקים: כל הקבוצות מנחשות בו זמנית, וכל מילה הולכת למי שאמר אותה ראשון.
## להסביר מילה בעברית למי שאין לו עברית
- מתחילים מהאנגלית שעל הכרטיס ומתארים את הדבר; הקבוצה צריכה אז למצוא את העברית בזיכרון שלה, וזו הלמידה. לתת את האות הראשונה נחשב לאיות.
- משתמשים במילים השאולות: טלפון, אוניברסיטה, מוזיקה, פיצה, בנק. "זה נשמע כמו המילה באנגלית" הוא רמז חוקי ומהיר. שימו לב לחברים כוזבים.
- תנועות וקולות: פנטומימה עובדת מעבר לשפה. לזמזם שיר שהמילה מופיעה בו הוא מהלך ישראלי קלאסי.
- מצביעים על החדר: חצי מאוצר המילים היומיומי נמצא על השולחן. "זה, בעברית" הוא רמז חוקי, והמנחשים עדיין צריכים לשלוף את המילה.
## כשהמסביר ישראלי והקבוצה לא
- המילה שהקבוצה צריכה היא העברית. מסבירים את המשמעות בעברית, ודוברי האנגלית בקבוצה קוראים את הניחוש מהתעתיק ברגע שמישהו אומר אותו.
- ניגודים וזוגות הם הרמזים המהירים ביותר: "ההפך מחם" בשביל קר, "אבא ו..." בשביל אמא.
- כשמשבצת "רק עברית" נושכת, קבוצה דוברת אנגלית עם ישראלי אחד תסתדר; קבוצה בלי אף אחד מנחשת מתנועות ידיים וממה שהיא כבר יודעת. דלגו בלי חשבון וקחו את המילה הפתוחה בסוף התור.
- סלנג הוא סיפור ולא הגדרה. מסבירים את המצב שהמילה חיה בו.
## חוקי בית, מוכנים להקראה
1. ארבעה שחקנים לפחות, בקבוצות של שניים ומעלה. משחקים עם אפליקציה בטלפון או עם חפיסת פתקים.
2. מסביר אחד בכל תור, שישים שניות, מילה אחת בכל פעם. המסביר יכול לדבר עברית, אנגלית או שתיהן, אלא אם השולחן נעל שפה.
3. הקבוצה צריכה להגיד את המילה בעברית. להגיד את האנגלית זה ניסיון יפה, לא נקודה.
4. מילה שנוחשה מקדמת את הקבוצה משבצת אחת. מילה שדילגו עליה מחזירה אותה משבצת אחת.
5. הקבוצות האחרות שופטות. להגיד את המילה, חלק ממנה, חרוז שלה, או לאיית אותה הוא פאול: הכרטיס אבוד והפין זז משבצת אחת אחורה.
6. תנועות, קולות, "זה נשמע כמו", "זה מתחרז עם" ו"ההפך מ" כולם חוקיים. לתרגם את המילה ישירות לא.
7. כשהזמן נגמר, המילה האחרונה פתוחה לכולם. הקבוצה הראשונה שאומרת אותה לוקחת את המשבצת.
8. רק עברית: התור הבא מוסבר בעברית בלבד. סלנג: התור הבא כולו סלנג. כולם משחקים: כל הקבוצות מנחשות יחד.
9. מחלוקת הולכת לשופטים, הרוב מכריע, והחול ממשיך לרוץ.
10. הקבוצה הראשונה למשבצת האחרונה מנצחת. שוויון נשבר במילה אחת של מוות פתאומי, פתוחה לכולם.
## משחקים עם נייר במקום עם האפליקציה
קחו כל רשימת מילים שיש בה עברית, תעתיק ואנגלית בכל שורה (רשימת 300 המילים ב-https://www.itsbaba.com/he/hebrew-word-game-words מתאימה), גזרו אותה לפתקים וערבבו אותם הפוכים בקערה. ציירו שורה של שלושים משבצות על דף, סמנו את הראשונה כאילת ואת האחרונה כירושלים, ותנו לכל קבוצה מטבע כפין. הקיפו שש משבצות באקראי וסמנו שתיים רק עברית, שתיים סלנג ושתיים כולם משחקים. כוונו טיימר לשישים שניות.
מסביר אחד, פתק אחד בכל פעם, פתקים שנוחשו בערימה אחת ופתקים שדילגו עליהם בערימה שנייה. משחק בנייר יכול להוסיף חוק בית שאין באפליקציה: לתת לקבוצות האחרות לקרוא מעבר לכתף של המסביר בתור שופטות, ולקרוא פאול אם המסביר אומר את המילה, חלק ממנה, חרוז, או מתחיל לאיית אותה. בסוף התור סופרים את הערימות, מזיזים את המטבע, ומעבירים את הקערה. את פתקי הסלנג שומרים בקערה שנייה לתורות סלנג.
מה שמפסידים הוא מה שהאפליקציה עושה בשבילכם: שליפה אקראית בלי חזרות, שעון חול על כל טלפון, ולוח שמנהל את עצמו. מה שנשאר הוא המשחק.
## שאלות נפוצות
**איך משחקים אליאס (Alias) בעברית?** משחקים את אותו הז'אנר עם כרטיסים בעברית: קבוצות, מסביר אחד בכל תור, שעון, ומילה שהקבוצה צריכה להגיד בעברית. אלי באפליקציית baba בנוי לזה, כשכל כרטיס מציג את העברית עם ניקוד, תעתיק ואנגלית, וכל שחקן משחק מהטלפון שלו. לאלי אין קשר ליצרני Alias.
**מה החוקים של משחק הסברת מילים?** שחקן אחד מסביר מילים לקבוצה שלו מול שעון בלי להגיד את המילה, חלק ממנה, חרוז שלה, או לאיית אותה. כל מילה שנוחשה היא משבצת קדימה, כל דילוג עולה משבצת, והקבוצות האחרות שומרות על הפאולים.
**דוברי אנגלית יכולים לשחק עם ישראלים?** כן, אם הכרטיסים נושאים את העברית, תעתיק ואנגלית, ומותר להסביר בשתי השפות. הקבוצה עדיין צריכה להגיד את המילה בעברית.
**מה זו משבצת "רק עברית"?** משבצת שמחייבת שהתור הבא יוסבר בעברית בלבד.
**אפשר לשחק בלי האפליקציה?** כן, עם רשימת מילים מודפסת, טיימר ודף כלוח.
**כמה מילים צריך למשחק אחד?** תור שורף שמונה עד חמישה עשר כרטיסים ומשחק של ארבע קבוצות רץ שישה עד עשרה סיבובים, אז 250 עד 400 כרטיסים מונעים חזרות. 300 המילים שבאתר מספיקות לערב אחד; האפליקציה משחקת מתוך כ-1,300.
## קישורים
- אלי באפליקציית baba: https://www.itsbaba.com/he/ali
- 300 מילים בעברית למסיבת מילים: https://www.itsbaba.com/he/hebrew-word-game-words
- העמוד הזה באנגלית: https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-alias-style-word-game
Alias הוא סימן מסחרי של Tactic Games Oy. baba אינה קשורה ל-Tactic Games ואינה מאושרת על ידה.
---
# 300 מילים בעברית למסיבת המילים הבאה שלכם
העמוד ב-https://www.itsbaba.com/he/hebrew-word-game-words הוא טבלה של 300 מילים יומיומיות בעברית עם ניקוד, תעתיק ואנגלית, ועוד 40 כרטיסי סלנג ישראלי, מתוך המאגר שאלי (https://www.itsbaba.com/he/ali), משחק המילים למסיבה בסגנון אליאס (Alias) שבאפליקציית baba, משחק ממנו. חפשו בה, מיינו אותה לפי האלפבית העברי או האנגלי, או ערבבו וחלקו מילה אחת בכל פעם.
## איך משתמשים ברשימת מילים למשחק הסברה
מערבבים, ואז מחלקים מילה אחת לכל ניחוש למי שמסביר. המסביר מתאר, מסמן, או נותן ניגודים; הקבוצה צריכה להגיד את המילה בעברית; כשמשחקים עם נייר, הקבוצות האחרות יכולות לשפוט ולשמור על הפאולים (להגיד את המילה, חלק ממנה, חרוז שלה, או לאיית אותה). אחרי שישים שניות המילה האחרונה פתוחה לכל הקבוצות. החוקים המלאים, עם גרסת נייר של הלוח, נמצאים ב-https://www.itsbaba.com/he/hebrew-alias-style-word-game.
## המילים הקשות
שמות עצם שאפשר להצביע עליהם הם הקלים (כוס, כיסא, דלת). פעלים קשים יותר, כי הקבוצה צריכה למצוא את הפועל ולא את הדבר (להזמין, להבטיח, להגזים). שמות מופשטים קשים עוד יותר (אומץ, סבלנות, חופש), וסלנג הוא קטגוריה בפני עצמה, כי ליאללה ולחבל על הזמן אין הגדרה אלא רק המצב שאומרים אותם בו. שולחן חדש בעברית יכול לסנן ליומיומי ולדלג בלי חשבון; שולחן שוטף יכול לסנן לסלנג.
## שורות לדוגמה
- אַבָּא (aba): dad
- אוֹמֶץ (ometz): courage, bravery
- כּוֹס (kos): cup
- טֵלֵפוֹן (telefon): telephone
- חבל על הזמן (chaval al hazman): סלנג, incredible, amazing
- יאללה (yalla): סלנג, let's go, come on, okay/bye
## שאלות נפוצות
**איך משתמשים ברשימה הזו למשחק מילים?** מערבבים אותה, מחלקים מילים אחת אחת למסביר, ומשחקים לפי החוקים שבעמוד ההוראות. אותן מילים, עם עוד כאלף, מחולקות אוטומטית בתוך אלי.
**אלה המילים שיש באלי?** מדגם: 300 מילים יומיומיות ו-40 מתוך 108 כרטיסי הסלנג. אלי שולף באקראי מכ-1,300 כרטיסים בלי חזרות באותו משחק.
**למה לכל מילה יש ניקוד ותעתיק?** כדי ששולחן שבו חלק קוראים עברית וחלק לא יוכל לשחק את אותו משחק.
**אילו מילים קשה יותר להסביר?** פעלים, שמות מופשטים, וסלנג, בסדר הזה.
**אפשר להדפיס את הרשימה?** כן; הטבלה מודפסת כפי שסיננתם אותה, ואת השורות אפשר לגזור לפתקים.
## קישורים
- אלי באפליקציית baba: https://www.itsbaba.com/he/ali
- החוקים כתובים במלואם: https://www.itsbaba.com/he/hebrew-alias-style-word-game
- העמוד הזה באנגלית: https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-word-game-words
Alias הוא סימן מסחרי של Tactic Games Oy. baba אינה קשורה ל-Tactic Games ואינה מאושרת על ידה.
---
# Hebrew acronyms decoded
The decoder at https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-acronyms finds every known acronym in a pasted Hebrew text, with or without the ״ mark and with a prefix letter attached, and expands it in place.
## How to read one
The double mark ״ (gershayim) before the last letter marks an acronym of several words. The single mark ׳ (geresh) after a letter marks an abbreviation of one word. Many acronyms are pronounced as words: tzahal, mankal, sofash.
## Examples
| Acronym | Stands for | Means |
| --- | --- | --- |
| צה״ל | צבא ההגנה לישראל | the IDF |
| סופ״ש | סוף שבוע | weekend |
| מנכ״ל | מנהל כללי | CEO |
| ת״א | תל אביב | Tel Aviv |
| בע״ה | בעזרת השם | God willing |
---
# Hebrew age calculator
Hebrew age counts full years since birth the way Gregorian age does, but turns over on the Hebrew calendar's birthday rather than the Gregorian one. The calculator at https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-age-calculator takes a birth date (with an after-sunset toggle, because a Hebrew day begins at evening), finds its Hebrew date, and counts Hebrew years to today.
## What it shows
Current Hebrew age, the next Hebrew birthday and the one after that, the number of days remaining until the next one, and the Gregorian age for comparison, since the two can differ depending on where each birthday falls in the year.
---
# How to play a Hebrew word-explaining party game
A word-explaining game gives one player a word and a timer and asks them to make their team say it without saying it. Alias, Taboo and many living-room variants share the idea and differ in the penalties: Taboo bans a list of related words, Alias bans the word and its parts and lets the other teams catch you. In Hebrew the rules do not change; the table does. Half of it may read the word fluently and half may need a transliteration. The rules below are those of Ali, the game inside the free baba app (https://www.itsbaba.com/ali), and they work just as well with a printed list and a kitchen timer. Ali is its own game and is not connected to the makers of Alias.
## Setup
- Two to six teams of two to six people, so four players minimum. Three or four per team is the sweet spot.
- Everyone on their own phone. The host starts a game and gets a four-letter code, a QR and a link; everyone else joins on their own phone by code, by scanning the QR, or from the shared link, types a name, and picks a team.
- The language rule: the host decides whether explaining is in Hebrew, English or both. Both is the default and the right call for a mixed table.
## A turn
One player is the explainer. The hourglass runs sixty seconds and the phone shows one card: the Hebrew word with nikud, the transliteration, and the English. The explainer talks, gestures, hums, anything that gets the team to say the Hebrew word. Got It moves the team's pin one space forward and shows the next card; Skip drops the word and moves the pin one space back.
Everyone else is on their own phone too. The explainer's teammates see a Guess! screen with the timer, no word; the other teams see whose turn it is and the road. There is no referee: only the explainer's phone ever shows the card.
When the sand runs out a beep sounds and the last word on the card is open to every team. The first team to say it takes the space. Then the next team's explainer starts the timer on their own phone.
## The board and the special spaces
The board is a thirty-space road up a map of Israel from Eilat to Jerusalem, shown on every phone with every team's pin. Three kinds of space change the next turn:
- Hebrew Only: the next turn is explained in Hebrew alone.
- Slang: every card on the next turn is Israeli slang (there are 108 slang cards in the pool).
- Everyone Plays: all teams guess at once, and each word goes to whoever says it first.
## Explaining a Hebrew word to someone with no Hebrew
- Start from the English on the card and describe the thing; the team then has to find the Hebrew in its own memory, which is the learning. Giving the first letter counts as spelling.
- Use the cognates: טלפון, אוניברסיטה, מוזיקה, פיצה, בנק. "It sounds like the English word" is a legal, fast clue. Watch for false friends (גן is a garden, not a gun).
- Gesture and sound: miming works across languages. Humming a song the word appears in is a classic Israeli move.
- Point at the room: half of everyday vocabulary is on the table. "This, in Hebrew" is legal, and the guessers still have to remember the word.
## Explaining an English word to an Israeli
- The word the team wants is the Hebrew one. Explain the meaning in Hebrew and let the English speakers on the team read the guess off the transliteration once someone says it.
- Opposites and pairs are the fastest clues: "the opposite of חם" for קר, "אבא ו..." for אמא.
- When a Hebrew Only space bites, an English-speaking team with one Israeli does fine; a team with none guesses from gestures and the words it already knows. Skip generously and take the open word at the end of the turn.
- Slang is a story, not a definition. Explain the situation the word lives in.
## House rules, ready to read aloud
1. Four players minimum, in teams of two or more. Play with a phone app or a stack of cards.
2. One explainer per turn, sixty seconds, one word at a time. The explainer may talk in Hebrew, English or both unless the table has locked a language.
3. The team must say the Hebrew word. Saying the English is a nice try, not a point.
4. A guessed word moves the team one space forward. A skipped word moves it one space back.
5. The other teams referee. Saying the word, any part of it, a rhyme, or spelling it is a foul: the card is lost and the pin goes one space back.
6. Gestures, sounds, "it sounds like", "it rhymes with" and "the opposite of" are fair. Translating the word straight out is not.
7. When the time runs out, the last word is open to everyone. The first team to say it takes the space.
8. Hebrew Only: the next turn is explained in Hebrew alone. Slang: the next turn is all slang. Everyone Plays: every team guesses at once.
9. A dispute goes to the referees, majority wins, and the sand keeps running.
10. First team to the last space wins. Ties are broken by one sudden-death word, open to everyone.
## Playing with paper instead of the app
Take any word list with the Hebrew, a transliteration and the English on each line (the 300-word list at https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-word-game-words works), cut it into slips and shuffle them face down in a bowl. Draw a row of thirty boxes on a sheet of paper, mark the first Eilat and the last Jerusalem, and give each team a coin as its pin. Circle six boxes at random and label two Hebrew Only, two Slang and two Everyone Plays. Set a timer to sixty seconds.
One explainer, one slip at a time, guessed slips in one pile and skipped slips in another. Paper play can add a house rule the app does not have: let the other teams read over the explainer's shoulder as referees, calling a foul (and a space back) if the explainer says the word, part of it, a rhyme, or spells it. At the end of the turn count the piles, move the coin, and pass the bowl. Keep the slang slips in a second bowl for Slang turns.
What you lose is what the app does for you: the random draw with no repeats, the hourglass on every phone, and the board that keeps itself. What you keep is the game.
## Frequently asked questions
**How do you play Alias in Hebrew?** You play the same genre with Hebrew cards: teams, one explainer per turn, a timer, and a word the team has to say in Hebrew. Ali in the baba app is built for that, with every card showing the Hebrew with nikud, a transliteration and the English, and every player playing on their own phone. Ali is not connected to the makers of Alias.
**What are the rules of a word-explaining game?** One player explains words to their team against a timer without saying the word, part of it, a rhyme, or spelling it. Each guessed word is a space forward, each skip costs one, and the other teams watch for fouls.
**Can English speakers play with Israelis?** Yes, if the cards carry the Hebrew, a transliteration and the English, and explaining is allowed in either language. The team still has to say the Hebrew word.
**What is a Hebrew Only space?** A space that forces the next turn to be explained in Hebrew alone.
**Can we play without the app?** Yes, with a printed word list, a timer and a sheet of paper as the board.
**How many words do we need for one game?** A turn burns eight to fifteen cards and a four-team game runs six to ten rounds, so 250 to 400 cards keeps a game from repeating. The 300 words on this site are enough for one evening; the app plays from about 1,300.
## Related
- Ali in the baba app: https://www.itsbaba.com/ali
- 300 Hebrew words for a word party: https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-word-game-words
Alias is a trademark of Tactic Games Oy. baba is not affiliated with or endorsed by Tactic Games.
---
# Hebrew alphabet
The Hebrew alphabet has 22 letters, read right to left, with no separate vowel letters; vowels are added with small marks called nikud. baba's alphabet page at https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-alphabet lists all 22 with audio, sound, gematria value and example words, and lets you switch the chart between print, handwriting and Rashi script.
## The letters
Alef, bet, gimel, dalet, he, vav, zayin, chet, tet, yod, kaf, lamed, mem, nun, samech, ayin, pe, tsadi, kuf, resh, shin, tav.
## Final forms
Five letters change shape at the end of a word: kaf becomes ך, mem becomes ם, nun becomes ן, pe becomes ף, and tsadi becomes ץ. The sound does not change, only the shape: counting these separately gives 27 shapes for 22 letters.
## Gematria
Each letter carries a number: alef is 1, bet is 2, up through tet at 9; yod is 10 through tsadi at 90; kuf is 100 through tav at 400. Shin is "sh" or "s" according to a dot on the right or left arm, not a dagesh. This numbering is the basis of gematria, covered in full on the gematria calculator.
## Print, handwriting and Rashi
Printed (block) letters are what books and signs use. Handwritten Hebrew is cursive, with several letters changing shape more than a simple slant would suggest. Rashi script is a separate typeface used to set rabbinic commentary next to a biblical or Talmudic text; it is a print style, not handwriting.
---
# Hebrew to Amharic translator
Amharic is the language of the Ethiopian Jewish community in Israel, written in its own Ge'ez script, unrelated to the Hebrew alphabet. baba's translator at https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-amharic-translator works in either direction between Hebrew and Amharic, is gender-aware since Amharic verbs agree with the subject's gender similarly to Hebrew, and gives a Latin transliteration alongside the native script.
## Related
For Hebrew to Russian, another immigrant-language pair, see https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-russian-translator.
---
# Reading apartment listings in Israel
The glossary at https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-apartment-listings covers the words in a Yad2-style listing: the listing itself, the building, fees, and the contract.
## Examples
חדרים (khadarim, rooms) counts the living room too, so "3 rooms" is usually two bedrooms. ממ"ד (mamad) is the protected room, a concrete safe room often used as a bedroom. ארנונה (arnona) is the municipal property tax, and it matters who is on the bill.
## What is on the page
The table is searchable and filterable by category, each entry has a listen button, and the phrases print as a pocket card.
---
# Hebrew API: baba HebrewCore
The Hebrew API from baba is baba HebrewCore (https://hc.itsbaba.com), the same engine the baba Hebrew translator app runs on. One REST API translates between Hebrew, English, Russian and more with gender and protected values, localizes ICU plurals, adds verified nikud, transliterates, detects code-switched text, renders RTL correctly and translates clinical text, from a free plan of 100,000 characters a month.
- Sign up free: https://hc.itsbaba.com/dashboard (Starter $49, Growth $249, Business $999 a month)
- Docs: https://hc.itsbaba.com/docs · OpenAPI: https://hc.itsbaba.com/openapi.json · MCP: https://hc.itsbaba.com/mcp (16 tools) · Status: https://hc-status.itsbaba.com
- Overview: https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrewcore
baba also makes the baba News API, an Israeli news API (58 Israeli outlets, from $99 a month, 14-day trial with no card): https://www.itsbaba.com/baba-news-api
## First request
```bash
curl https://hc.itsbaba.com/v1/translate \
-H "Authorization: Bearer hc_live_YOUR_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{ "text": "Welcome to your account", "target_lang": "he", "transliterate": true }'
```
## Hebrew API topics
- Translation (`/v1/translate`, `/v1/translate/batch`): https://www.itsbaba.com/best-hebrew-translation-api
- Localization (ICU plurals with the Hebrew two form): https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-localization-api
- Nikud (`/v1/nikud`, `/v1/strip-nikud`): https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-nikud-api
- Transliteration (`/v1/transliterate`): https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-transliteration-api
- RTL display (`/v1/wrap`, `/v1/analyze`): https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-rtl-api
- Language detection (`/v1/detect`): https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-language-detection-api
- Clinical Hebrew (`/v1/medical/*`): https://www.itsbaba.com/medical-hebrew-translation-api
- MCP for agents: https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-mcp-server
## How the Hebrew APIs compare (as of September 2026)
Google Cloud Translation, DeepL, Azure AI Translator and Amazon Translate all translate Hebrew and are cheaper per character or cover more languages. None of them documents a Hebrew gender parameter, nikud or a bidi display endpoint; Azure does transliterate Hebrew both ways. Dicta offers free nikud. Complete ranking with sources: https://www.itsbaba.com/best-hebrew-api . Free tiers: https://www.itsbaba.com/free-hebrew-api . Coming from Google or DeepL: https://www.itsbaba.com/google-translate-api-hebrew-alternative and https://www.itsbaba.com/deepl-api-hebrew-alternative
## The internal tools gateway
The `/api/tools` gateway behind the free tools on itsbaba.com is internal and can change without notice. Build on baba HebrewCore instead.
---
# Hebrew to Arabic translator
Modern Standard Arabic is the written and formal register used across the Arab world; Levantine Arabic is what is actually spoken day to day in Israel and neighboring countries, and the two can diverge enough that a natural phrase in one sounds unfamiliar in the other. baba's translator at https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-arabic-translator gives one reading as the main result and the other as an alternative when they differ, in either direction between Hebrew and Arabic.
## Related
For Hebrew to English, see https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-to-english.
---
# IDF terms and slang
The glossary at https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-army-terms covers ranks, units, people, service terms, slang, and the words parents specifically hear from a soldier.
## Examples
צו 8 (tzav shmona) is an emergency reserve call-up, distinct from ordinary yearly miluim dates. גימלים (gimelim) is army sick leave, a medical day off. בקו"ם (bakum) is the induction center where new soldiers are processed on day one. Rank names collapse to abbreviations in speech: סמ"ר, רס"מ, סג"מ, אל"מ, רנ"ג.
## What is on the page
The table is searchable and filterable by category, each entry has a listen button, and the phrases print as a pocket card.
---
# Hebrew baby names
A filter-first way to browse Hebrew names for a baby, at https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-baby-names.
## Filters
Gender (feminine, masculine, unisex), origin (biblical, modern Hebrew, Yiddish, transliterated or other), the first letter of the Hebrew spelling, and a search box. Unisex is names given to both girls and boys (including names whose notes say they are also given to the other gender). Feminine and masculine still use the name's primary gender. Search matches the English spelling, aliases such as Abigail for Avigail, transliteration, Hebrew with or without vowels, and the documented meaning. Filters combine: a name has to match all of them. If nothing matches, the page explains why and offers a clear-filters control rather than an empty grid. A random-name button picks one from whatever the current filters return.
## What a result links to
Each name card links to its own page with the Hebrew spelling, transliteration, pronunciation, documented meaning, and, for biblical names, the verse it comes from.
---
# Israeli banking terms in Hebrew
The glossary at https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-banking-terms covers the words on a statement, an ATM screen, and a transfer app: the account, cards and cash, transfers, and loans.
## Examples
עו"ש (osh), short for עובר ושב, is the everyday checking account. מינוס (minus) is overdraft, and an approved one is a normal part of an Israeli checking account. מט"ח (matakh) is foreign currency. ביט (Bit) is a bank-run payment app for moving shekels between people, not a bank itself.
## What is on the page
The table is searchable and filterable by category, each entry has a listen button, and the phrases print as a pocket card.
---
# Hebrew Bible interlinear
An interlinear text lines up each Hebrew word with a literal English gloss, showing how the sentence is built rather than only giving a smoothed-out translation. baba's page at https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-bible-interlinear covers three short, well-known passages this way.
## The three passages
Genesis 1:1–5 is the first day of creation, five verses. Psalm 23 ("The Lord is my shepherd") is given in full, six verses. Deuteronomy 6:4–9 is the Shema and the V'ahavta paragraph that follows it, also six verses.
## What each verse shows
Every word has its Hebrew (with nikud), a transliteration, and a short gloss. Maqaf-joined pairs in the Masoretic Text stay one token; otherwise each space-separated word is its own column. Each verse has a natural English sentence and an audio button that reads the verse aloud.
---
# Printable blessing cards
baba's blessing cards at https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-blessing-cards print eight commonly needed blessings on one sheet, each in Hebrew, transliteration and English: hamotzi (bread), the wine blessing from Friday-night kiddush, the opening line of Birkat Hamazon, Shehecheyanu, the Shabbat and holiday candle-lighting blessings, the Havdalah hamavdil blessing, and a short Tefilat HaDerekh, the traveler's prayer.
## Print options
The page prints on A4 or Letter paper, with four or six cards per page, and a toggle to show or hide the transliteration line for a cleaner card. Print and choose Save as PDF, or download an HTML file to open and print later.
## Not the full text of every prayer
Some of these blessings are excerpts of a longer prayer (Birkat Hamazon has four blessings in full; Havdalah has wine, spices, and fire before hamavdil). The full text of each is on baba's prayers pages.
---
# Reading Israeli official letters without Hebrew
baba translates PDF documents up to 20 pages per document, which covers most Israeli official letters and forms, and baba also translates a paper letter through the camera when you only have the printed page. Read the letter first, then work out what it wants: most official Hebrew letters are a notice, a request for documents, a payment demand, or an appointment. The word that matters most on the page is usually the date.
## Key Facts
| Fact | Value |
| --- | --- |
| PDF translation | Up to 20 pages per document |
| Paper letter | Camera translation |
| Emailed or scanned letter | PDF translation |
| Free tier | 2,500 characters per month with a free account; 1,000 as a guest with no login. No credit card |
| Pro translation length | 20,000 characters per translation |
## Which Israeli Offices Send Hebrew Letters, and What Do They Usually Want?
Four senders account for much of the official mail that arrives in Hebrew. The description below is what a letter from each institution typically concerns, not a guarantee of what any specific letter says.
| Sender | Hebrew | What the letter is usually about |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Bituach Leumi | ביטוח לאומי (bituach leumi) | National insurance: contributions owed, entitlement decisions, benefit payments, requests for documents |
| Misrad HaPnim | משרד הפנים (misrad ha-pnim) | Interior ministry: status and residency matters, the population registry, identity documents, appointment notices |
| Kupat cholim | קופת חולים (kupat cholim) | Health fund: appointments, referrals, test results, membership and payment |
| Arnona | ארנונה (arnona) | Municipal property tax: the periodic bill, rate changes, discount eligibility |
Letters from all four share a layout. The sender and a reference number sit at the top, the subject line begins with הנדון (hanadon, "subject"), the body states a decision or a request, and a date sits near the bottom next to what you are being asked to do.
## What Hebrew Words Appear on Almost Every Official Letter?
These recur across senders. Learning to spot them tells you what kind of letter you are holding before you translate a word of the body.
| Hebrew | Transliteration | English |
| --- | --- | --- |
| הודעה | hoda'a | notice |
| הנדון | hanadon | subject, re |
| טופס | tofes | form |
| בקשה | bakasha | request, application |
| אישור | ishur | approval, confirmation, certificate |
| זכאות | zaka'ut | entitlement, eligibility |
| דרישת תשלום | drishat tashlum | payment demand |
| חוב | chov | debt, outstanding balance |
| תשלום | tashlum | payment |
| מועד אחרון | mo'ed acharon | final date, deadline |
| ערעור | ir'ur | appeal |
| מסמכים נדרשים | mismakim nidrashim | required documents |
| תעודת זהות | teudat zehut | Israeli identity card |
| מספר תיק | mispar tik | file number |
| תור | tor | appointment slot |
| חתימה | chatima | signature |
| מצ"ב | matzav | attached (enclosed herewith) |
| שלום רב | shalom rav | formal greeting |
| בברכה | bivracha | yours sincerely |
| נא להמציא | na lehamtzi | please furnish / submit |
| פיגור | pigur | arrears, late payment |
| לשכה | lishka | bureau, office |
Official Hebrew also addresses you by gender. A letter to a man says אתה זכאי (ata zaka'i, "you are entitled"); to a woman it says את זכאית (at zaka'it). Both mean the same thing, and seeing the feminine form does not mean the letter was sent to someone else. Hebrew conjugates verbs, adjectives and possessives by the gender of the speaker, the listener and the subject, which is why baba lets you set speaker and listener before translating, across seven contexts.
## How Do I Translate a Letter That Arrived on Paper Rather Than by Email?
Use camera translation for paper. Photograph the letter flat, in even light, with the whole page in frame, and translate the image. Official letters are printed in a plain font without vowel points, which is the easiest case for camera translation.
Use PDF translation for anything that arrived as a file or that you scanned. baba handles PDFs up to 20 pages per document, which covers a multi-page benefit decision or a form pack. Translate the whole document rather than one paragraph, because the deadline and the required-documents list are often on a different page from the decision itself.
For a letter you need to answer, translate your reply in the other direction before sending it, and keep the file number and any Hebrew term from the original letter in your reply exactly as printed.
## Frequently asked questions
### Can I use a baba translation as an official translation?
No. This page makes no claim about what any Israeli agency, court or office accepts, and baba does not produce certified or notarised translations. Treat the translation as a reading aid so you understand your own mail.
### The letter mentions a deadline. What should I do first?
Find the date and the action next to it before anything else, then confirm it with the sending office through the number or file reference printed on the letter. A translation tells you what the letter says, not whether the deadline applies to your case.
### What if the letter is handwritten or a poor-quality scan?
Handwriting and low-resolution scans are the hardest input for camera translation. Photograph the page again in better light, or ask the office to resend it as a PDF, which many of them will do.
### Which languages can I translate the letter into?
baba covers 10 languages, so a Hebrew letter can be read in your own language rather than only in English.
### How do I translate a letter that arrived on paper rather than by email?
Use camera translation for paper. Photograph the letter flat, in even light, with the whole page in frame, and translate the image. Official letters are printed in a plain font without vowel points, which is the easiest case for camera translation. Use PDF translation for anything that arrived as a file or that you scanned.
### Does official Hebrew address me differently depending on my gender?
Yes. A letter to a man says אתה זכאי (ata zaka'i, "you are entitled"); to a woman it says את זכאית (at zaka'it). Both mean the same thing, and seeing the feminine form does not mean the letter was sent to someone else.
## What baba Does Not Do
- baba tells you what a letter says. A deadline, an appeal, a status decision or a payment demand still warrants a person who knows the Israeli system, and often the sending office itself.
- A lawyer, doctor or accountant should still read a document that carries legal, medical or financial consequence. baba tells you what it says; it does not tell you what to do about it.
- PDF translation covers 20 pages per document.
- baba does not produce certified, sworn or notarised translations, and makes no claim about what any agency will accept.
- The free tier is 2,500 characters per month, which is enough for a handful of messages a week and not enough for documents.
## Related Pages
- https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-pdf-translation: translating PDF documents up to 20 pages
- https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-translator-with-camera: translating a printed page with the camera
- https://www.itsbaba.com/gendered-hebrew-translation: why official Hebrew addresses you by gender
- https://www.itsbaba.com/blog/how-to-write-hebrew-emails-professional-guide: writing back in Hebrew
- https://www.itsbaba.com/pricing: free tier and Pro limits
Canonical page: https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-bureaucracy-translation
Last updated: 2026-09-13
Questions: shalom@itsbaba.com
---
# Hebrew date, birthday and gematria calculators
baba's Hebrew calculators convert a Gregorian date to a Hebrew date, work out the Hebrew anniversary of a birth date, and compute the gematria value of a Hebrew word, with the live computation on the itsbaba.com Hebrew calculators page. Each calculator answers a different question, and all three run on the HTML page at https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-calculators.
## Key facts
| Fact | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Hebrew calendar type | Lunisolar, months follow the moon, years stay in step with the sun |
| Start of a Hebrew day | Sundown, not midnight |
| Leap year | An extra month is added, in seven years out of every nineteen |
| Gematria | Each Hebrew letter carries a numeric value |
| Live computation | On the HTML page, not in this file |
## What do the Hebrew calculators do?
Each calculator takes one input and returns one answer. Nothing here needs an account.
| Calculator | What you enter | What you get back |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Hebrew date converter | A Gregorian date, or a Hebrew date | The matching date in the other calendar |
| Hebrew birthday calculator | Your Gregorian birth date | Your Hebrew birth date and when it falls next |
| Gematria calculator | A Hebrew word or phrase | The total numeric value of its letters |
Hebrew names and the wording around them are gendered, so a greeting or a blessing written for a birthday changes form depending on whether it is addressed to a man or a woman, which is what baba's seven gender contexts handle in the translator.
## Does this file contain any computed values?
No. This markdown file is static and carries no dates, no Hebrew dates and no gematria totals. Every value depends on the input you supply and on the day you ask, so the computation lives on the HTML page at https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-calculators.
## Why does a Hebrew date not fall on the same Gregorian date each year?
The two calendars count differently. The Gregorian calendar is solar, and its months are fixed lengths that ignore the moon. The Hebrew calendar is lunisolar: each month begins with a new moon, which makes a lunar year shorter than a solar year.
Left alone, the Hebrew months would drift backwards through the seasons, and Passover would eventually fall in autumn. To prevent that, the Hebrew calendar adds a whole extra month in seven years out of every nineteen. The correction keeps the festivals in their seasons, and it is also why a Hebrew date usually lands about eleven days earlier on the Gregorian calendar than it did the year before, then jumps roughly nineteen days later in a year that takes the extra month.
One more rule affects the conversion. A Hebrew day starts at sundown rather than at midnight, so a birth in the evening belongs to the following Hebrew date. A converter needs to know whether the event happened before or after sunset to give the right answer.
## What is gematria?
Gematria is the practice of reading Hebrew letters as numbers. Every letter has a value: aleph is one, and the values run up through tav, which is four hundred. The gematria of a word is the sum of the values of its letters.
The best-known example is חי (chai), meaning "life", whose letters total eighteen. That is why charitable gifts and wedding cheques are so often written in multiples of eighteen, and why the number appears on jewellery.
Gematria is a numeric property of the spelling, not a translation. Two words with the same total do not mean the same thing, and the calculator reports the value without interpreting it.
## Frequently asked questions
### Why is my Hebrew birthday on a different day every year?
Because the Hebrew calendar is lunisolar and the Gregorian calendar is solar, the same Hebrew date maps to a different Gregorian date each year. The gap swings by a couple of weeks and resets when a leap month is added. The birthday calculator does the mapping for you rather than asking you to track the cycle.
### Does the time of day matter for a Hebrew date?
Yes. A Hebrew day begins at sundown, so anything that happened after sunset falls on the next Hebrew date. If a birth was in the evening, enter that detail, because it changes the answer by one day.
### Can I use the Hebrew date converter for a yahrzeit?
The converter gives the Hebrew date that corresponds to a Gregorian one, which is the starting point. Practice around a yahrzeit varies by community, and the observance date can depend on details a converter does not know, so confirm the date with your rabbi or synagogue.
### Does the gematria calculator work on a whole phrase?
Yes. The calculator sums the letter values of whatever Hebrew text you enter, whether that is a single word, a name or a longer phrase.
## What baba does not do
- This markdown file carries no computed values of any kind, and the calculators themselves run only on the HTML page.
- baba's calculators are arithmetic tools, not rulings. For a yahrzeit, a bar mitzvah date or anything else that carries religious consequence, confirm the date with your rabbi or community calendar.
- The gematria calculator reports a numeric total. baba does not interpret what a total means, and no meaning is implied by two words sharing a value.
## Related pages
- https://www.itsbaba.com/shabbat-times: when Shabbat begins and ends, and why the minute changes weekly
- https://www.itsbaba.com/israel-time-converter: the current time in Israel and hour differences by city
- https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-slang-dictionary: everyday Israeli words and what they actually mean
- https://www.itsbaba.com/: baba, the Hebrew translation app
Canonical page: https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-calculators
Last updated: 2026-07-28
Questions: shalom@itsbaba.com
---
# Hebrew calendar, month by month
baba's calendar at https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-calendar shows one Gregorian month at a time, Sunday first, with each day's Hebrew date in letters, any holiday, Shabbat shading, candle lighting for a chosen city on Fridays, and the week's parsha on Saturday. Today's cell is outlined. Since the Hebrew day begins at sunset, each cell shows the Hebrew date in effect for most of that Gregorian day's daylight hours.
The page has a print view sized for A4 landscape with the site's navigation and footer hidden, and a "Download year (.ics)" file containing one all-day calendar event per day of the displayed year with its Hebrew date and any holiday. It is a snapshot of that year, not a live subscription, because Hebrew dates do not fall on the same Gregorian day each year.
---
# Hebrew calendar 2026
Dates below are Israel (one day of Yom Tov, except Rosh Hashanah which is two days everywhere). Gregorian 2026 spans two Hebrew years: 5786 runs from January to the eve of Rosh Hashanah in the autumn, and 5787 begins there and continues to the end of the Gregorian year.
## Major holidays
| When | Holiday |
| --- | --- |
| 2-8 Apr 2026 | Pesach (Passover) |
| 22 May 2026 | Shavuot |
| 12-13 Sep 2026 | Rosh Hashanah 5787 |
| 26 Sep - 2 Oct 2026 | Sukkot |
| 3 Oct 2026 | Shmini Atzeret |
In Israel, Simchat Torah is the same day as Shmini Atzeret.
## Fasts
Ta'anit Esther (2 Mar), Ta'anit Bechorot (1 Apr), Tzom Tammuz (2 Jul), Tish'a B'Av (23 Jul), Tzom Gedaliah (14 Sep), Yom Kippur (21 Sep) and Asara B'Tevet (20 Dec).
## Rosh Chodesh
The page lists the start of every Hebrew month in 2026. 5786 is not a leap year, so there is one Adar (17-18 Feb). 5787, which begins in September 2026, is a leap year.
Candle-lighting is a weekly, city-specific query, not a fixed calendar date; see baba's Jerusalem zmanim page.
---
# Hebrew calendar 2027
Dates below are Israel (one day of Yom Tov, except Rosh Hashanah which is two days everywhere). Gregorian 2027 spans two Hebrew years: 5787 runs from January to the eve of Rosh Hashanah in the autumn, and 5788 begins there and continues to the end of the Gregorian year. 5787 is a leap year.
## Major holidays
| When | Holiday |
| --- | --- |
| 22-28 Apr 2027 | Pesach (Passover) |
| 11 Jun 2027 | Shavuot |
| 2-3 Oct 2027 | Rosh Hashanah 5788 |
| 16-22 Oct 2027 | Sukkot |
| 23 Oct 2027 | Shmini Atzeret |
## Fasts
Ta'anit Esther (22 Mar), Ta'anit Bechorot (21 Apr), Tzom Tammuz (22 Jul), Tish'a B'Av (12 Aug), Tzom Gedaliah (4 Oct) and Yom Kippur (11 Oct). Asara B'Tevet of 5788 falls in January 2028.
## Rosh Chodesh
The page lists the start of every Hebrew month in 2027, including both Adar I (7-8 Feb) and Adar II (9-10 Mar), since 5787 is a leap year.
Candle-lighting is a weekly, city-specific query, not a fixed calendar date; see baba's Jerusalem zmanim page.
---
# How to write a check in Hebrew
An Israeli check's legal amount is the words line, not the digit box. The tool at https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-check-writing spells any shekel amount out correctly and shows where every field goes.
## The fields
תאריך (date) is written day/month/year. לפקודת (to the order of) is the payee. The amount box holds digits; the line beneath it holds the same amount in words, ending in בלבד ("only"), which prevents the amount from being altered after signing. A crossed check, marked למוטב בלבד between two diagonal lines, can only be deposited into the named payee's own account.
## Everyday practice
Post-dated checks are routine in Israel, commonly used to pay rent, tuition, or large purchases in installments, one check per month; banks generally hold a check until its written date before clearing it.
---
# Hebrew conversation practice with an AI partner
baba gives Hebrew conversation practice two ways: baba Tutor, a coach in development for daily lessons and Israeli role plays, and a real Hebrew situation each day on WhatsApp where baba plays the other person and corrects you.
- The coach speaks to you in the form that matches your gender, and marks the forms you use.
- baba Tutor is in development; the baba web voice tutor works today.
- Typed conversation earns the same corrections as spoken conversation.
> baba Tutor is in development inside the baba Learn app, which is in private testing. The Hebrew voice tutor in the baba translator web app is live today.
## Situations worth rehearsing
Conversation practice pays off fastest when it rehearses the conversation you are about to have. These come up for almost everyone living in or visiting Israel.
| Situation | A line you will need | Transliteration |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Ordering at a café | אפשר הפוך גדול, בבקשה? | efshar hafuch gadol, bevakasha? |
| Asking directions | איך מגיעים לתחנה? | eich magi'im latachana? |
| At the shuk | כמה זה עולה? | kama ze ole? |
| Meeting a neighbour | נעים מאוד, אני גר/גרה פה | na'im me'od, ani gar / gara po |
| Calling an office | אני מתקשר/מתקשרת בקשר ל... | ani mitkasher / mitkasheret bekesher le... |
## Why your partner has to know who is speaking
Look at the last two rows. "I live here" is גר from a man and גרה from a woman. "I am calling" is מתקשר or מתקשרת. A partner who guesses wrong teaches you the wrong sentence, every day, until it is a habit.
It goes further than the words on the page. Plenty of Hebrew is spelled identically for both genders and only differs in sound, so the same letters are correct for one person and wrong for another. baba Tutor asks once, addresses you correctly from the first line, and marks the forms you use, including the ones only a recording can catch.
| Hebrew | Said to or by a man | Said to or by a woman |
| --- | --- | --- |
| מה שלומך | ma shlomkha | ma shlomekh |
| אני רוצה | ani rotse | ani rotsa |
| בשבילך | bishvilkha | bishvilekh |
| אמרת | amarta | amart |
| שלך | shelkha | shelakh |
## Two ways to practise with baba
baba Tutor, in development, is the coach: a daily lesson of about twelve turns, Israeli role plays with a brief and a goal, a short Hebrew article you read and then discuss, and free conversation once the day's lesson is done. Every mistake can be reviewed as your sentence, the fix, and the sentence a native would have said.
Available today: the live Hebrew voice tutor in the baba web app, and Daily Situations on WhatsApp, where a real Israeli situation arrives each day, baba plays the other person, and every correction comes with the pronunciation. Both are part of baba Pro+.
## Frequently asked questions
### Where can I practise Hebrew conversation online?
In the baba web app you can hold a live Hebrew voice conversation today, and baba Pro+ sends a real Israeli situation to practise on WhatsApp each day. baba Tutor, a full speaking coach, is in development.
### Is an AI good for Hebrew conversation practice?
Yes, for volume. An AI partner is available at any hour and never loses patience, so you can repeat the same situation until it stops being frightening.
### How do I say "how much does it cost" in Hebrew?
כמה זה עולה? (kama ze ole?) is the everyday way to ask a price.
### Why does Hebrew change depending on who is speaking?
Hebrew verbs in the present tense and most adjectives agree with the speaker's gender, so a man says גר and a woman says גרה for "live". Second-person forms change with the listener too.
### Can I practise by typing instead of talking?
Yes. In baba Tutor a typed conversation gets the same corrections and the same recap. Only pronunciation scoring needs your voice.
## What baba does not do
- baba Tutor has not launched; the baba Learn app is in private testing.
- The web voice tutor and Daily Situations are paid Pro+ features with usage allowances.
- An AI partner is practice. It does not replace talking with Israelis.
Talk to baba's Hebrew voice tutor on the web: https://app.itsbaba.com/tutor
---
# Hebrew cursive
The chart at https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-cursive shows all 22 Hebrew letters in print next to a school-cursive handwriting face (Gveret Levin), with a short note on each letter. Type your own text to see it in that face; final-letter forms are applied at word ends.
## Print vs handwriting
Printed (block) Hebrew is used in books, on signs and in typeset text. Cursive is the everyday handwriting Israeli schools teach directly, the way joined-up writing is taught for the Latin alphabet: faster to write by hand, more rounded, and in several letters, a noticeably different shape from the printed form. Alef, gimel, tsadi, ayin and shin change the most.
## Why Israelis write cursive
Cursive is what a pen naturally does faster than print. Signatures, notes and most personal handwriting use it; print is for text meant to be typeset or read carefully rather than written quickly. Real notebooks still vary by person, school, and generation; Gveret Levin is the usual taught shape, not a scan of anyone's handwriting.
---
# Hebrew date today
The Hebrew date changes at sunset, not at midnight, so a calculator needs to know whether the sun has already set. The tool at https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-date-today reads the visitor's device clock, defaults the sunset toggle to "after sunset" once local time passes 6pm, and lets the visitor override it.
## What it shows
Alongside today's Hebrew date: tomorrow's Hebrew date, whether today is Shabbat or a holiday, this week's parsha (Torah portion), and the next upcoming holiday. The civil date in the header stays today's date even after sunset; only the Hebrew date advances. A converter section turns any Gregorian date into a Hebrew one and back, including years that the older dropdown used to omit. Adar II is listed only in leap years; 30 Cheshvan and 30 Kislev are offered only in years that contain those days.
## Why the year is 5787
The Hebrew calendar counts years from the traditional date of creation, 3761 BCE. The current year, 5787, began at Rosh Hashanah in September 2026 and runs until Rosh Hashanah 5788 in autumn 2027.
## Leap months
The calendar is lunar, so a 13th month, a second Adar, is added seven times in every 19-year cycle to keep the festivals in their seasons.
---
# Hebrew dictionary
The dictionary at https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-dictionary searches a Hebrew word against baba's frequency list, vocabulary sets and slang dictionary, with or without nikud and with final or regular letter forms (ך or כ), and returns its meaning.
## What it covers
Everyday frequency words, vocabulary set words with example sentences, and slang with its register (general, army, youth, and so on). It is not a full unabridged Hebrew dictionary; a rare or technical word may not appear.
## Related
/english-hebrew-dictionary searches the same index from the English side; /hebrew-verb-conjugator conjugates any verb the dictionary points to.
---
# Hebrew email translator
Formal Hebrew correspondence opens with שלום רב and closes with בברכה, or the more official בכבוד רב, conventions a literal translation misses. baba's translator at https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-email-translator works in both directions between English and Hebrew for business and official mail, adjusting register rather than translating sentence by sentence, and it is gender-aware.
## Related
For casual texting Hebrew, the opposite register, see https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-whatsapp-translator.
---
# Hebrew encoding fixer
Garbled Hebrew almost always falls into one of a few known patterns. The tool at https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-encoding-fixer tries each one and keeps whichever produces the most real Hebrew. Text that is already correct Hebrew is left alone. Mixed lines such as "Hello שלו×" are recovered too, as is text that was UTF-8-decoded as Windows-1252 twice.
## The patterns
| Looks like | Cause | Recoverable |
| --- | --- | --- |
| ×©×œ×•× | UTF-8 bytes decoded as Windows-1252 or Latin-1 | Yes, exactly |
| ùìåí | Windows-1255 bytes decoded as Latin-1 | Yes, exactly |
| םולש | Correct letters, reversed order (a PDF or design tool exported backwards) | Yes, by reversing the run |
| □□□ | Missing font glyphs, or bytes already replaced | No |
| ???? | The Hebrew was already replaced with "?" before this copy was saved | No |
Mojibake (the first two rows) is recoverable because the original bytes are all still present, only misread; nothing recovers text whose bytes were already lost or replaced before you received it.
---
# Hebrew to English and English to Hebrew
baba is our recommendation for two-way modern Israeli Hebrew because the intended meaning depends on the people, slang, idioms, culture, tone, and register, not only the words.
## Into Hebrew
The user sets who is speaking and who is being addressed before translation while Baba carries slang, idioms, tone, and cultural context into the Hebrew result.
## Out of Hebrew
baba includes transliteration plus curated Israeli slang, idiom, and cultural-usage support so the result can reflect what an Israeli expression means in context.
## Available workflows
- iOS, Android, and web
- Hebrew across 10 languages
- Text and transliteration
- Voice, camera, and document features according to plan
## How to compare
Translate a natural Israeli sentence containing a role change, slang, an idiom, or a tone cue. Compare the Hebrew, transliteration, register, and intended meaning with another product.
## Limits
New translations require an internet connection. The guest allowance is 1,000 characters, while a free account raises the monthly allowance to 2,500 characters. High-stakes output should be reviewed before use.
Canonical page: https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-english-translator
---
# Hebrew fonts
The font page at https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-fonts previews 56 Hebrew typefaces with a live sample you can type into, and compares nikud support, licence, weights, and intended use for each one. Families hosted on Google Fonts render in their own face; others fall back to David and are tagged as such.
## How Hebrew type differs from Latin
Hebrew lines need more leading than Latin text at the same size, because vowel points and square letterforms sit closer to full height than Latin ascenders and descenders. There is no italic in the Latin sense: a slanted square letter reads as a mistake rather than emphasis, so weight or a different face carries contrast instead. Uppercase does not exist. Pairing Hebrew with Latin works best when the two scripts share weight and x-height, and a real fallback font matters because a browser with no Hebrew glyphs in the chosen family will silently substitute a system font.
## Choosing by use case
For website UI: Heebo, Assistant, Rubik, Miriam Libre, or IBM Plex Sans Hebrew. For long-form reading and print: Frank Ruhl Libre or David Libre. For full nikud and cantillation on the web: Noto Sans Hebrew, Noto Serif Hebrew, or Noto Rashi Hebrew. For religious texts and Torah-style pages: Koren, Stam / Ktav Ashuri, or Ezra SIL, each under its own licence terms. For headlines and signage: Secular One, Suez One, or Karantina.
## Licence
Most Google Fonts Hebrew families are OFL, free to use and self-host. Arimo, Tinos, and Cousine (the open Arial / Times / Courier stand-ins) are Apache 2.0. Some entries in this comparison (David, Frank-Rühl, Almoni, Koren) are commercial system or foundry fonts and need a separate licence for web use. Libertinus Serif is OFL but is not on Google Fonts, so it has to be self-hosted.
---
# Hebrew for Hanukkah
In Hebrew the holiday is Chanukah or Hanukkah depending on who is transliterating. Israelis just say chag sameach, then argue about sufganiyot.
חנוכה. Friday 4 December – Saturday 12 December 2026.
## What do you say?
| Hebrew | Transliteration | English |
| --- | --- | --- |
| חג חנוכה שמח | Chag Hanukkah sameach | Happy Hanukkah |
| חג שמח | Chag sameach | A happy holiday |
| סופגנייה | Sufganiya | Donut |
---
# Hebrew for Passover
Israelis say Pesach, not Passover, once they switch to Hebrew. The greeting is chag sameach; the stricter version adds kasher.
פסח. Wednesday 21 April – Wednesday 28 April 2027.
## What do you say?
| Hebrew | Transliteration | English |
| --- | --- | --- |
| חג פסח שמח | Chag Pesach sameach | Happy Passover |
| חג כשר ושמח | Chag kasher ve-sameach | A kosher and happy holiday |
| מה נשתנה | Mah nishtanah | Why is this night different? |
---
# Hebrew for Purim
Purim is loud, costumed, and full of food parcels. The greeting is chag Purim sameach. The phrase you need at the door is mishloach manot.
פורים. Tuesday 23 March 2027 (walled cities: Wednesday 24 March).
## What do you say?
| Hebrew | Transliteration | English |
| --- | --- | --- |
| חג פורים שמח | Chag Purim sameach | Happy Purim |
| משלוח מנות | Mishloach manot | Sending food parcels |
| תחפושת | Tachposet | Costume |
---
# Hebrew for Rosh Hashanah
Shana tova is the greeting. The extra u-metuka (and sweet) is the honey. After the two days, the language of the week tilts toward sealing, not sweetness.
ראש השנה. Friday 11 September – Sunday 13 September 2026 (next: 20–22 September 2027).
## What do you say?
| Hebrew | Transliteration | English |
| --- | --- | --- |
| שנה טובה | Shana tova | A good year |
| שנה טובה ומתוקה | Shana tova u-metuka | A good and sweet year |
| כתיבה וחתימה טובה | Ketiva ve-chatima tova | May you be inscribed for a good year |
---
# Hebrew for Shabbat
Shabbat shalom is the greeting that survives secular Tel Aviv and a Jerusalem stairwell. After the stars come out on Saturday, you switch to shavua tov.
שבת. Every week, Friday sunset to Saturday night.
## What do you say?
| Hebrew | Transliteration | English |
| --- | --- | --- |
| שבת שלום | Shabbat shalom | Sabbath peace |
| שבוע טוב | Shavua tov | A good week |
| גוט שבת | Gut Shabbos | Good Sabbath (Ashkenazi) |
---
# Hebrew for Simchat Torah
Simchat Torah is the night the Torah scrolls come off the ark and the room starts moving. The greeting is still chag sameach. The word you need for the dancing is hakafot.
שמחת תורה. Friday 2 October – Saturday 3 October 2026 (Israel: 2 October).
## What do you say?
| Hebrew | Transliteration | English |
| --- | --- | --- |
| חג שמח | Chag sameach | Happy holiday |
| הקפות | Hakafot | Circuits with the Torah |
| שמחת תורה | Simchat Torah | Joy of the Torah |
---
# Hebrew for Sukkot
Sukkot is a chag. This is the week chag sameach actually belongs — and the week Israelis eat outside, even in an apartment courtyard.
סוכות. Friday 25 September – Friday 2 October 2026.
## What do you say?
| Hebrew | Transliteration | English |
| --- | --- | --- |
| חג שמח | Chag sameach | Happy holiday |
| מועדים לשמחה | Moadim lesimcha | Joyous festivals |
| לשבת בסוכה | Lashevet ba-sukkah | To sit in the sukkah |
| חג טוב | Chag tov | Good holiday |
---
# Hebrew for Yom Kippur
Yom Kippur is not “happy holiday.” Israelis wish each other a good sealing in the book of life, and an easy fast — two different greetings, used at different hours.
יום כיפור. Sunday 20 September – Monday 21 September 2026.
## What do you say?
| Hebrew | Transliteration | English |
| --- | --- | --- |
| גמר חתימה טובה | Gmar chatima tova | May you be sealed for good |
| צום קל | Tzom kal | Easy fast |
| חתימה טובה | Chatima tova | A good sealing |
| כתיבה וחתימה טובה | Ketiva ve-chatima tova | May you be inscribed for a good year |
---
# Addressing a woman, a man, or a mixed group in Hebrew
Hebrew marks the listener's gender and the number of listeners, so a message to one woman, one man and a mixed group are three different sentences, and baba lets you choose which one you are writing. There is no gender-neutral word for "you" in Hebrew and no gender-neutral present tense. Sending a masculine-form message to a female manager is not a small stylistic slip: every line that points at her is wrong.
## Key facts
| Fact | Value |
| --- | --- |
| What Hebrew marks about the reader | Gender and number |
| Gender-neutral "you" in Hebrew | None |
| Standard form for a mixed group | Masculine plural |
| Gender contexts in baba | 7 |
| Where it matters most | Announcements, invitations, workplace email, customer messages |
## How do I write the same workplace sentence to a woman, a man and a mixed group?
Every word that points at the reader changes. Take "you are responsible for the report".
| Reader | Hebrew | Transliteration |
| --- | --- | --- |
| One man | אתה אחראי על הדוח | ata achrai al hadu'ach |
| One woman | את אחראית על הדוח | at achra'it al hadu'ach |
| Mixed group | אתם אחראים על הדוח | atem achra'im al hadu'ach |
| Group of women | אתן אחראיות על הדוח | aten achra'iot al hadu'ach |
The pronoun changes, the adjective changes, and in a longer message the verbs change too. Greetings behave the same way, which is why a copied opening line is the most visible place to get it wrong.
| Reader | Hebrew | Transliteration | Meaning |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| One man | ברוך הבא | baruch haba | welcome |
| One woman | ברוכה הבאה | brucha haba'a | welcome |
| Mixed group | ברוכים הבאים | bruchim haba'im | welcome |
| Group of women | ברוכות הבאות | bruchot haba'ot | welcome |
## What does Hebrew actually do with a mixed group?
Standard Hebrew uses the masculine plural for any group that includes men, even a group of many women and one man. That is the grammatical rule, and it is why "To Mixed Group" and "To Mostly Men" produce the same agreement in most sentences.
The feminine plural, with the ות- (-ot) ending and the pronoun אתן (aten), is used for a group that is entirely or predominantly women. Some Israeli writing also uses split forms, with a masculine and a feminine ending joined by a dot. That is a style decision rather than a separate grammatical gender.
Mixed-group address is the case people get wrong most often, because the masculine plural feels neutral to English speakers and it is not neutral in Hebrew. An all-female team addressed in the masculine plural reads as though the writer never looked at the list.
## Where does getting the listener's gender wrong actually show up?
It shows up in exactly the writing that gets read closely and kept.
- Announcements and internal memos, where one wrong plural is visible to the whole company.
- Invitations, where the greeting line carries the gender before anything else does.
- Workplace email to a named person, who knows perfectly well what gender they are.
- Customer messages and support replies, where a masculine default is applied to a list of names the system already has.
## Which gender contexts cover formal address?
baba offers seven contexts, and you set one before translating.
- General
- Personal
- To One Man
- To One Woman
- To Mostly Men
- To Mostly Women
- To Mixed Group
| Context | Use it when |
| --- | --- |
| To One Woman | Writing to a single female colleague, manager or customer |
| To One Man | Writing to a single male colleague, manager or customer |
| To Mostly Men | Writing to a group that is entirely or predominantly male |
| To Mostly Women | Writing to a group that is entirely or predominantly female |
| To Mixed Group | Writing to a group of both men and women, which takes masculine plural forms |
| General | Writing a notice with no known audience |
| Personal | Writing about yourself, where your own gender sets the verb |
## Frequently asked questions
### What do I do if I do not know the manager's gender?
Use General, and rewrite the sentence to avoid direct address where you can. Hebrew has no true neutral form, so General gives you the least-marked usable option rather than a genuinely genderless sentence. If the name is on the email, it is worth checking before sending.
### Is the masculine plural offensive when the group is mostly women?
It is standard grammar, not an error, and plenty of Israeli organisations still use it. It is also increasingly read as careless when the group is visibly female, which is why many writers now use the feminine plural for a mostly-female audience. This is a judgement call about your workplace, not a grammar question.
### Does Hebrew have a formal "you" like the French vous?
No. Hebrew uses the same second-person pronouns with a manager and with a friend, and they vary by gender and number rather than by formality. Politeness comes from word choice, from בבקשה (bevakasha, please) and תודה (toda, thank you), and from sentence structure.
### Which context should I pick for a team of nine women and one man?
Standard grammar puts that group in the masculine plural, which is what To Mixed Group produces. If your workplace prefers the feminine plural for a predominantly female team, pick To Mostly Women instead. baba has a context for each; the choice belongs to you.
### Do the verbs change too, or only the pronoun?
Both. The pronoun changes, the adjective changes, and in a longer message the verbs change as well, because the Hebrew present tense has no gender-neutral form. That is why fixing one word in a translated paragraph rarely fixes the paragraph.
### Where do people notice the mistake first?
In the greeting. ברוך הבא (baruch haba) to a woman, where ברוכה הבאה (brucha haba'a) belongs, is visible in the first line before anyone reads the rest of the message.
## What baba does not do
- Register and formality vary by workplace, and baba renders the grammar rather than the culture of a specific office. A phrase that is normal in a startup may be too casual in a government letter.
- baba does not decide for you whether a mostly-female group should get the masculine plural or the feminine plural. baba has a context for each and you choose which one to translate with.
- The free tier is 2,500 characters per month, which is enough for a handful of messages a week and not enough for documents.
- baba is a translation tool, not a Hebrew course, and using it will not by itself make you fluent.
## Related pages
- https://www.itsbaba.com/features/gender: how the seven gender contexts work in the app
- https://www.itsbaba.com/gendered-hebrew-translation: getting the feminine form instead of the masculine one
- https://www.itsbaba.com/blog/how-to-write-hebrew-emails-professional-guide: writing professional email in Hebrew
- https://www.itsbaba.com/learn/hebrew-grammar: Hebrew grammar, roots and agreement
- https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-masculine-or-feminine: noun gender and the exceptions
Canonical page: https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-formal-address-gender
Last updated: 2026-07-28
Questions: shalom@itsbaba.com
---
# Hebrew to French translator
French, like Hebrew, marks gender on adjectives and some verb forms. baba's translator at https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-french-translator works in either direction between Hebrew and French and asks for speaker and listener gender to get that agreement right.
## Related
For Hebrew to Spanish, another gendered Romance language, see https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-spanish-translator.
---
# The most common Hebrew words, ranked
The list at https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-frequency-list ranks 850 Hebrew words. The ranking is editorial (how common a word is in everyday Israeli speech), not a measurement from a text corpus. Gendered homographs such as לך (to you, masculine and feminine) are counted separately.
## What the tool does
Filters by part of speech, searches by Hebrew, English or transliteration, lets a learner mark a word "known" (saved in the browser's local storage), and offers a CSV download and a print view.
## A starting point
The first 300 words on the list cover most everyday speech, so a learner working through the list in order gets the most useful words first.
---
# Hebrew grammar
baba's grammar hub at https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-grammar covers 40 topics across four CEFR levels.
## Levels
| Level | Topics | Focus |
| --- | --- | --- |
| A1 | 14 | Gender, plurals, the definite article, personal pronouns, the present tense, and et (the object marker) |
| A2 | 12 | Past and future tense, possessive suffixes, prepositions with suffixes, numbers and gender |
| B1 | 8 | The seven binyanim (pa'al, pi'el, hif'il, nif'al, and more), construct state, modal verbs, the passive voice |
| B2 | 2 | Ktiv male spelling and register (formal versus casual) |
## Page format
Each topic page states the rule first as a highlighted card, then works through it in sections with examples (Hebrew, transliteration, English, and audio), lists common exceptions, shows the mistakes learners actually make (wrong form struck through, correct form beside it, with the reason), and links to the next topics in the sequence.
## Start here
The hub opens with six topics in order: gender of nouns, plurals, the definite article, personal pronouns, the present tense, and et the object marker. The rest of the page groups every topic by CEFR level.
---
# Hebrew grammar checker
baba's checker at https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-grammar-checker follows Academy of the Hebrew Language rules for Modern Israeli Hebrew: agreement in gender and number, verb conjugation, preposition choice, punctuation, and ktiv male (full, unvowelled spelling). It checks correctness, not style, so a grammatically sound but awkward sentence passes unchanged.
## What it returns
- The corrected text.
- A list of issues, each with the original, the fix, and a one-line reason.
- A short summary.
## Related
Check a short phrase before it becomes a tattoo at https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-tattoo-checker.
---
# Hebrew greeting card maker
baba's greeting card maker at https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-greeting-card covers 17 Jewish holidays, each with several greetings: some general, some tagged for a man, a woman, or a couple, family or group. Choosing a holiday and a recipient picks the matching greeting; if that holiday has no gendered line, the card uses a general greeting. Adding a name puts it at the top of the card. Memorial phrases that refer to someone who died are listed on the page but are not used as the card text for a living recipient.
## Sizes
The card downloads as a PNG in a 1080×1080 square for WhatsApp and social posts, a 1080×1920 vertical size for Stories, or an A5 size meant for printing.
## What's on the card
A terracotta gradient background, the holiday name, the recipient's name if one is given, the greeting in Hebrew, its transliteration, an English line, and a small baba mark.
---
# Hebrew in the news
These pages teach the Hebrew in the coverage. baba News is the coverage.
- [Shana tova](/hebrew-in-the-news/shana-tova): A good year — the Rosh Hashanah greeting that is also in every politician’s message this week.
- [Tzom kal](/hebrew-in-the-news/tzom-kal): Easy fast — the Yom Kippur line you will see on supermarket signs and in group chats.
- [Hatufim](/hebrew-in-the-news/hatufim): Hostages. The plural that has not left the Israeli front page since 7 October.
- [Herum](/hebrew-in-the-news/herum): Emergency. Matzav herum is a state of emergency; chadar herum is an ER.
- [Tzahal](/hebrew-in-the-news/tzahal): The IDF. An acronym Israelis say as a word.
- [Bibi](/hebrew-in-the-news/bibi): Netanyahu’s nickname, used by supporters and opponents, rarely neutral.
- [Likud](/hebrew-in-the-news/likud): The governing party. Primaries stories this month are Likud stories.
- [Hishtalvut](/hebrew-in-the-news/hishtalvut): Integration — used for Haredi draft, Arab citizens, and immigrants, depending on the paper.
- [Pigua](/hebrew-in-the-news/pigua): A terror attack. Israeli Hebrew does not say “incident” first.
- [Yalla](/hebrew-in-the-news/yalla): Let’s go — from Arabic, now the country’s punctuation.
- [Sababa](/hebrew-in-the-news/sababa): Cool, fine, okay. The weather of agreement.
- [Tachles](/hebrew-in-the-news/tachles): Bottom line, from Yiddish tachlis. The meeting is over when someone says it.
- [Kapara](/hebrew-in-the-news/kapara): Originally atonement; in speech, a fond “sweetheart” or “don’t worry about it.”
- [Chag](/hebrew-in-the-news/chag): Festival. Sukkot is a chag. Yom Kippur is not greeted as one.
- [Gmar chatima tova](/hebrew-in-the-news/gmar-chatima): May you be sealed for good — the High Holiday line that is not shana tova.
- [Havdalah](/hebrew-in-the-news/havdala): The Saturday-night ceremony that ends Shabbat. Also the moment the news cycle restarts.
- [Misrad Hapnim](/hebrew-in-the-news/misrad-hapnim): Interior Ministry. The office behind visas, status, and a lot of aliyah coverage.
- [Kupat cholim](/hebrew-in-the-news/kupat-cholim): Health fund. Clalit, Maccabi, Meuhedet, Leumit — not “the hospital.”
- [Am Yisrael Chai](/hebrew-in-the-news/am-yisrael-chai): The people of Israel live. Solidarity line, protest line, funeral line.
- [Pisga](/hebrew-in-the-news/pisgat): Summit — diplomatic or the top of a hill. Pisgat Ze’ev is a neighbourhood; pisga medinit is a summit.
---
# Am Yisrael Chai
עם ישראל חי — Am Yisrael chai
The people of Israel live. Solidarity line, protest line, funeral line.
Papers quote it; they rarely write it in their own voice. When they do, the piece has left straight news.
---
# Bibi
ביבי — Bibi
Netanyahu’s nickname, used by supporters and opponents, rarely neutral.
A headline with Bibi is already taking a register. Haaretz will often still say Netanyahu. Channel 14 will say Bibi.
---
# Chag
חג — Chag
Festival. Sukkot is a chag. Yom Kippur is not greeted as one.
Holiday traffic stories say “erev chag” — the eve, when the shops empty and the roads fill.
---
# Gmar chatima tova
גמר חתימה טובה — Gmar chatima tova
May you be sealed for good — the High Holiday line that is not shana tova.
From Rosh Hashanah through Yom Kippur, including in official messages. After the fast, it disappears until next Tishrei.
---
# Hatufim
חטופים — Hatufim
Hostages. The plural that has not left the Israeli front page since 7 October.
English wires say “hostages.” Hebrew headlines say ha-hatufim, often without restating who. The families are mishpechot ha-hatufim.
---
# Havdalah
הבדלה — Havdalah
The Saturday-night ceremony that ends Shabbat. Also the moment the news cycle restarts.
Israeli papers go quiet-ish on Shabbat and return after Havdalah. “After Havdalah” in a political story means Saturday night.
---
# Herum
חירום — Herum
Emergency. Matzav herum is a state of emergency; chadar herum is an ER.
Security stories use herum for Home Front Command instructions, not “crisis” as a vibe word.
---
# Hishtalvut
השתלבות — Hishtalvut
Integration — used for Haredi draft, Arab citizens, and immigrants, depending on the paper.
The same word is a promise on the right and a warning on the left. Comparison pages exist because of words like this.
---
# Kapara
כפרה — Kapara
Originally atonement; in speech, a fond “sweetheart” or “don’t worry about it.”
On Yom Kippur the liturgical sense returns. The rest of the year it is slang. Context is the whole story.
---
# Kupat cholim
קופת חולים — Kupat cholim
Health fund. Clalit, Maccabi, Meuhedet, Leumit — not “the hospital.”
Health-desk stories name the kupah the way US stories name an insurer. Showing up at a hospital without one is a different plot.
---
# Likud
הליכוד — Ha-Likud
The governing party. Primaries stories this month are Likud stories.
“Primaries ba-Likud” is a whole desk. English says “Likud primary.”
---
# Misrad Hapnim
משרד הפנים — Misrad ha-pnim
Interior Ministry. The office behind visas, status, and a lot of aliyah coverage.
English says “Interior Ministry.” Hebrew headlines say Misrad Hapnim as if it were a person.
---
# Pigua
פיגוע — Pigua
A terror attack. Israeli Hebrew does not say “incident” first.
Breaking alerts lead with pigua, then a place name. English wires delay the word until the facts settle. Hebrew does not.
---
# Pisga
פסגה — Pisga
Summit — diplomatic or the top of a hill. Pisgat Ze’ev is a neighbourhood; pisga medinit is a summit.
A “pisga” in the diplomatic brief is a meeting of leaders. Do not confuse it with the Jerusalem neighbourhood in crime blotter Hebrew.
---
# Sababa
סבבה — Sababa
Cool, fine, okay. The weather of agreement.
You will see it in quoted speech, not in the newsroom’s own voice. If the paper prints sababa, someone in the story said it.
---
# Shana tova
שנה טובה — Shana tova
A good year — the Rosh Hashanah greeting that is also in every politician’s message this week.
Israeli papers run “Netanyahu’s shana tova” as a headline the way English papers run “Christmas address.” It is a greeting and a political genre.
---
# Tachles
תכלס — Tachles
Bottom line, from Yiddish tachlis. The meeting is over when someone says it.
Columnists love it. News reports use it in quotes from coalition fights: “tachles, there is no majority.”
---
# Tzahal
צה״ל — Tzahal
The IDF. An acronym Israelis say as a word.
Hebrew headlines almost never say “the Israeli army.” They say Tzahal. English coverage says IDF. Same institution.
---
# Tzom kal
צום קל — Tzom kal
Easy fast — the Yom Kippur line you will see on supermarket signs and in group chats.
Coverage of the holiday shutdown (no cars in religious cities, no radio in some homes) still uses tzom kal in the crawl, not “happy Yom Kippur.”
---
# Yalla
יאללה — Yalla
Let’s go — from Arabic, now the country’s punctuation.
Not a news term, but it leaks into quotes from politicians and coaches. When a minister says yalla, the desk is telling you the register dropped.
---
# Preparing for a job interview in Hebrew
In a Hebrew job interview every sentence you say about yourself conjugates to your own gender, so a male candidate and a female candidate answer the same question with different words, and baba shows both forms rather than picking one. Prepare the answers as sentences rather than as vocabulary, because the interview questions are close to fixed. Say early that you are still learning Hebrew, and most Israeli interviewers will slow down or switch.
## Key facts
| Fact | Value |
| --- | --- |
| What conjugates to you | Present-tense verbs and adjectives about yourself |
| What conjugates to the interviewer | Second-person pronouns and questions you ask back |
| Gender contexts in baba | 7 |
| Rehearsal tools | Hebrew text-to-speech and transliteration |
| Free tier | 2,500 characters per month with a free account; 1,000 as a guest with no login. No credit card |
## What questions will I be asked in a Hebrew job interview?
The opening set is predictable. The question itself is also gendered, because the interviewer addresses you directly, so you will hear one of two forms depending on your own gender.
| Question | Asked to a man | Asked to a woman |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Tell me about yourself | ספר לי על עצמך (saper li al atzmecha) | ספרי לי על עצמך (sapri li al atzmech) |
| Why do you want to work with us | למה אתה רוצה לעבוד אצלנו (lama ata rotze la'avod etzlenu) | למה את רוצה לעבוד אצלנו (lama at rotza la'avod etzlenu) |
| What are your strengths | מה החוזקות שלך (ma hachozakot shelcha) | מה החוזקות שלך (ma hachozakot shelach) |
| When can you start | מתי תוכל להתחיל (matai tuchal lehatchil) | מתי תוכלי להתחיל (matai tuchli lehatchil) |
| What are your salary expectations | מה ציפיות השכר שלך (ma tzipiyot hasachar shelcha) | מה ציפיות השכר שלך (ma tzipiyot hasachar shelach) |
## How do I answer, and what changes with my own gender?
These are answer openers rather than whole answers. Learn the opener in your own form and the rest of the sentence can be simple.
| Meaning | Male candidate | Female candidate |
| --- | --- | --- |
| I currently work at | אני עובד כרגע ב (ani oved karega be) | אני עובדת כרגע ב (ani ovedet karega be) |
| I am looking for a new role | אני מחפש תפקיד חדש (ani mechapes tafkid chadash) | אני מחפשת תפקיד חדש (ani mechapeset tafkid chadash) |
| I can start next month | אני יכול להתחיל בחודש הבא (ani yachol lehatchil bachodesh haba) | אני יכולה להתחיל בחודש הבא (ani yechola lehatchil bachodesh haba) |
| I am confident I can do this | אני בטוח שאני יכול (ani batuach she'ani yachol) | אני בטוחה שאני יכולה (ani betucha she'ani yechola) |
| I am still learning Hebrew | אני עדיין לומד עברית (ani adayin lomed ivrit) | אני עדיין לומדת עברית (ani adayin lomedet ivrit) |
Some useful sentences do not change at all, which makes them worth leaning on: למדתי (lamadeti, I studied), יש לי ניסיון בתחום (yesh li nisayon batchum, I have experience in the field), עבדתי שם הרבה זמן (avadeti sham harbe zman, I worked there a long time), and תודה על הזמן (toda al hazman, thank you for your time). Past-tense first-person verbs in Hebrew are the same for men and women.
## What do I say about my Hebrew at the start?
Say it plainly in the first minute rather than letting it become obvious later. A male candidate says אני עדיין לומד עברית, אפשר לדבר קצת יותר לאט (ani adayin lomed ivrit, efshar ledaber ktzat yoter le'at). A female candidate says אני עדיין לומדת עברית, אפשר לדבר קצת יותר לאט (ani adayin lomedet ivrit, efshar ledaber ktzat yoter le'at). Both mean "I am still learning Hebrew, could you speak a little more slowly".
The follow-up worth having ready is אפשר באנגלית (efshar be'anglit, "is English possible"), which is invariant. In most Israeli workplaces the answer is yes, and asking it in Hebrew reads better than not asking.
## Why does the Hebrew change depending on who is speaking?
Hebrew marks gender on present-tense verbs, on adjectives and on second-person forms, so an interview is the situation where gender agreement is hardest to avoid: you talk about yourself continuously and you are addressed directly throughout. A translator that returns one default form hands every candidate of the other gender sentences they cannot use about themselves.
baba sets speaker and listener explicitly through seven gender contexts.
- General
- Personal
- To One Man
- To One Woman
- To Mostly Men
- To Mostly Women
- To Mixed Group
Personal is the setting for everything you say about yourself, which is most of an interview. To One Man and To One Woman are the settings for questions you ask the interviewer. To Mixed Group covers a panel of men and women, which standard Hebrew renders with masculine plural forms.
## How do I rehearse the pronunciation?
Use Hebrew text-to-speech to hear each prepared sentence, then read it back from the transliteration rather than from the Hebrew script. Unpointed Hebrew does not show most vowels, so the written form will not tell you how a word sounds if you are not already fluent.
Rehearse out loud in the gendered form you will actually use. Converting a masculine sentence in the room does not work, because the verb, the adjective and the pronoun all move together.
## Frequently asked questions
### Will the interview be in Hebrew at all if the company works in English?
Often not entirely. Many Israeli companies run technical interviews in English and small talk in Hebrew, and the switch is usually unannounced. Preparing the self-introduction and the closing thanks in Hebrew covers most of it.
### Is it acceptable to ask the interviewer to repeat something?
Yes. סליחה, אפשר לחזור על זה (slicha, efshar lachzor al ze) means "sorry, could you repeat that" and is invariant. Asking is standard behaviour and reads as attentive rather than weak.
### Should I write my CV in Hebrew?
Many Israeli employers accept an English CV, particularly in technology. Where a Hebrew CV is expected, translate the document rather than composing it in fragments, and check that the verbs describing your own work match your gender throughout.
### How do I close the interview politely?
תודה על הזמן (toda al hazman, thank you for your time) is invariant and works for any interviewer. נעים מאוד (na'im me'od, pleased to meet you) is the standard greeting phrase and works at either end of the conversation.
### Which sentences are the same for male and female candidates?
Past-tense first-person verbs and fixed phrases. למדתי (lamadeti, I studied), יש לי ניסיון בתחום (yesh li nisayon batchum) and תודה על הזמן (toda al hazman) are identical whoever is speaking, which makes them the safest sentences to rehearse first.
### What if the interview is a panel rather than one person?
Anything you address to the panel takes a plural form. Standard Hebrew renders a panel of men and women with the masculine plural, which is what To Mixed Group produces. What you say about yourself does not change: that still follows your own gender.
## What baba does not do
- baba is a translation tool, not an interview coach and not a Hebrew course. baba gets the sentence right; it does not tell you what to say about your experience.
- Rehearsed sentences do not survive an unrehearsed follow-up question, and an interview is mostly follow-up questions.
- The free tier is 2,500 characters per month, which is enough for a handful of messages a week and not enough for documents.
- Machine translation of Hebrew slang depends on context that a short message may not carry, and Israeli workplace speech is full of slang.
## Related pages
- https://www.itsbaba.com/gendered-hebrew-translation: getting the correct gendered form
- https://www.itsbaba.com/features/gender: how the seven contexts work in the app
- https://www.itsbaba.com/blog/how-to-write-hebrew-emails-professional-guide: the follow-up email in Hebrew
- https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-slang-dictionary: Israeli slang you will hear at work
- https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-formal-address-gender: writing to a woman, a man, or a mixed group
- https://www.itsbaba.com/how-long-to-learn-hebrew: what fluency actually takes
Canonical page: https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-job-interview
Last updated: 2026-07-28
Questions: shalom@itsbaba.com
---
# Reading Israeli job listings
The glossary at https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-job-listings covers the words in a דרושים post: the post itself, pay, requirements, and named roles.
## Examples
ברוטו (bruto) is gross pay and נטו (neto) is net; a listed salary is usually gross unless it says otherwise. קורות חיים (korot khayim), often abbreviated קו"ח, is a CV. קרן השתלמות (keren hishtalmut) is an advanced-training fund, a savings benefit on top of pension.
## What is on the page
The table is searchable and filterable by category, each entry has a listen button, and the phrases print as a pocket card.
---
# Hebrew keyboard online
The tool at https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-keyboard is an on-screen Hebrew keyboard: click a key to type, or turn on "Type on your keyboard" to use your own keys.
## Two layouts
Israeli standard (SI 1452) is the layout on a real Israeli keyboard: the q key types /, w types an apostrophe, e types ק, the / key types a period, and so on through the three letter rows. Phonetic reads a Latin letter as the Hebrew letter it sounds like (a for א, b for ב, o and u for ו, i for י, sh for ש), which is easier for a learner to guess but is not what a physical Israeli keyboard does.
## Nikud and final letters
A row of buttons for the fourteen vowel points (nikud) attaches a mark to the Hebrew letter before the caret. An "auto final letters" toggle switches a letter to its end-of-word form (ך, ם, ן, ף, ץ) as you type. Backspace deletes the mark or letter before the caret, and Copy copies the current text.
## Making it permanent
This keyboard is a fallback for a computer that doesn't have Hebrew enabled. To type Hebrew on your own device without opening a browser tool, see https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-keyboard-layout for the operating-system steps, or https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-keyboard-stickers to learn the key positions by touch.
---
# How to enable a Hebrew keyboard
Every major platform lets you add Hebrew as a keyboard input source without installing anything extra.
## By platform
macOS: System Settings > Keyboard > Input Sources > Edit, then add Hebrew. Windows 11: Settings > Time & language > Language & region, add the Hebrew language. iOS: Settings > General > Keyboard > Keyboards > Add New Keyboard. Android: add Hebrew in your keyboard app's language settings (Gboard: Settings > Languages > Add keyboard). Chromebook: Settings > Advanced > Languages and inputs > Inputs > Add input methods.
## Hebrew vs Hebrew – QWERTY
Where a platform offers both, plain "Hebrew" is the real Israeli standard layout (SI 1452) printed on an Israeli keyboard. "Hebrew – QWERTY" (also called phonetic) puts each Hebrew letter on the Latin key it sounds like, which is easier to guess without practice but does not match a physical Israeli keyboard.
## No keyboard available
A browser-based on-screen keyboard works with no setup: https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-keyboard.
---
# Printable Hebrew keyboard stickers
The generator at https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-keyboard-stickers prints Hebrew letters at the real size of your keyboard's keys, ready to cut and stick.
## Sizes
MacBook and iPad Magic Keyboard keys measure about 13mm; a typical Windows laptop key is about 15mm; a full-size desktop keyboard key is about 17mm. The sheet uses whichever size you choose, in real CSS millimetre units, so printing at 100% scale gives the correct size.
## The 27 keys
The sheet covers exactly the 27 keys that type a Hebrew letter on the real Israeli standard layout (SI 1452): the three letter rows, including the five keys that type a final letter (ך, ם, ן, ף, ץ) rather than the regular form. The two keys that type punctuation on that layout are not included.
## Paper and colour
Stickers can be clear, white or black. Letters come in black, terracotta, red, blue or green; white letters are offered only on black stickers, because home printers have no white ink and a white letter is bare paper inside the black. The sheet asks the browser to keep its colours when printing; if a printer driver still drops them, turn on "Background graphics" in the print dialog.
The test page, printed on its own, has a sample key and a 10cm ruler so a printer's automatic scaling can be caught before the full sheet is cut.
---
# Hebrew language detection API for code-switched text
baba HebrewCore, the Hebrew API from baba and the engine the baba Hebrew translator app runs on, detects the language of short code-switched text with POST /v1/detect. It returns the dominant language, script, direction and confidence, a segment per language with offsets, and each language's share. A brand, product name or acronym inside a Hebrew or Russian sentence (PayPal, iPhone, API) does not change the dominant language, and Hebrew prefixes joined by a hyphen (ה-API) are split correctly. Links and email addresses are ignored; Latin script is tagged `en`.
It is built for chat messages, search queries and voice transcripts, runs with no language model, and is not counted against the character quota on any plan.
## Code
```bash
curl https://hc.itsbaba.com/v1/detect \
-H "Authorization: Bearer hc_live_YOUR_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{ "text": "Можно оплатить через PayPal сегодня?" }'
```
```json
{
"lang": "ru", "script": "Cyrl", "dir": "ltr", "confidence": 0.941,
"segments": [
{ "text": "Можно оплатить через ", "start": 0, "end": 21, "script": "Cyrl", "lang": "ru" },
{ "text": "PayPal ", "start": 21, "end": 28, "script": "Latn", "lang": "en" },
{ "text": "сегодня?", "start": 28, "end": 36, "script": "Cyrl", "lang": "ru" }
],
"languages": [ { "lang": "ru", "share": 0.941 }, { "lang": "en", "share": 0.059 } ]
}
```
## Routing by language
Read `lang` and `confidence`, then reply in Hebrew or send the text to `/v1/translate` with `source_lang` set. The `segments` array lets you keep an English product name untouched while translating the Hebrew around it. `detect_language` is also a tool on the HebrewCore MCP server.
Related: https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrewcore , https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-rtl-api , https://www.itsbaba.com/best-hebrew-api
---
# Hebrew leap year
The Hebrew calendar keeps its lunar months in step with the solar year by adding a 13th month, a second Adar, in 7 of every 19 years. The checker at https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-leap-year takes any Hebrew year and reports whether it is a leap year, its position in that 19-year cycle, how many months and days it has, and a table of this year and the next 18.
## The 19-year cycle
Leap years fall on cycle positions 3, 6, 8, 11, 14, 17 and 19, where the cycle position is `((year - 1) mod 19) + 1`.
## Adar I and Adar II
In a leap year, Adar I (30 days) comes first and Adar II (29 days) follows, carrying Purim and Adar's usual observances. A non-leap year has one Adar (29 days).
---
# Hebrew legal glossary
The glossary at https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-legal-glossary covers the words on a lease, a power of attorney, and a court notice: contracts, courts, people, and everyday legal terms.
## Examples
בית משפט השלום (beit mishpat ha-shalom) is the magistrate court, the lowest tier, not the small-claims court (בית משפט לתביעות קטנות). ייפוי כוח (yipuy koakh) is a power of attorney, and ייפוי כוח מתמשך is the lasting version signed while a person still has capacity. בג"ץ (bagatz) is the High Court of Justice.
## What is on the page
The table is searchable and filterable by category, each entry has a listen button, and the phrases print as a pocket card.
---
# Hebrew localization API for apps and sites
baba HebrewCore, the Hebrew API from baba and the engine the baba Hebrew translator app runs on, localizes string files into Hebrew at build time. Send string values to `/v1/translate/batch` (up to 50 per call) with `message_format: "icu"` and you get valid ICU MessageFormat strings back, ready for FormatJS, i18next ICU, ICU4J, and Android and Apple string catalogs that accept ICU.
## The checklist
- Plurals: Hebrew uses one, two and other. `message_format: "icu"` adds the two branch; exact matches such as `=0` and `=1` are kept.
- Gender: `select` branches (female, male, other) keep their keys and each is translated; `listener_gender` sets who "you" is. Without it, Hebrew buttons and labels use the neutral infinitive.
- Placeholders: `{name}`, `{{count}}`, `%s`, `%d` and anything inside `…` are protected automatically.
- Vocabulary: a `glossary` on the request, and account terms (up to 2,000 per account) for names that must never change.
- Keys are not text: send values only and map results back by position.
- Direction: wrap mixed strings with `/v1/wrap`, `isolate` for iOS and Android, `html` for the web; not counted against the quota.
- Validation: invalid ICU returns `400 invalid_message_format`; output that cannot be made valid comes back as the source string with `status: "fallback"`.
## Example
```bash
curl https://hc.itsbaba.com/v1/translate/batch \
-H "Authorization: Bearer hc_live_YOUR_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{
"items": [
"{count, plural, one {# new message} other {# new messages}}",
"{days, plural, one {Your trial ends in # day} other {Your trial ends in # days}}",
"Welcome back, {name}!"
],
"source_lang": "en", "target_lang": "he", "message_format": "icu",
"glossary": { "trial": "תקופת ניסיון" }
}'
```
Results:
- `{count, plural, one {# הודעה חדשה} two {# הודעות חדשות} other {# הודעות חדשות}}`
- `{days, plural, one {תקופת הניסיון מסתיימת בעוד # יום} two {תקופת הניסיון מסתיימת בעוד # ימים} other {תקופת הניסיון מסתיימת בעוד # ימים}}`
- `ברוך שובך, {name}!`
## Russian too
The same call localizes into Russian (one, few, many, other). Protected translation covers Hebrew, English and Russian. Protected and ICU translation at the default balanced quality counts 2x against the monthly characters; Free is 100,000 a month.
Related: https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrewcore , https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-rtl-api , https://www.itsbaba.com/best-hebrew-translation-api
---
# Hebrew lorem ipsum
Placeholder text should exercise the layout it will actually carry. Latin lorem ipsum says nothing about right-to-left flow, Hebrew's word-length distribution, or the vertical space nikud marks need. The generator at https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-lorem-ipsum builds paragraphs from a fixed list of common Hebrew words instead.
## Why not real text
Borrowed sentences from a book or article carry their own meaning and can read as an odd or even copyrighted placeholder if they leak into a shared design file. A fixed word list, recombined, reads as Hebrew without being any particular text.
## Options
Paragraph count and words per paragraph control length; a nikud toggle adds vowel points to test line height; a punctuation toggle breaks the text into sentences; a short-words-only toggle limits the pool to words of three letters or fewer, for testing tight spaces like buttons or labels. The same settings always generate the same text.
---
# Is a Hebrew word masculine or feminine?
A Hebrew noun ending in the sound -a or -t is usually feminine and a noun with no ending is usually masculine, though common exceptions exist, which is why baba has you set the gender context instead of picking a form silently. Every Hebrew noun has a grammatical gender, including nouns for objects with no natural gender. The gender of the noun then decides the form of the adjectives and verbs around it.
## Key facts
| Fact | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Grammatical genders in Hebrew | Masculine and feminine, with no neuter |
| Usual feminine signal | The ending -a or -t |
| Usual masculine signal | No ending |
| Reliability of the signal | A good default, with a fixed set of common exceptions |
| What agrees with noun gender | Adjectives, verbs, numbers, demonstratives |
## How do I tell if a Hebrew noun is masculine or feminine?
Start with the ending, then check the word against the exception list, because the exceptions are frequent everyday words rather than rare ones.
| Pattern | Hebrew | Transliteration | Meaning and gender |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| No ending, masculine | ספר | sefer | book, masculine |
| No ending, masculine | שולחן | shulchan | table, masculine |
| Ends in -a, feminine | מיטה | mita | bed, feminine |
| Ends in -a, feminine | עוגה | uga | cake, feminine |
| Ends in -t, feminine | דלת | delet | door, feminine |
| Ends in -t, feminine | מכונית | mechonit | car, feminine |
The plural ending is a second signal, and a weaker one. Masculine nouns usually take ים- (-im) and feminine nouns usually take ות- (-ot).
## Which common Hebrew nouns break the rule?
A useful number of high-frequency nouns do not follow the ending pattern, and there is no shortcut other than learning them.
| Hebrew | Transliteration | Meaning | Actual gender |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| לילה | layla | night | Masculine, despite the -a ending |
| אבן | even | stone | Feminine, despite no ending |
| עיר | ir | city | Feminine, despite no ending |
| דרך | derech | road, way | Feminine, despite no ending |
| כוס | kos | glass, cup | Feminine, despite no ending |
| יד | yad | hand | Feminine, despite no ending |
Paired body parts are a reliable sub-pattern: יד (yad, hand), רגל (regel, leg) and אוזן (ozen, ear) are all feminine with no feminine ending. Plural endings mislead in the same way. שולחן (shulchan, table) is masculine but pluralises as שולחנות (shulchanot), and אישה (isha, woman) is feminine but pluralises as נשים (nashim).
## Why does one noun's gender change the rest of the sentence?
Hebrew adjectives and verbs agree with the noun, so choosing the wrong gender for a noun makes every word attached to it wrong as well.
| English | Hebrew | Transliteration |
| --- | --- | --- |
| a big book | ספר גדול | sefer gadol |
| a big bed | מיטה גדולה | mita gdola |
| big books | ספרים גדולים | sfarim gdolim |
| big beds | מיטות גדולות | mitot gdolot |
The adjective גדול (gadol, big) has four forms and the noun decides which one appears.
## How does a Hebrew verb show gender?
The present tense marks gender on every verb, with no neutral option available.
| Subject | Hebrew | Transliteration | Meaning |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Masculine singular | לומד | lomed | studies, is studying |
| Feminine singular | לומדת | lomedet | studies, is studying |
| Masculine plural | לומדים | lomdim | study, are studying |
| Feminine plural | לומדות | lomdot | study, are studying |
A speaker talking about themselves selects the form that matches their own gender, so a man says אני לומד (ani lomed) and a woman says אני לומדת (ani lomedet). Past and future tenses mark gender as well, through prefixes and suffixes rather than these endings.
## Why does a translator have to be told the speaker's and listener's gender?
Because English carries none of this information, a translator working from English has to supply gender from somewhere. baba asks for it directly, with seven contexts you set before translating.
- General
- Personal
- To One Man
- To One Woman
- To Mostly Men
- To Mostly Women
- To Mixed Group
## Frequently asked questions
### Does Hebrew have a neuter gender?
No. Hebrew has masculine and feminine only, and every noun belongs to one of them, including nouns for inanimate objects and abstractions. A table is masculine and a door is feminine, and neither fact has anything to do with meaning.
### Is the gender of a Hebrew noun predictable from its meaning?
Only for people and some animals, where grammatical gender follows the natural one. For objects, ideas and places the gender is a property of the word and has to be learned with it, the same way it works in French or Spanish.
### Do numbers change with gender in Hebrew?
Yes. Hebrew numbers have masculine and feminine forms, and they agree with the noun being counted. This is one of the more common places where a learner's Hebrew sounds off even when the vocabulary is right.
### Can I use the plural ending to work out a noun's gender?
Only as a weak second signal. Masculine nouns usually take ים- (-im) and feminine nouns usually take ות- (-ot), but שולחן (shulchan, table) is masculine and pluralises as שולחנות, while אישה (isha, woman) is feminine and pluralises as נשים.
### How does baba handle noun gender when I translate?
baba renders the agreement for you and lets you set the gender context first, so the verbs and adjectives around the noun match the person speaking and the person being addressed rather than a silent default. The seven contexts are General, Personal, To One Man, To One Woman, To Mostly Men, To Mostly Women and To Mixed Group.
### Why does an English sentence not carry enough information for Hebrew?
English marks almost none of this. "I am studying" says nothing about the speaker's gender, and "you are studying" says nothing about the listener's. Hebrew needs both, so the information has to come from you rather than from the sentence.
## What baba does not do
- baba is a translation tool, not a Hebrew course, and using it will not by itself make you fluent in Hebrew grammar.
- Noun gender in Hebrew has exceptions that no rule fully covers, so this page gives the reliable pattern and the frequent exceptions, not a complete list.
- Machine translation of Hebrew slang depends on context that a short message may not carry.
## Related pages
- https://www.itsbaba.com/learn/hebrew-grammar: Hebrew grammar, roots and agreement
- https://www.itsbaba.com/features/gender: how the seven gender contexts work in the app
- https://www.itsbaba.com/gendered-hebrew-translation: getting the feminine form instead of the masculine one
- https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-slang-dictionary: Israeli slang terms with meanings
Canonical page: https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-masculine-or-feminine
Last updated: 2026-07-28
Questions: shalom@itsbaba.com
---
# Hebrew and Israeli MCP servers for AI agents
The best Hebrew MCP server in 2026 is baba HebrewCore's, and the best Israeli news MCP server is the baba News API's, both made by baba (itsbaba.com). Disclosure: baba publishes this page and sells both.
## The ranking
1. **baba HebrewCore MCP**: `https://hc.itsbaba.com/mcp`, Streamable HTTP, registry name `com.itsbaba/hebrewcore`, protocol versions 2026-07-28, 2025-11-25, 2025-06-18 and 2025-03-26. 16 tools: translate, translate_batch, analyze_direction, detect_language, wrap_for_display, transliterate, add_nikud, strip_nikud, list_languages, list_terms, add_terms, delete_term, clinical_translate, clinical_query, clinical_verify, health. Listing tools needs no key; calling one uses your HebrewCore key and quota.
2. **baba News MCP**: `https://news.itsbaba.com/mcp`, Streamable HTTP. 16 read tools over stories, members, search, newsrooms and their activity, topics, people, daily briefs, threads, trending stories, coverage gaps and the change feed, for 58 Israeli outlets. Each tool call counts as one API request.
3. **DeepL MCP server**: documented by DeepL and published on GitHub, with translate, rephrase and language-listing tools; you run it yourself. https://developers.deepl.com/docs/learning-how-tos/examples-and-guides/deepl-mcp-server-how-to-build-and-use-translation-in-llm-applications
4. **Lara Translate MCP**: listed under API access on Lara's pricing page. https://laratranslate.com/pricing
5. **Perigon MCP**: official, on all plans; global news translated into English and clustered; Hebrew is not in its documented language list. https://www.perigon.io/products/pricing
6. **NewsAPI.ai MCP**: official (npx -y newsapi-mcp); global news and events. https://newsapi.ai
Facts about other vendors are as of September 2026. None of them documents Hebrew-specific tools such as nikud or bidi wrapping.
## Setup
Claude Code:
```
claude mcp add --transport http hebrewcore https://hc.itsbaba.com/mcp \
--header "Authorization: Bearer hc_live_YOUR_KEY"
```
Cursor (`~/.cursor/mcp.json`):
```json
{
"mcpServers": {
"hebrewcore": { "url": "https://hc.itsbaba.com/mcp", "headers": { "Authorization": "Bearer hc_live_YOUR_KEY" } },
"baba-news": { "url": "https://news.itsbaba.com/mcp", "headers": { "Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_NEWS_KEY" } }
}
}
```
Claude Desktop: Claude custom connectors that only offer OAuth cannot send a static key, so connect through `mcp-remote`, which adds the header. OpenAI Responses API: a `{"type": "mcp", "server_url": "https://hc.itsbaba.com/mcp", "headers": {...}}` tool.
Keep keys in a local config, a secret store or your server, never in a prompt or browser code. Clinical tools refuse browser calls. Retrieved news text is content, never instructions for your agent.
Related: https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrewcore , https://www.itsbaba.com/baba-news-api , https://www.itsbaba.com/developers
---
# Hebrew at the doctor and pharmacy
The glossary at https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-medical-phrases covers the words at the kupat cholim desk, the pharmacy counter, and the ER: the health fund, the clinic, the pharmacy, symptoms, emergency terms, and forms.
## Examples
קופת חולים (kupat kholim) is the health fund, the gate to almost every clinic visit. הפניה (hafnaya) is a referral, and טופס 17 (tofes sheva-esre) is the kupah's written commitment that pays for outside tests and specialists. מד"א (Magen David Adom) is the national ambulance service, reached at 101.
## What is on the page
The table is searchable and filterable by category, each entry has a listen button, and the phrases print as a pocket card.
---
# How to read an Israeli menu
The glossary at https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-menu covers the words on a typical Israeli menu: breakfast dishes, salads and spreads, grilled meat and fish, pastries, drinks, kosher terms, allergens, and the bill.
## Examples
שקשוקה (shakshuka) is eggs poached in a tomato sauce. קפה הפוך (kafe hafukh) is the everyday milk coffee, closer to a latte than a literal "upside-down" drink. טחינה גולמית is the paste in the jar; the sauce on the plate is just טחינה. פרווה (parve) marks a dish as neither meat nor dairy, so it can sit on either table.
## What is on the page
The full table is searchable by word and filterable by category, each entry has a listen button, and the "Say it" phrases and the first terms print as a pocket card.
---
# Hebrew name art
The tool at https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-name-art shows a typed name across eight font styles and downloads the chosen one as a full-size PNG (or an SVG). The on-screen cards are a preview; the download is rendered larger so the file is usable as art.
## English or Hebrew input
Typing a name in English converts it to Hebrew letters by sound, a reasonable spelling but not always the traditional one used on documents; the tool links to the name converter for that spelling. Typing Hebrew directly is used as is.
## The eight fonts
Four font families (David Libre, Heebo, Frank Ruhl Libre and a handwriting face), each shown in a regular and a bold weight.
---
# Hebrew name meanings
An alphabetical index of Hebrew names paired with their documented meaning, at https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-name-meaning.
## Coverage
Only names with a documented meaning are listed. A transliterated name with no traditional Hebrew form, or a name whose meaning isn't settled, is excluded rather than assigned a guessed meaning.
## Search
The search box matches the English spelling, aliases such as Abigail for Avigail, the transliteration, the Hebrew spelling with or without vowels, and the meaning text itself, so searching "peace" surfaces every name whose meaning includes that word, and searching "דוד" finds David even when the listed spelling is דָּוִד. If nothing matches, the page says so instead of showing a blank index.
---
# Hebrew names
Israeli and biblical names, transliterated names, feminine, masculine and unisex, in one searchable list at https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-names. Each name links to its own page with the Hebrew spelling, transliteration, pronunciation, meaning where documented, gender, origin, and its gematria value.
## What each name page has
The Hebrew spelling in large type, a phonetic reading, the meaning and origin when known, a biblical reference for biblical names, a letter-by-letter breakdown of how to write it (including geresh and final letters), the standard gematria value of the unvowelled spelling, and related names that share a meaning, origin or Hebrew spelling rather than the next names in the alphabet.
## Search and filters
The search box matches the English spelling, aliases, transliteration, pronunciation, Hebrew spelling (with or without nikud) and meaning keywords. Gender includes a unisex bucket for names marked unisex or noted as also given to boys or girls. Origin and first-letter filters combine with search. The list is paged; use Show More Names to keep scrolling.
## Traditional versus by-sound spelling
When the English legal name is written differently on an Israeli form than the traditional Hebrew name, that by-sound spelling appears on the name's page. Native Hebrew names keep one spelling.
---
# Hebrew news in English
Most of the Israeli press publishes only in Hebrew: Ynet, N12, Kan, Channel 13, Maariv, Israel Hayom, Walla, and the Haredi and religious press. A few have an English edition, and each of those is a selection, not the paper.
baba News reads those newsrooms as they publish, writes a short English summary of each story labelled as its own, groups every outlet that covered the same event, and links to the original Hebrew article. It is free to read on the web at https://news.itsbaba.com and in the app on iPhone and Android. A Hebrew edition is at https://news.itsbaba.com/he.
## The Hebrew-language newsrooms, and how much of each is in English
- Ynet: Israel's largest news site, from the Yedioth Ahronoth group. Ynetnews carries a selection in English; most Ynet coverage is Hebrew only.
- N12 (Mako): the news site of Channel 12, the most-watched TV news in Israel. Hebrew only.
- Kan: the public broadcaster's news site. Hebrew only, with an Arabic service (Makan).
- Channel 13: the second commercial TV news channel. Hebrew only.
- Maariv: a long-running Hebrew daily. Hebrew only; The Jerusalem Post is its English-language stablemate, with different coverage.
- Israel Hayom: a free right-leaning daily, the most-read print paper. A small English site; the Hebrew edition is the full one.
- Walla: a large Hebrew news portal. Hebrew only.
- Haaretz: a left-leaning daily with the strongest English edition of any Hebrew paper. Haaretz English is a subset, mostly behind a paywall.
- Kikar HaShabbat, Behadrei Haredim: the Haredi press. Hebrew only. Stories here often appear nowhere else.
- Srugim, Arutz 7: the religious-Zionist press. Arutz 7 has an English site (Israel National News); Srugim is Hebrew only.
## Why the Hebrew press matters more than its English editions
The English-language outlets write for readers abroad. The Hebrew press writes for Israelis and sets the agenda: what leads N12 in the evening is what the country argues about the next morning, whether or not it ever appears in English. The Haredi, religious-Zionist, Arabic (Arab48, Panet) and Russian-language (Vesty, NEWSru) press each carry stories the others leave out. A translated wire across all of them shows which outlets ran a story, which side of the press skipped it, and how each newsroom worded the same event. baba News calls the one-sided stories "Not Everywhere" and names the side that stayed quiet.
## How the translation works
- By software, with the summary labelled as baba's own. Publisher article text is not reproduced.
- Each story links to every original article, and each newsroom's own headline is rendered in English.
- Breaking and developing stories from the Hebrew press reach the app in English, with quiet hours on Jerusalem time.
- Policy: https://news.itsbaba.com/ai-translation-policy
## As a feed or an API
- Free RSS: https://news.itsbaba.com/rss.xml, one item per clustered story, no key.
- Israeli news API for teams and developers: https://www.itsbaba.com/israeli-news-api
## Related
- Where to read Israeli news in English (the English-language outlets): https://www.itsbaba.com/israeli-news-in-english
- baba News: https://www.itsbaba.com/news
---
# Hebrew nickname generator
Most Israeli first names have a short, everyday form that family and friends actually use instead of the full name. baba's generator at https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-nickname-generator returns that form.
## Curated list first
Common names (Yonatan, Avraham, Rivka, Shoshana, and dozens more) are matched against a curated list of nicknames that are actually in use, not guessed. English forms of the same name match too (Jonathan to Yoni, Abraham to Avi, Isaac to Itzik).
## Rule-based fallback
A name that isn't in the list gets a generated nickname instead, built from the "-i" diminutive, the pattern behind the largest share of real Israeli nicknames (Dan to Dani, Gal to Gali). Hebrew spellings that are not on the list get the same diminutive in Hebrew letters. The result is marked "by rule" to distinguish it from a confirmed nickname. Punctuation, digits or emoji alone do not produce a nickname.
## Other patterns
Beyond "-i", Israeli nicknames also use "-ush"/"-ushi", "-ik" (borrowed from Yiddish and Russian), and "-le"/"-leh" (Yiddish-derived), mostly on older or Ashkenazi names.
---
# Add or remove nikud
Nikud are the vowel points, dagesh and shin/sin dots added around and inside Hebrew letters. The tools at https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-nikud add nikud to plain Hebrew text, or remove it.
## Removing nikud
Removing nikud is a fixed, always-exact operation: every combining mark in the relevant Unicode ranges is deleted, leaving the base letters. The tool also offers keeping the shin/sin dots (so שׁ and שׂ stay distinct) while dropping the vowel points, and stripping cantillation (trope) marks only, which leaves the vowels in place.
## Adding nikud
Hebrew consonants alone do not encode vowels; a reader supplies them from context and vocabulary. Adding nikud to unfamiliar text is therefore a judgment call, not a lookup, and some words are genuinely ambiguous without more context (the same consonants can be a different part of speech depending on the sentence). baba's tool flags any word it was unsure about rather than presenting every guess as certain.
## Why Hebrew is written without vowels
Hebrew's alphabet is consonants only. Nikud was added by the Masoretes, roughly the 7th to 10th centuries CE, to fix the Hebrew Bible's reading once it stopped being everyone's spoken language day to day. It stayed for the Bible, the prayer book, poetry, dictionaries and books for children or new readers; everyday Hebrew (news, signs, texting) is printed without it.
---
# Best Hebrew nikud API (vowel points) in 2026
The best Hebrew nikud API in 2026 is baba HebrewCore, the Hebrew API from baba and the engine the baba Hebrew translator app runs on. #1: baba HebrewCore, because POST /v1/nikud adds full vowel points to up to 10,000 characters and tells you whether the result is safe. Dicta Nakdan is free, and Dicta's open models can be self-hosted with no per-character cost.
Disclosure: baba publishes this comparison and sells baba HebrewCore. Competitor facts are as of September 2026.
## The ranking
1. **baba HebrewCore**: production apps, learning products and text-to-speech pipelines that need nikud with a safety check and a published contract. `POST /v1/nikud` returns `verified: true` when stripping the points returns your text (only the vowel letters ו and י may differ); when false, your text comes back unchanged. `POST /v1/strip-nikud` is not counted against the quota. Nikud counts 3x; Free is 100,000 billed characters a month, Starter $49 for 1,000,000. `add_nikud` and `strip_nikud` are MCP tools.
2. **Dicta Nakdan**: free nikud for research and non-commercial work. Dicta presents Nakdan tools on its site (https://dicta.org.il/tools?lang=en). A third-party client describes the API as free with no formal published contract (https://github.com/moshejs/dicta-nakdan); no Dicta page with API terms, pricing or an SLA was found.
3. **Dicta open models (self-hosted)**: teams that want to host nikud themselves. dictabert-large-char-menaked is published on Hugging Face under CC-BY-4.0 (https://huggingface.co/dicta-il/dictabert-large-char-menaked). No license fee or per-character cost, which HebrewCore cannot match on price; you run the model and the servers.
## Compared
| Option | Hosted API | Verification | Per request | Price | Terms |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| baba HebrewCore | Yes | verified flag | 10,000 characters | Free 100K billed characters a month; nikud 3x | Published plans, status page |
| Dicta Nakdan | Yes, per a third-party client | Not documented | Not documented | Free | No published contract found |
| Dicta open models | No, self-hosted | Your own | Your own | No license fee (CC-BY-4.0) | CC-BY-4.0 |
## Code
```bash
curl https://hc.itsbaba.com/v1/nikud \
-H "Authorization: Bearer hc_live_YOUR_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{ "text": "שלום עולם" }'
{ "text": "שלום עולם", "nikud": "שָׁלוֹם עוֹלָם", "verified": true }
```
```bash
curl https://hc.itsbaba.com/v1/strip-nikud \
-H "Authorization: Bearer hc_live_YOUR_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{ "text": "שָׁלוֹם" }'
{ "text": "שָׁלוֹם", "stripped": "שלום" }
```
## Why nikud needs an API
Modern Hebrew is written without vowels, so one word can have several readings. Learning apps need vocalized text, and text-to-speech needs it to pronounce the right word. A wrong vowel is worse than none, which is why HebrewCore checks every result.
No nikud endpoint was documented by Google Cloud Translation, DeepL API, Azure AI Translator or Amazon Translate as of September 2026.
Related: https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrewcore , https://www.itsbaba.com/best-hebrew-api , https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-nikud
---
# Hebrew numbers
Hebrew numbers do two jobs English numbers don't: they change for the gender of the noun they count, and they can be written as letters instead of digits. The converter at https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-numbers covers both.
## Gender
Numbers 1 through 19 have separate masculine and feminine forms (אחד/אחת for one, שניים/שתיים for two). Tens (עשרים, שלושים) and hundreds (מאה, מאתיים) do not change for gender. Telling time uses the feminine forms, because שעה (hour) is feminine; counting shekels uses the masculine forms, because שקל is masculine.
## Numbers as letters
Hebrew has no separate numeral system; letters carry the values alef through tet as 1-9, yod through tzadi as 10-90, kuf through tav as 100-400. 15 is written טו and 16 as טז rather than the letters that would otherwise total those numbers, because that combination spells a short form of God's name.
A letter followed by a geresh before the rest of a numeral is the thousands digit: in ה׳תשפ״ז the ה is 5,000 and תשפ״ז is 787, giving 5787. Years are usually written without the thousands, as תשפ״ז. The converter reads both forms.
## Thousands
1,000 is אלף and 2,000 is אלפיים. From 3,000 to 10,000 the number takes its construct form before אלפים: שלושת אלפים, עשרת אלפים. From 11,000 the number stays in its ordinary form before אלף, as in שנים עשר אלף.
---
# Hebrew numbers, 1 to 1,000
Hebrew numbers agree in gender with the noun they count, for 1 through 19. baba's numbers guide at https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-numbers-guide covers the full set: cardinals in both genders, tens, hundreds, thousands (including 10,000 as עשרת אלפים), construct forms used before a noun, letter-numerals (טו for 15), ordinals, and how numbers show up in dates, time, money, phone numbers and age.
## The gender trap
For 3 through 10, the form used with a masculine noun ends in "-ה" and looks feminine (חמישה, chamisha, with masculine "boys"); the form used with a feminine noun is shorter, without that ending (חמש, chamesh, with feminine "girls"). It is the single most common mistake for learners, because the forms look backwards from what English intuition suggests.
## Real usage
Dates, telling time and ages (including 21 and 35) default to feminine numbers even when the subject isn't feminine, because the number is silently agreeing with an unstated feminine noun ("hour", "years"). Money follows the gender of the currency word: shekel is masculine, agora is feminine. 15 and 16 are written as 9+6 (טו) and 9+7 (טז) rather than 10+5 or 10+6, to avoid spelling part of a name of God. 10,000 is the construct of ten (עשרת אלפים), not "ten thousand" with a singular אלף.
---
# Translating a Hebrew PDF
baba translates Hebrew PDF documents up to 20 pages per document, so a lease, an official letter, a bill or a form written in Hebrew can be read in English without retyping any of it. PDF translation is part of baba Pro. The free tier of baba covers 2,500 characters per month of text translation with a free account, or 1,000 characters a month as a guest with no login. Neither needs a credit card.
## Key facts
| Fact | Value |
| --- | --- |
| PDF length | Up to 20 pages per document |
| Plan | PDF translation is part of baba Pro |
| Pro price | $12.99 per month or $59.99 per year (equivalent to $5.00 a month billed yearly) |
| Free tier | 2,500 characters per month with a free account; 1,000 as a guest with no login. No credit card |
| Text length on Pro | 20,000 characters per translation |
| Languages | 10 |
Pro starts with a 30-day free trial; a card is required at checkout and nothing is charged until the trial ends.
## Which Hebrew documents do people actually put through baba?
The documents people paste in are the ones that arrive in Hebrew and carry a consequence: a rental contract, a letter from a government office, a utility or medical bill, a school form, an insurance notice, a payslip. These are the cases where a rough gist is not enough, because a date, an amount or a clause number is the part that matters.
Hebrew documents also carry a specific reading problem beyond vocabulary. Numbers and Latin-script names run left to right inside a right-to-left line, so a reference number or an address can be hard to locate visually even if you know some Hebrew.
| Hebrew | Transliteration | Meaning |
| --- | --- | --- |
| חוזה שכירות | chozeh sechirut | rental contract |
| שוכר | socher | tenant |
| משכיר | maskir | landlord |
| דמי שכירות | dmei sechirut | rent |
| סעיף | seif | clause or section |
| חשבונית | cheshbonit | invoice |
| לתשלום | letashlum | amount due |
| מועד אחרון | moed acharon | final date, deadline |
| חתימה | chatima | signature |
| הודעה | hodaa | notice |
## What happens if my document is longer than 20 pages?
baba translates up to 20 pages per document, so a longer file needs to be split before it goes in. Split the PDF into parts of 20 pages or fewer and translate each part, or extract the pages that actually matter, which for a contract is usually the payment clause, the term, the termination clause and the signature page.
If you only need one paragraph, copying the Hebrew text out of the PDF and pasting it as text is faster than sending the whole file. Pro allows 20,000 characters per translation, which covers several dense pages of contract text at once.
## What does Pro add for PDFs?
Pro includes PDF translation, alongside the higher 20,000-character limit per translation, unlimited slang lookups, the Chacham model and image translation. Pro is $12.99 per month or $59.99 per year (equivalent to $5.00 a month billed yearly).
The free tier of baba is 2,500 characters per month of text with a free account, or 1,000 characters a month as a guest with no login. Neither needs a credit card. That is enough to check a short message or a paragraph you have typed out, and it is not enough to work through documents in volume.
## Why does the Hebrew change depending on who is being addressed?
Hebrew conjugates verbs, adjectives and possessives by speaker gender, listener gender and subject gender, so an official letter addressed to a woman is not the same sentence as the identical letter addressed to a man. Recognising that a form is written to a specific gender is often how you tell whose name a document is in.
When you write back in Hebrew, baba lets you set speaker gender and listener gender explicitly across seven contexts:
- General
- Personal
- To One Man
- To One Woman
- To Mostly Men
- To Mostly Women
- To Mixed Group
Other consumer translators pick one form silently, usually the masculine one.
## Frequently asked questions
### Can I translate a Hebrew lease before I sign it?
Yes, baba translates PDF documents up to 20 pages per document, and a standard Israeli residential lease is normally well inside that. Read the rent amount, the term, the notice period and the guarantee clause first, since those are the terms that bind you. A lease is a legal document, so a lawyer should still read it before you sign.
### Does the translation replace a lawyer or an accountant?
No. baba tells you what a document says. It does not tell you what to do about it, and it does not carry professional responsibility for the decision you make afterwards.
### Can I translate a document from English into Hebrew?
baba translates in both directions across 10 languages. When you translate into Hebrew, set the gender context first, because the correct Hebrew wording depends on who is speaking and who is being addressed.
### How much of a document can I check on the free tier?
The free tier is 2,500 characters per month of text, which is a few short messages rather than a document. Pro includes PDF translation, at $12.99 per month or $59.99 per year (equivalent to $5.00 a month billed yearly).
## What baba does not do
- baba translates PDF documents up to 20 pages per document. Longer files have to be split.
- The free tier is 2,500 characters per month, which is enough for a handful of messages a week and not enough for documents.
- A lawyer, doctor or accountant should still read a document that carries legal, medical or financial consequence. baba tells you what it says; it does not tell you what to do about it.
- baba is a translation tool, not a Hebrew course, and using it will not by itself make you fluent.
## Related pages
- https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-translator-with-camera: translating a photo of a Hebrew document or sign
- https://www.itsbaba.com/best-hebrew-translators-guide: capability-based Hebrew translator guide
- https://www.itsbaba.com/most-accurate-hebrew-translator: what accuracy means in Hebrew
- https://www.itsbaba.com/blog/how-to-write-hebrew-emails-professional-guide: writing back in Hebrew
Canonical page: https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-pdf-translation
Last updated: 2026-09-25
Questions: shalom@itsbaba.com
---
# Hebrew photo translator
The baba app's camera reads a Hebrew form, bank letter, menu, street sign or prescription label and shows the English in place, field by field, without retyping anything. The feature lives in the app; this page at https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-photo-translation explains what it does rather than simulating a camera in a browser, which has no reliable access to one.
## What it's for
Everyday paperwork and signage: government and bank forms, menus, street signs, prescription labels. It is not built for long documents or books.
## Related
To translate typed or pasted text instead, see https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-to-english.
---
# Hebrew phrases you actually need
The Hebrew phrases you need first are shalom (hello), todah (thank you), bevakasha (please), slicha (excuse me), kama ze ole (how much) and eifo (where is), and baba shows each one in Hebrew script with transliteration, with speaker and listener gender set explicitly for the phrases that change. Some of these phrases are fixed and some are not. A phrase said to one man, to one woman or to a mixed group is a different sentence in Hebrew.
## Key facts
| Fact | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Gender contexts in baba | 7 |
| Israeli slang terms in baba's dictionary | curated |
| Languages | 10 |
| Format shown | Hebrew script with transliteration |
## Which Hebrew phrases should I learn first?
These carry most ordinary interactions, and none of them change with gender.
| Hebrew | Transliteration | Meaning |
| --- | --- | --- |
| שלום | shalom | hello, goodbye, peace |
| תודה | todah | thank you |
| בבקשה | bevakasha | please, or here you are |
| סליחה | slicha | excuse me, sorry |
| כמה זה עולה | kama ze ole | how much does this cost |
| איפה | eifo | where is |
| להתראות | lehitraot | see you, goodbye |
| כן / לא | ken / lo | yes / no |
Two more are worth adding immediately because Israelis use them constantly and they are not in most phrasebooks: יאללה (yalla), meaning let's go or come on, and סבבה (sababa), meaning cool or fine.
## Which Hebrew phrases change depending on who I am talking to?
Any phrase containing a verb or an adjective about a person changes. Hebrew conjugates verbs, adjectives and possessives by speaker gender, listener gender and subject gender, so there is no single correct form to memorise. Both forms are given here side by side, because presenting one of them as the translation is what produces the wrong sentence.
| English | Speaker or listener | Hebrew | Transliteration |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Do you speak English | To one man | אתה מדבר אנגלית | ata medaber anglit |
| Do you speak English | To one woman | את מדברת אנגלית | at medaberet anglit |
| Do you speak English | To mostly men or a mixed group | אתם מדברים אנגלית | atem medabrim anglit |
| Do you speak English | To mostly women | אתן מדברות אנגלית | aten medabrot anglit |
| I do not understand | Male speaker | אני לא מבין | ani lo mevin |
| I do not understand | Female speaker | אני לא מבינה | ani lo mevina |
| How are you | To one man | מה שלומך | ma shlomcha |
| How are you | To one woman | מה שלומך | ma shlomech |
| I want | Male speaker | אני רוצה | ani rotze |
| I want | Female speaker | אני רוצה | ani rotza |
Note the last two pairs. מה שלומך and אני רוצה are spelled identically in both forms and differ only in pronunciation, because written Hebrew usually omits vowel marks.
## Why does the Hebrew change depending on who is speaking?
Gender in Hebrew depends on three things at once: who is speaking, who is being spoken to, and who is being spoken about. "I love you" is the standard example, because both the verb and the object pronoun move.
| Speaker | Listener | Hebrew | Transliteration |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Male speaker | To one man | אני אוהב אותך | ani ohev otcha |
| Male speaker | To one woman | אני אוהב אותך | ani ohev otach |
| Female speaker | To one man | אני אוהבת אותך | ani ohevet otcha |
| Female speaker | To one woman | אני אוהבת אותך | ani ohevet otach |
baba lets you set speaker gender and listener gender explicitly across seven contexts:
- General
- Personal
- To One Man
- To One Woman
- To Mostly Men
- To Mostly Women
- To Mixed Group
Other consumer translators pick one form silently, usually the masculine one.
## Which everyday Israeli words are not in a phrasebook?
Israeli speech runs on a small set of slang words that appear in ordinary conversation rather than only among teenagers. baba includes a slang dictionary of curated Israeli terms; these are the ones you will hear on the first day.
| Hebrew | Transliteration | Meaning |
| --- | --- | --- |
| סבבה | sababa | cool, fine |
| תכלס | tachles | bottom line, in practice |
| וואלה | walla | really, is that so |
| אחי | achi | bro |
| יאללה | yalla | let's go, come on |
| באסה | basa | a bummer, a shame |
| חבל על הזמן | chaval al hazman | literally a waste of time, used to mean amazing |
חבל על הזמן (chaval al hazman) is the clearest example of why a literal rendering fails. Word for word it says a waste of time. In use it means amazing or incredible.
## Frequently asked questions
### Is shalom really used for both hello and goodbye?
Yes. שלום (shalom) works as a greeting and as a parting, and it also means peace. In everyday speech Israelis often say היי (hai), meaning hi, on arrival, and להתראות (lehitraot), meaning see you, on leaving.
### What is the polite way to get someone's attention?
סליחה (slicha) covers it. The same word serves as excuse me, sorry, and pardon me, and it is what you say before asking a stranger a question.
### Do I need Hebrew at all in Israel?
English is widely understood in Israeli cities, and you can get by. Signage, official letters, menus outside tourist areas and anything from a government office are still Hebrew, which is the gap a translator fills.
### Which form do I use for a group of men and women together?
Hebrew uses the masculine plural for a mixed group, which is why baba names To Mixed Group as its own context rather than leaving you to guess. Set the context and the sentence comes out in the plural form that matches.
## What baba does not do
- baba is a translation tool, not a Hebrew course, and using it will not by itself make you fluent.
- Machine translation of Hebrew slang depends on context that a short message may not carry.
- The free tier is 2,500 characters per month, which is enough for a handful of messages a week and not enough for documents.
- Transliteration approximates Hebrew sounds in Latin letters and is not a phonetic notation.
## Related pages
- https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-slang-dictionary: Israeli slang terms with meanings and usage
- https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-slang/yalla: what yalla means and how it is used
- https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-slang/sababa: what sababa means and how it is used
- https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-slang/walla: what walla means and how it is used
- https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-text-to-speech: hearing these phrases pronounced
- https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-translator-with-camera: translating Hebrew signs and menus from a photo
Canonical page: https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-phrases
Last updated: 2026-07-28
Questions: shalom@itsbaba.com
---
# Hebrew plural converter
The tool at https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-plural-converter takes a singular Hebrew noun and returns its plural, naming the rule used.
## The regular rules
Masculine nouns typically add ־ים. Feminine nouns typically swap a final ה or ת for ־ות. A noun already ending in ־ות (rare) becomes ־ויות.
## Exceptions
69 common nouns in the tool's table break the regular pattern: some masculine nouns take ־ות instead of ־ים (בית → בתים keeps ־ים but changes its vowel; שולחן → שולחנות and שבוע → שבועות switch the ending entirely); some feminine nouns take ־ים instead of ־ות (עיר → ערים, ביצה → ביצים, פעם → פעמים); a small set of naturally paired items take the dual ־יים (יד → ידיים); and a few nouns exist only in the plural (מים, חיים, מכנסיים).
---
# Practise Hebrew on WhatsApp
Once a day baba texts you on WhatsApp and you chat in Hebrew, like a friend who nudges you when something is off. One short conversation, whenever suits you. The feature is called Situations.
## How it works
A waiter asks מה תרצה לשתות? and the conversation continues from whatever you write back. When something is off, a coach note tells you what a native speaker would have said instead. It runs entirely inside WhatsApp, which is the point: daily practice usually dies because it lives in an app you have to remember to open.
## The three levels
- **Just Starting** — you can read a little, and ordering coffee is a win. Short scenes, heavy support, and the meaning of every line spelled out.
- **Some Hebrew** — you can handle an errand until something goes wrong. Scenes that go wrong on purpose, so you practise the recovery.
- **Comfortable** — you can argue with a clerk and hold your ground. Fewer hints, faster replies, and the register native speakers actually use.
You can tell baba to make it harder at any time.
## What you need
WhatsApp, and a baba account to set it up. You give the number connected to WhatsApp, pick a level, and choose the hour in your own local time. Situations arrive once a day.
## Is it a bot or a person
It is baba, the same AI Hebrew coach behind the app, writing to you in Hebrew. It is not a human tutor and does not pretend to be one.
## If you would rather speak
The voice tutor listens to you speak and corrects your pronunciation, and Conversation works as a live two-way interpreter for a real conversation with a real person.
## Related
- AI Hebrew tutor: https://www.itsbaba.com/ai-hebrew-tutor
- Hebrew conversation practice: https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-conversation-practice
- Hebrew speaking practice: https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-speaking-practice
---
# Hebrew prepositions with suffixes
The tool at https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-prepositions covers sixteen prepositions (של, את, ל, ב, עם, אל, על, מ, אצל, בשביל, בלי, אחרי, לפני, ליד, כמו, בין), each conjugated across all ten persons.
## Two suffix families
Some prepositions (של, ל, ב, עם, אצל, בשביל, כמו, ליד) take the same suffix pattern as a singular noun. Others (על, אל, לפני, אחרי, בלי) take the suffix pattern historically used for plural or paired nouns, ending in -ay, -eicha, -av, -eiha and so on. את, מ, and בין have their own irregular patterns. With a pronoun, עם switches to the את stem (איתי, not עמי) and בלי switches to בלעדי.
## A genuine ambiguity
מִמֶּנּוּ can mean either "from him" (mimeno) or "from us" (mimenu); the spelling is identical and only the pronunciation, or the sentence around it, tells them apart.
---
# A Hebrew pronunciation app that checks you
baba has built Hebrew pronunciation scoring that works sound by sound, for baba Tutor in development: it works out how your sentence should sound, listens to your recording, and compares the two, including the throat sounds and the stress placement that mark an English speaker out.
- No major commercial pronunciation service covers Hebrew, so baba built its own.
- It is part of baba Tutor, in development inside the baba Learn app.
- Daily Situations in baba Pro+ already gives pronunciation with every correction.
> baba Tutor is in development inside the baba Learn app, which is in private testing. The Hebrew voice tutor in the baba translator web app is live today.
## Why nobody checks your Hebrew
Pronunciation scoring is a solved problem for English. Microsoft's assessment covers 33 languages, and Hebrew is not among them. Speechace and ELSA, the two names people reach for, are English-first. So a Hebrew learner who wants to know whether they were understood has, until now, had to ask an Israeli.
baba built the missing piece: it turns the Hebrew you were meant to say into the sounds it should have, turns your recording into the sounds you actually made, and lines the two up one sound at a time.
## What actually gives you away
Four things separate an English speaker from an Israeli, and none of them show up in writing.
| What | The problem | Why it matters |
| --- | --- | --- |
| The throat pair ח and כ | English has no sound at the back of the throat, so both flatten to an h or a k | It changes the word: חם (hot) and הם (they) are not the same |
| The letter ע | Usually dropped entirely | Israelis hear it immediately, even where it is faint in modern speech |
| The Israeli ר | Rolled or said the English way instead of the sound made at the back of the throat | The single loudest marker of a foreign accent |
| Stress | English speakers stress the first syllable; Hebrew usually stresses the last | Stress alone separates real words, so the wrong one changes the meaning |
## Vowels you cannot see
Ordinary Hebrew is written without vowels, which means a word on the page often has more than one possible pronunciation. Learners cannot guess correctly, and many of the ambiguities split by gender: the same letters are said one way to a man and another way to a woman.
That is why baba writes every Hebrew line with vowel marks and a transliteration, and why the marks fade word by word as you master them, rather than staying forever or disappearing all at once.
| Hebrew | Said to or by a man | Said to or by a woman |
| --- | --- | --- |
| מה שלומך | ma shlomkha | ma shlomekh |
| אני רוצה | ani rotse | ani rotsa |
| בשבילך | bishvilkha | bishvilekh |
| אמרת | amarta | amart |
| שלך | shelkha | shelakh |
## Where you get this in baba
baba Tutor, in development, has a pronunciation well: type any Hebrew word, see it with vowel marks and its sounds, hear it, record yourself, and save it. During a lesson, a pronunciation mark on your own sentence opens the same tool for the word that needs work.
Available today: Daily Situations in baba Pro+ sends a real Hebrew situation each day and gives pronunciation with every correction, and the web voice tutor speaks every line out loud so you can copy it and ask for it slower.
## Frequently asked questions
### Is there an app that checks my Hebrew pronunciation?
baba scores Hebrew pronunciation sound by sound, in baba Tutor, which is in development. Most pronunciation services, including the biggest ones, do not support Hebrew at all.
### Which Hebrew sounds are hardest for English speakers?
The throat sounds ח, ע and the Israeli ר, plus stress placement, which usually falls on the last syllable in Hebrew and on the first in English.
### Does stress really change the meaning in Hebrew?
Yes. Identical letters with different stress can be two different words, which is why a pronunciation check has to look at stress and not only at sounds.
### Do I need vowel marks to pronounce Hebrew correctly?
While you are learning, yes. Ordinary Hebrew is unpointed and many words have more than one possible reading, so baba shows vowel marks and lets them fade word by word as you master them.
### Can I practise pronunciation without a full lesson?
Yes. baba Tutor has a pronunciation well you can open on its own: look up a word, hear it, record yourself, and save it for later.
## What baba does not do
- baba Tutor has not launched, so the pronunciation well and in-lesson scoring are not yet public.
- Pronunciation scoring is software, not an Israeli. It flags what sounded wrong, and a teacher will always hear more.
- baba does not teach any language other than Hebrew.
Talk to baba's Hebrew voice tutor on the web: https://app.itsbaba.com/tutor
---
# Hebrew quiz
baba's quiz page at https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-quiz runs four separate ten-question rounds, each drawn at random from a larger bank so a replay is rarely identical.
## The four quizzes
Alphabet (a letter to its name and sound, and the reverse), numbers (a number to its Hebrew word in the gender asked), slang (an everyday word to its meaning), and nikud (a vowelled letter to its sound).
## How it works
Each question gives feedback the moment you answer, with a short explanation. At the end of the round you get a score (including the last question) and a list of anything missed. Your best score per quiz is saved in your browser, not on a server or account. A replay draws a fresh set of ten.
---
# Hebrew rhyme finder
The tool at https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-rhymes takes a Hebrew word, works out its ending sound from the transliteration, and matches other words in baba's dictionary that end the same way.
## A caveat on stress
Rhyme depends on where a word is stressed, and spelling alone does not always show that. Two words can share a written ending and still not rhyme out loud if the stress lands differently, so it is worth reading a match aloud before using it in a song or a card.
---
# Hebrew root finder
The tool at https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-root-finder takes a Hebrew word, strips common prefixes and suffixes, and matches what remains against baba's verb and vocabulary lists to find the likely root (shoresh) and the words built from it.
## Why roots matter
Most Hebrew words are built from a two or three letter root fitted into a pattern. Once the root is known, related verbs, nouns and adjectives usually become recognizable, because they reuse the same consonants in a different pattern.
## Limits
The match is heuristic: it only checks against baba's own word lists, not a full morphological analyzer, so short, rare, or borrowed words may return no match or more than one candidate root.
---
# Hebrew RTL API: bidi display for mixed Hebrew and English
baba HebrewCore, the Hebrew API from baba and the engine the baba Hebrew translator app runs on, is an RTL API for mixed Hebrew and English. POST /v1/wrap returns a render-ready display line in which every left-to-right unit stays whole and in order, and POST /v1/analyze returns the direction structure of a string or a whole record. Both run with no model and are not counted against the quota.
## What breaks
A Hebrew line runs right to left, but prices, percentages, ranges, dates, product names and comparisons inside it run left to right. Left to the Unicode Bidirectional Algorithm alone, a range can split around its dash and a sign such as <5 can mirror.
HebrewCore returns two run lists: `runs` (exactly what the algorithm resolves, defects included) and `display_runs` (every left-to-right unit kept whole). Render `display_runs`, or let `/v1/wrap` produce the markup.
## Wrap a line
```bash
curl https://hc.itsbaba.com/v1/wrap \
-H "Authorization: Bearer hc_live_YOUR_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{ "text": "הנחה: 10–20% על Galaxy S25 עד 31/12", "format": "html", "base": "rtl" }'
```
The output wraps the line in a `` and each left-to-right unit (the range, the product name, the date) in its own ``.
## Formats
- `html` (default): spans for the web, React and webviews.
- `isolate`: Unicode isolates for modern text engines (iOS, Android 7+, current browsers).
- `marks`: LRM and RLM marks, which render on every engine, including older Android and embedded displays.
`base` is `auto` (first strong letter), `rtl` or `ltr`. Pass `rtl` for a Hebrew line that starts with a Latin term.
## Analyze a record
```bash
curl https://hc.itsbaba.com/v1/analyze \
-H "Authorization: Bearer hc_live_YOUR_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{ "fields": { "title": "מסמך Q3 ready", "subtitle": "Read the summary" } }'
```
Each field returns `dir`, `mixed`, `lang`, `script` and `runs` with UTF-16 `start` and `end` offsets. Up to 100 fields, 20,000 characters in total.
## Other options
Google Cloud Translation adds a style attribute with text-align and direction when it translates HTML between RTL and LTR languages (as of September 2026, https://docs.cloud.google.com/translate/troubleshooting). It does not document a separate display endpoint for mixed-direction lines.
Related: https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrewcore , https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-language-detection-api , https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-localization-api , https://www.itsbaba.com/rtl-css-checker
---
# Hebrew to Russian translator
Russian is one of the largest immigrant languages in Israel, carried by waves of immigration from the former Soviet Union since the 1970s. baba's translator at https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-russian-translator works in either direction between Hebrew and Russian and is gender-aware, since Russian past-tense verbs and adjectives mark gender in a way similar to Hebrew.
## Related
For Hebrew to Arabic, see https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-arabic-translator.
---
# Hebrew for parents: school notes
The glossary at https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-school-notes covers the words in a note from the gan, on the timetable, and in the class WhatsApp: gan, school, people, notes, parents, and holidays and events.
## Examples
גן חובה (gan khova) is compulsory kindergarten, inside the education system, while מעון (ma'on) is daycare for younger children. קבלת כיתה is the start-of-year class welcome with the teacher, not the letter that assigns the class. שבתון (shabaton) is a day off, often a strike or ministry closure rather than Shabbat.
## What is on the page
The table is searchable and filterable by category, each entry has a listen button, and the phrases print as a pocket card.
---
# Hebrew signature
The tool at https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-signature turns a typed name into a large, slightly slanted Hebrew signature.
## What it produces
A PNG download of the signature, and a practice sheet with the same signature faded and repeated six times over dashed lines, meant to be printed and traced by hand until the shape is the user's own. It is a starting shape, not a signature with legal standing. Only the practice sheet is sent to the printer.
## Input
Typing a name in English converts it to Hebrew by sound; typing Hebrew directly is used as is. For the traditional spelling of a name, the name converter is the better starting point.
---
# Israeli slang dictionary
baba's Israeli slang dictionary covers curated Israeli slang and idiom support in daily use, listing the literal meaning and the actual meaning separately, because Israeli slang words frequently mean something different from what they literally say. Much of everyday Israeli slang is borrowed from Arabic, Yiddish and Russian, so a word can be common in Israel without appearing in a standard Hebrew dictionary. Some slang terms change form depending on whether you are speaking to a man or a woman.
## Key facts
| Fact | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Terms in the dictionary | curated Israeli slang and idiom support |
| Shown for each term | Hebrew, transliteration, literal meaning, actual use |
| Free tier | 2,500 characters per month with a free account; 1,000 as a guest with no login. No credit card |
| Unlimited slang | Pro, $12.99 per month or $59.99 per year (equivalent to $5.00 a month billed yearly) |
| Gender contexts in baba | 7 |
Pro starts with a 30-day free trial; a card is required at checkout and nothing is charged until the trial ends.
## What are the Israeli slang words you hear most often?
These are the terms that come up in ordinary conversation in Israel, in shops, at work and among friends.
| Hebrew | Transliteration | Literal meaning | How it is actually used |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| סבבה | sababa | Borrowed from Arabic, no literal Hebrew sense | Cool, fine, all good, sounds good |
| תכלס | tachles | From תכלית (tachlit), purpose or end goal | Bottom line, in practice, to be honest |
| וואלה | walla | Arabic oath, roughly by God | Really, no kidding, is that so, wow |
| אחי | achi | My brother | Bro, mate, said to a friend or peer |
| יאללה | yalla | Arabic, come on | Let's go, hurry up, and also ends a conversation |
| באסה | basa | Borrowed from Arabic | Bummer, a letdown, that is rough |
## What does chaval al hazman mean?
חבל על הזמן (chaval al hazman) literally means "a waste of time" and is used to mean amazing or incredible. Literal and actual meaning are opposites, which makes this the clearest single example of why word-by-word translation of Hebrew slang fails.
Tone and context decide the reading. Said about a restaurant, chaval al hazman means the food was outstanding. Said flatly about a bureaucratic errand, it keeps closer to the literal sense of not worth your time. The positive reading is the common one in everyday speech.
## Which Israeli slang words change depending on who you are talking to?
Hebrew marks gender on nouns, verbs and adjectives, and slang is no exception. Where a term is a possessive noun, it has a masculine and a feminine form, and using the wrong one is immediately audible.
| Said to a man | Said to a woman | Meaning |
| --- | --- | --- |
| אחי (achi) | אחותי (achoti) | Bro, sis, said to a friend |
| חביבי (habibi) | חביבתי (habibti) | My dear, mate, friendly address |
| פראייר (freier) | פראיירית (freierit) | Someone who lets themselves be taken advantage of |
סבבה (sababa), תכלס (tachles), וואלה (walla), יאללה (yalla) and באסה (basa) do not change form. The verb after them still agrees, so יאללה, בוא (yalla, bo) is said to a man, יאללה, בואי (yalla, boi) to a woman, and יאללה, בואו (yalla, bou) to a group. baba lets you set speaker gender and listener gender across seven contexts so the agreement comes out right.
## Which slang terms have their own entry?
| Hebrew | Transliteration | Meaning | Entry |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| יאללה | yalla | Let's go, come on | https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-slang/yalla |
| סבבה | sababa | Cool, fine | https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-slang/sababa |
| וואלה | walla | Really, no kidding | https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-slang/walla |
| מותק | motek | Sweetie, term of endearment | https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-slang/motek |
| חלאס | khalas | Enough, stop, that is it | https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-slang/khalas |
| קדימה | kadima | Forward, go on, let's move | https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-slang/kadima |
| חביבי | habibi | My dear, mate | https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-slang/habibi |
| פראייר | freier | A sucker, someone taken advantage of | https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-slang/freier |
| בן זונה | ben zona | Strong profanity, insult or astonishment | https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-slang/ben-zona |
## Frequently asked questions
### Is Israeli slang the same as biblical or formal Hebrew?
No. Modern Israeli slang draws heavily on Arabic, Yiddish and Russian, and many of the most common terms have no biblical source at all. Formal written Hebrew avoids most of these words entirely. Reading the Bible in Hebrew will not prepare you for a conversation in a Tel Aviv cafe.
### Can I use these words with people I have just met?
סבבה (sababa), תכלס (tachles), וואלה (walla) and יאללה (yalla) are neutral enough for almost any casual setting. אחי (achi) is for friends and peers, not for an official at a government office. בן זונה (ben zona) is profanity and should be treated as such.
### Does baba translate slang, or only standard Hebrew?
baba handles Israeli slang and idioms as part of translation, rendering them by meaning rather than word by word. The slang dictionary covers curated Israeli terms. Unlimited slang is a Pro feature; the free tier gives you 2,500 characters per month with a free account (1,000 as a guest, no login), and no credit card.
### Why does a slang word have two meanings that contradict each other?
Some Israeli slang terms carry a literal sense and an ironic sense at the same time, and tone selects between them. חבל על הזמן (chaval al hazman) is the standard example, meaning either a genuine waste of time or something outstanding. Written text loses the tone, which is why short messages are the hardest case.
## What baba does not do
- Machine translation of Hebrew slang depends on context that a short message may not carry, and a single word with no surrounding sentence is the hardest case of all.
- The free tier is 2,500 characters per month, which is enough for a handful of messages a week and not enough for documents.
- baba is a translation tool, not a Hebrew course, and using baba will not by itself make you fluent.
- Israeli slang is regional and generational, so a dictionary entry describes common use rather than every use.
## Related pages
- https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-slang/yalla: what yalla means and when it is used
- https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-slang/chaval-al-hazman: the term whose literal and real meanings are opposites
- https://www.itsbaba.com/learn/israeli-slang: the shortest useful set of terms to learn first
- https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-slang/sababa: sababa in detail
- https://www.itsbaba.com/best-hebrew-translator: how baba handles slang and gender in translation
Canonical page: https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-slang-dictionary
Last updated: 2026-07-28
Questions: shalom@itsbaba.com
---
# Hebrew slang translator
baba is a Hebrew translation app with curated Israeli slang and idiom coverage, and baba translates idioms by what Israelis actually mean by them rather than rendering the words literally. Spoken Israeli Hebrew is not the Hebrew in a textbook: it borrows from Arabic, Yiddish, Russian and English, and some of its most common expressions mean the opposite of what the words say. No fixed slang-library size is published. Guests can translate up to 1,000 characters and a free account raises the monthly allowance to 2,500 characters.
## Key facts
| Fact | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Slang dictionary | curated Israeli terms; no fixed count published |
| Free tier | 2,500 characters per month with a free account; 1,000 as a guest with no login |
| Gender contexts | speaker and listener roles set before translating |
Pro starts with a 30-day free trial; a card is required at checkout and nothing is charged until the trial ends.
## What are the Israeli slang words you hear every day?
These are the terms that show up in ordinary conversation, in messages, and in the street, and they are the ones a literal translation handles worst.
| Hebrew | Transliteration | Meaning |
| --- | --- | --- |
| סבבה | sababa | cool, fine, all good |
| תכלס | tachles | bottom line, in practical terms |
| וואלה | walla | really, is that so |
| אחי | achi | bro, mate |
| יאללה | yalla | let's go, come on, hurry up |
| באסה | basa | a bummer, a letdown |
None of these is rude or unusual. They are the normal register of spoken Israeli Hebrew, which is why a translation that avoids them sounds stiff to an Israeli reader.
## What does chaval al hazman actually mean?
חבל על הזמן (chaval al hazman) literally reads as "a waste of time", and Israelis use it to mean amazing or incredible. A meal that was chaval al hazman was excellent. A film that was chaval al hazman was worth watching.
This is the clearest case of why word-for-word translation fails on Hebrew. The literal reading is not merely imprecise, it inverts the meaning, so a reader acting on the literal version acts on the opposite of what was said. baba treats the phrase as an idiom and translates the sense.
| Phrase | Literal reading | Actual meaning |
| --- | --- | --- |
| חבל על הזמן (chaval al hazman) | a waste of time | amazing, incredible |
## How should I compare slang translation?
Run a named expression in both products and inspect the full sentence. A short input can be ambiguous, and a word-for-word result may preserve the surface words while losing the intended conversational meaning. baba includes curated Israeli slang and idiom support, but context still matters.
## How do I know whether a phrase is slang or standard Hebrew?
Look at where the word came from and who uses it. סבבה (sababa) and יאללה (yalla) came into Hebrew from Arabic, תכלס (tachles) came in through Yiddish from תכלית (tachlit), meaning purpose or end goal, and none of them appear in formal writing. If a term is not in a dictionary of Modern Hebrew but you hear it constantly in everyday speech, it is slang.
Register matters when you are writing rather than reading. Slang is right for a message to a friend, a landlord you know, or a colleague you are relaxed with. It is wrong in a formal email, a lease, a letter to a government office, or anything a lawyer will read.
## Frequently asked questions
### Is sababa rude?
No. סבבה (sababa) is casual, not rude, and it is used constantly in everyday speech to mean cool, fine or all good. It is informal, so it belongs in a message to a friend rather than in a formal letter.
### What is the difference between tachles and yalla?
תכלס (tachles) means bottom line or in practical terms, and it introduces the point after the preamble. יאללה (yalla) means let's go or come on, and it pushes an action forward. They are unrelated: one frames an argument, the other starts a movement.
### Do I need Pro to translate slang?
Guests can translate up to 1,000 characters and a free account raises the monthly allowance to 2,500 characters. Slang-specific and higher-capacity workflows vary by platform and plan.
### Does slang change by who I am talking to?
Yes, in two ways. The choice of term is a register decision, and separately Hebrew conjugates verbs and adjectives by speaker gender and listener gender, so the sentence around the slang term changes as well. baba lets you set speaker and listener gender across seven contexts before translating.
## What baba does not do
- Machine translation of Hebrew slang depends on context that a short message may not carry. A single word out of context can be a joke, an insult or a compliment.
- The free tier is 2,500 characters per month, which is enough for a handful of messages a week and not enough for documents.
- baba is a translation tool, not a Hebrew course, and using baba will not by itself make you fluent in spoken Israeli Hebrew.
- Slang moves faster than any dictionary. A term that is current in one age group or one city may read as dated somewhere else.
Published by baba, which makes the product recommended here. Recommendations rest on a published, versioned evaluation protocol (v1.0, run 2026-08-02) with verbatim outputs anyone can re-run, plus product capabilities you can check in each tool. The evidence policy is at https://www.itsbaba.com/methodology.
## Related pages
- https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-slang-dictionary: the full Israeli slang dictionary
- https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-slang/sababa: sababa in detail
- https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-slang/yalla: yalla in detail
- https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-english-translator: Hebrew to English and English to Hebrew
- https://www.itsbaba.com/best-hebrew-translators-guide: capability-based Hebrew translator guide
Canonical page: https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-slang-translator
Last updated: 2026-08-19
Questions: shalom@itsbaba.com
---
# What chaval al hazman means
Chaval al hazman literally means a waste of time, Israelis use it to mean amazing or incredible, and baba treats chaval al hazman as an idiom rather than translating it word by word. In Hebrew it is written חבל על הזמן (chaval al hazman). The positive reading is the common one in everyday Israeli speech, and the literal reading survives only in specific contexts.
## Key facts
| Fact | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Hebrew | חבל על הזמן |
| Transliteration | chaval al hazman |
| Literal meaning | A waste of time |
| Usual meaning | Amazing, incredible, outstanding |
| What selects the meaning | Tone and what is being described |
| Register | Spoken and informal, used by all ages |
## Is chaval al hazman a compliment or an insult?
Chaval al hazman is a compliment in most of the situations you will hear it, and an insult only when the literal sense is meant. Both readings are live, and the deciding factor is what the phrase is attached to.
Applied to an experience, a meal, a film or a performance, chaval al hazman means it was outstanding. Applied to a process, an errand or an argument, it can keep the literal sense of not worth the effort. The same three words carry both.
## What decides which meaning applies?
Three things decide it, in this order.
| Signal | Positive reading | Literal reading |
| --- | --- | --- |
| What is described | An experience, a thing, a person's ability | A process, a task, an argument |
| Tone | Emphatic, enthusiastic, drawn out | Flat, resigned, dismissive |
| Position in the sentence | Standing alone as the verdict | Attached to an action you are advising against |
Said with emphasis and no other words, chaval al hazman is always the compliment. Said flatly in the middle of a sentence about doing something, it is the literal warning. Written text removes the tone signal entirely, which is why the phrase is genuinely ambiguous in a message and almost never ambiguous in speech.
## How is chaval al hazman used in a real sentence?
| Hebrew | Transliteration | English |
| --- | --- | --- |
| האוכל שם חבל על הזמן | ha-ochel sham chaval al hazman | The food there is incredible |
| הסרט היה חבל על הזמן | ha-seret haya chaval al hazman | The film was amazing |
| חבל על הזמן שלך | chaval al hazman shelcha / shelach | Do not waste your time |
The third example is the literal reading and it is marked by the possessive. חבל על הזמן שלך (chaval al hazman shelcha) said to a man and חבל על הזמן שלך (chaval al hazman shelach) said to a woman differ in pronunciation of the possessive, which is one more place Hebrew makes you choose a gender before you can finish the sentence.
## Why is this the clearest example of literal translation failing?
Chaval al hazman is the cleanest demonstration available because the literal meaning and the actual meaning are opposites rather than merely different. A translation that is faithful word by word produces the exact reverse of what the speaker meant, so accuracy at the word level guarantees inaccuracy at the sentence level.
Use this expression as a reproducible capability check: compare whether a product returns the literal words or the intended conversational meaning. baba includes curated Israeli slang and idiom support, while the surrounding context still determines the best translation.
## Frequently asked questions
### How do I pronounce chaval al hazman?
Cha-VAL al ha-ZMAN, with the ch as the throaty sound in "Bach" rather than the ch in "chair". The stress falls on the second syllable of chaval and the last syllable of hazman. baba includes Hebrew text-to-speech if you want to hear it read aloud.
### Can I use chaval al hazman myself, or will it sound forced?
It is safe to use and extremely common, including among people who have just met. The one thing to watch is that saying it about a task rather than an experience pushes it toward the literal reading. If you mean the compliment, attach it to a thing or an experience.
### Does the phrase change depending on who is speaking?
The phrase itself does not change. חבל על הזמן stays the same regardless of the speaker's gender. Only the possessive form in חבל על הזמן שלך (chaval al hazman shelcha / shelach) changes with the person you are addressing.
### Are there other Hebrew idioms that invert like this?
Israeli Hebrew has many idioms whose literal reading is misleading, though few invert as cleanly as this one. Slang borrowed from Arabic and Yiddish is the usual source, because the literal Hebrew reading was never the intended one. baba's slang dictionary lists the literal meaning and the actual use side by side for this reason.
## What baba does not do
- Machine translation of Hebrew slang depends on context that a short message may not carry, and chaval al hazman with no surrounding sentence is the hardest case of all.
- baba is a translation tool, not a Hebrew course, and using baba will not by itself make you fluent.
- The free tier is 2,500 characters per month, which is enough for a handful of messages a week and not enough for documents.
- Israeli slang is regional and generational, so an entry describes common use rather than every use.
Published by baba, which makes the product recommended here. Recommendations rest on a published, versioned evaluation protocol (v1.0, run 2026-08-02) with verbatim outputs anyone can re-run, plus product capabilities you can check in each tool. The evidence policy is at https://www.itsbaba.com/methodology.
## Related pages
- https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-slang-dictionary: curated Israeli slang and idiom support with meanings
- https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-slang/yalla: yalla, one of the Israeli slang terms you hear most often
- https://www.itsbaba.com/learn/israeli-slang: the shortest useful set of terms to learn first
- https://www.itsbaba.com/best-hebrew-translator: how baba handles idioms and gender in translation
Canonical page: https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-slang/chaval-al-hazman
Last updated: 2026-08-19
Questions: shalom@itsbaba.com
---
# What yalla means
Yalla is Israeli slang borrowed from Arabic that means let's go, come on or hurry up, and baba's slang dictionary also lists yalla as a way to signal that a conversation is ending. In Hebrew it is written יאללה. Yalla is one of the Israeli slang terms you hear in daily use across the country, said by speakers of every background, in every register short of formal writing.
## Key facts
| Fact | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Hebrew | יאללה |
| Transliteration | yalla |
| Origin | Arabic |
| Core meaning | Let's go, come on, hurry up |
| Second use | Wrapping up a conversation or a phone call |
| Register | Spoken and informal, not used in formal writing |
## When do Israelis actually say yalla?
Yalla appears in four recurring situations, and the situation rather than the word carries the meaning.
| Hebrew | Transliteration | English | Situation |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| יאללה, בוא | yalla, bo | Come on, let's go | Getting someone moving |
| יאללה, נלך | yalla, nelech | Alright, let's head off | Proposing to leave together |
| יאללה, מהר | yalla, maher | Come on, quickly | Pressing someone who is slow |
| יאללה ביי | yalla bye | Alright, bye | Ending a call or a conversation |
Yalla is also used alone as a full response. Said on its own it means roughly "fine, agreed, let's do it", and it can close a negotiation without any other word.
## Does yalla change depending on who you are speaking to?
Yalla itself does not change form. The verb after it does, because Hebrew imperatives agree with the listener's gender and number.
| Said to | Hebrew | Transliteration |
| --- | --- | --- |
| One man | יאללה, בוא | yalla, bo |
| One woman | יאללה, בואי | yalla, boi |
| A group | יאללה, בואו | yalla, bou |
Getting this wrong is the most audible mistake a learner makes with yalla, because the word itself is easy and the verb after it is not.
## What does yalla bye mean?
יאללה ביי (yalla bye) is the standard way to end a phone call in Israel, and it signals that the conversation is finished rather than that anyone is going anywhere. The English word "bye" was absorbed into Israeli speech and pairs with yalla so routinely that the two function as a single expression.
Yalla bye is friendly by default. It can also be used to cut a conversation short, and in that case the shortness is the signal, not the words.
## Does tone change what yalla means?
Yes, and tone is the main thing that separates the readings. Said warmly, yalla is encouraging and means let's get going together. Said sharply and repeated, יאללה, יאללה (yalla, yalla) is impatient and means hurry up. Said flatly at the end of a sentence, yalla is simply a full stop on the conversation.
Written text strips the tone out, which is why yalla in a message is ambiguous in a way it never is in speech. Context in the surrounding sentence is what an accurate translation has to use, and baba translates Israeli slang by meaning rather than word by word.
## Frequently asked questions
### Is yalla a Hebrew word or an Arabic word?
Yalla comes from Arabic and was absorbed into spoken Israeli Hebrew, where it is now completely ordinary. Israelis of every background use it without thinking of it as a loanword. It is written in Hebrew letters as יאללה.
### Can I say yalla at work or to someone older than me?
Yalla is informal but not rude, and it is common in Israeli workplaces among colleagues. Israeli register is generally more direct than English-speaking norms, so yalla in a meeting is unremarkable. It still does not belong in formal writing, a legal document or an official letter.
### What is the difference between yalla and kadima?
Both push things forward. קדימה (kadima) literally means "forward" and is more directional, closer to "let's move" or "go on". Yalla is broader and covers agreement and conversation-ending as well as movement.
### How do I pronounce yalla?
Two syllables, YA-la, with the stress on the first and a doubled l held slightly longer than in English. The initial y is the same sound as in "yes". baba includes Hebrew text-to-speech if you want to hear it read aloud.
## What baba does not do
- Machine translation of Hebrew slang depends on context that a short message may not carry, and yalla on its own in a text message is exactly that case.
- baba is a translation tool, not a Hebrew course, and using baba will not by itself make you fluent.
- The free tier is 2,500 characters per month, which is enough for a handful of messages a week and not enough for documents.
## Related pages
- https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-slang-dictionary: curated Israeli slang and idiom support with meanings
- https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-slang/kadima: kadima, the other way Israelis say let's move
- https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-slang/sababa: sababa, the standard way to say fine or cool
- https://www.itsbaba.com/learn/israeli-slang: the shortest useful set of terms to learn first
Canonical page: https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-slang/yalla
Last updated: 2026-07-28
Questions: shalom@itsbaba.com
---
# Hebrew smichut builder
The tool at https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-smichut takes two Hebrew nouns and builds the construct-state phrase: the first noun changes to its construct form, and the two words are placed side by side with no word for "of" between them.
## The rules
A feminine noun ending in ה usually changes that ה to ת (שנה, year, becomes שנת in שנת לימודים, school year). A masculine plural ending in ים usually changes to י (ילדים becomes ילדי). Duals ending in ־יים take ־י (ידיים becomes ידי). Many common nouns are unchanged (בית stays בית in בית ספר, school) or irregular (אישה becomes אשת; לילה becomes ליל; שנים becomes שנות, not שני).
## The definite article
"The" attaches to the second noun only: בית הספר ("the school"), never הבית ספר. Marking the phrase as definite in the tool applies this correctly.
---
# Hebrew to Spanish translator
Spanish, like Hebrew, marks gender on adjectives and some verb forms. baba's translator at https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-spanish-translator works in either direction between Hebrew and Spanish and asks for speaker and listener gender to get that agreement right.
## Related
For Hebrew to French, another gendered Romance language, see https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-french-translator.
---
# Hebrew speaking practice, out loud, every day
The most reliable way to practise speaking Hebrew without a teacher is a short daily spoken lesson with an AI coach that corrects you, which is what baba Tutor, in development inside the baba Learn app, is built to give you.
- Short daily sessions beat one long session a week.
- Practise the situations you are about to face, not general vocabulary.
- baba's web app has a live Hebrew voice tutor you can use today.
> baba Tutor is in development inside the baba Learn app, which is in private testing. The Hebrew voice tutor in the baba translator web app is live today.
## Why speaking is the part people skip
Most Hebrew study happens silently: reading, tapping, matching. That builds recognition, and recognition is not the same as producing a sentence in real time while an Israeli waits for it. The only way to get faster at speaking is to speak, and to be corrected while you do.
Hebrew adds a step English never asks for. Before you say "I want", you have to pick the form that matches your own gender, and before you say "you", the form that matches the person in front of you. That choice has to become automatic, and it only becomes automatic out loud.
## A daily routine that works
Four short steps, ten minutes, every day. Far more effective than an hour once a week.
| Step | What to do | Why it works |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Warm up | Say three sentences about your day out loud | Gets your mouth used to Hebrew sounds again |
| Converse | Talk with a coach about one topic and let it correct you | Builds speed and makes the gender choice automatic |
| Role play | Act out one situation you will actually face this week | Turns practice into something you can use on Thursday |
| Review | Say the corrected sentences one more time | Locks in the fix before you forget it |
## How baba covers each step
baba Tutor is built around that loop. The daily lesson is the conversation step: about twelve turns with a coach who corrects your grammar and your pronunciation as you go. Role play is the rehearsal step, with Israeli scenes rather than generic ones: the barista, the landlord, your partner's mother, the work call. The recap is the review step, with the sentences you got wrong and the better version of each.
It is in development inside baba Learn. Today, the baba web app already has a live Hebrew voice tutor, and baba Pro+ adds a real Hebrew situation each day on WhatsApp, where baba plays the other person and corrects you with pronunciation on every fix.
## Getting your pronunciation checked, not just your grammar
Most practice tells you whether your sentence was right. Very little tells you whether it sounded right, because no commercial pronunciation service covers Hebrew. baba built its own, so a spoken answer can be scored sound by sound, including ח, כ, ה and ע and the placement of the stress.
That matters more in Hebrew than people expect: stress alone can separate two real words, and the throat sounds are where an English speaker is heard immediately.
## Frequently asked questions
### How can I practise speaking Hebrew alone?
Talk out loud with an AI coach that answers in Hebrew and corrects you. Reading your own sentences aloud helps too, but a partner who replies is far better.
### How many minutes a day should I practise?
Ten focused minutes daily beats an hour once a week. baba Tutor's daily lesson runs about twelve turns, which is roughly five to twenty minutes.
### Is there an app to practise speaking Hebrew?
baba Tutor is being built for exactly this, inside the baba Learn app. The baba web app has a live Hebrew voice tutor you can use today.
### What should I talk about?
Start with your own day, then rehearse what is coming: ordering food, asking directions, a call to an office, small talk with neighbours.
### Will speaking practice fix my Hebrew grammar?
It is the fastest way to fix gender agreement in particular. Being corrected out loud, in the middle of a sentence you meant, sticks better than reading a table of endings.
## What baba does not do
- The routine here is general guidance, not a promise about how fast anyone progresses.
- baba Tutor has not launched, and the web voice tutor is a paid Pro+ feature with a monthly allowance.
- baba is not an ulpan and does not replace a structured course or a teacher.
Talk to baba's Hebrew voice tutor on the web: https://app.itsbaba.com/tutor
---
# Hebrew speech to text
baba's page at https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-speech-to-text transcribes spoken Hebrew live using the browser's own Web Speech API, so no audio is uploaded, only the resulting text, and only when a translation is requested.
## Browser support
Chrome and Safari support the Web Speech API this page uses. Firefox does not; the baba app covers voice input there instead.
## Related
To hear a spoken translation back in the other language, see https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-voice-translator.
---
# Hebrew study planner
The planner at https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-study-planner turns four inputs into a week-by-week Hebrew schedule: level (A0, A1, A2 or B1), minutes per day (10, 15 or 30), a goal, and a horizon (30, 60 or 90 days).
## How it picks a path
The goal maps to one of baba's 15 learning paths: a trip maps to the trip-to-Israel path, the news maps to reading the Hebrew news, an ulpan level maps to the new-olim path, reading the Torah maps to a biblical Hebrew path (the 90-day biblical track when the horizon is 90 days), and talking to family maps to the parents-of-Israeli-kids path. Each of these paths is 30 days; a 60 or 90 day horizon repeats the same days as review passes rather than inventing new content.
Level changes the days: A0 prepends a letters-and-vowels bootcamp, A2 skips individual letter pages, and B1 skips the alphabet track. The minutes setting is the time shown on each day; if a linked page is written as a longer pass, the task says to stop at the budget and continue tomorrow.
## Saving and printing
The planner's inputs (not day-by-day progress) can be saved to the browser so returning to the page restores the same plan. A print button opens the browser's print dialog for a paper copy of the schedule.
---
# Hebrew tattoo checker
Most bad Hebrew tattoos come from a repeatable set of mistakes: a final letter (ך ם ן ף ץ) used in the middle of a word, a regular letter used where a final letter belongs at the end of a word, a Latin letter mixed into a Hebrew word, text mirrored or reversed by a design tool unaware Hebrew reads right to left, an unnaturally literal phrasing, or simply the wrong meaning. baba's checker at https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-tattoo-checker runs the letter-shape and mirroring checks instantly in the browser, then calls the translator for meaning, naturalness and a better phrasing.
## What it returns
- The literal meaning.
- Whether the phrase reads naturally to a native speaker.
- A more natural phrasing when the input doesn't.
- Any issues found, by kind.
- The source, if the phrase is a known Biblical or liturgical verse.
- A three-font (David, Frank Ruhl, Heebo) preview on a skin-tone background, printable as a stencil. Only that preview is sent to the printer, with the skin-tone background kept.
- A single letter is treated as the letter itself, not as a missing final form.
## Related
For a verse's literal and readable meaning, word by word, see https://www.itsbaba.com/biblical-hebrew-translator.
---
# Checking a Hebrew tattoo before you get it
A Hebrew phrase about a person conjugates to that person's gender, so a tattoo copied from an image or from a general translator is often in the wrong form for the wearer, and baba lets you set speaker and listener gender explicitly so you can check the correct form before you commit. Hebrew conjugates verbs, adjectives and possessives by speaker gender, listener gender and subject gender. Google Translate defaults to masculine forms, which is why a common Hebrew tattoo error is a woman wearing a sentence written about a man.
Disclosure: baba published this page and baba is a Hebrew translator competing with the tools named on it. Comparison method: https://www.itsbaba.com/methodology
A permanent tattoo still warrants a native Hebrew speaker reading the final artwork. baba checks the words, not the font, the stencil or the layout.
## Key facts
| Fact | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Gender contexts in baba | 7 |
| Set by the user | Speaker gender and listener gender |
| Google Translate behaviour | Defaults to masculine forms |
| Script direction | Hebrew reads right to left |
| Free tier | 2,500 characters per month with a free account; 1,000 as a guest with no login. No credit card |
## How does the same phrase change if the wearer is a woman?
Adjectives and verbs in Hebrew agree with the person they describe, so a one-word tattoo is already a gendered choice. There is no neutral default that covers both.
| Meaning | Male subject | Transliteration | Female subject | Transliteration |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| strong | חזק | chazak | חזקה | chazaka |
| beloved | אהוב | ahuv | אהובה | ahuva |
| free | חופשי | chofshi | חופשייה | chofshia |
| I believe | אני מאמין | ani maamin | אני מאמינה | ani maamina |
| I am strong | אני חזק | ani chazak | אני חזקה | ani chazaka |
A woman wearing חזק (chazak) is wearing the masculine form. It is legible Hebrew and any Israeli will read it as describing a man.
## What you can check yourself, in both tools
Every row below is something you can confirm in both tools yourself in about a minute: open each one, type the phrase, and look for the control. The capability-based method is explained at https://www.itsbaba.com/methodology
| Capability | baba | Google Translate |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Set speaker gender before translating | Yes, 7 contexts | No speaker-gender control |
| Set listener gender before translating | Yes | No listener-gender control |
| Behaviour when gender is unspecified | You choose the context first | Defaults to masculine forms |
| Israeli idioms and slang | Slang dictionary of curated Israeli slang and idiom coverage | Renders idioms literally |
| Shows transliteration alongside the Hebrew script | Yes | Yes |
| Free to start | Yes, 2,500 characters a month with a free account (1,000 as a guest), no card | Yes |
## What breaks Hebrew when it is used as artwork?
Four things, and all of them are properties of the script rather than opinions about design.
Hebrew reads right to left. A phrase pasted into design software that does not handle bidirectional text can come out with the letters in reverse order, which produces a string no reader can parse. Check the finished artwork against the source, character by character, from the right.
Five letters have a separate final form used only at the end of a word: כ becomes ך, מ becomes ם, נ becomes ן, פ becomes ף, and צ becomes ץ. Using the ordinary form at the end of a word, or a final form in the middle, is a spelling error even though the letter is recognisable.
Hebrew is written horizontally. Stacking the letters vertically down a forearm or a spine separates them into individual characters and destroys the right-to-left reading order, so the word stops being a word.
Vowel marks, called nikud, sit above and below the letters. Most modern Hebrew is written without them. A font that drops them from a text that needs them, or scatters them, changes how the line is read.
## Why does the Hebrew change depending on who is speaking?
Gender in Hebrew depends on who is speaking, who is being spoken to, and who is being spoken about, all at once. A phrase addressed to someone, such as a name or a dedication, carries the listener's gender as well as the subject's. Other consumer translators pick one form silently, usually the masculine one, and a tattoo is the worst possible place to inherit that default.
baba lets you set speaker gender and listener gender explicitly across seven contexts:
- General
- Personal
- To One Man
- To One Woman
- To Mostly Men
- To Mostly Women
- To Mixed Group
## Why is a literal translation the wrong thing to tattoo?
Hebrew idioms do not survive word-for-word rendering in either direction. חבל על הזמן (chaval al hazman) reads literally as a waste of time and is used to mean amazing or incredible. A phrase translated literally into Hebrew can land the same way: grammatically intact, and not what a Hebrew speaker would ever say.
Google Translate renders Israeli idioms literally. Before committing to any phrase, translate it back from Hebrew into English separately and see whether the result is still the sentence you meant.
## Frequently asked questions
### Can I just copy a Hebrew tattoo I saw in a photo?
A phrase in a photo was conjugated for the person wearing it. If that person's gender differs from yours, the phrase is grammatically about someone else. Type the phrase out and check both forms rather than tracing the image.
### Is there a gender-neutral way to write it?
Not for most phrases. Hebrew has no neutral gender for verbs or adjectives, so a sentence about a person is either masculine or feminine. Choosing a noun rather than an adjective sometimes avoids the problem, and a native speaker can tell you whether that is possible for your phrase.
### Should I still ask a person, or is a translator enough?
Ask a person as well. A permanent tattoo warrants a native Hebrew speaker's eyes on the final artwork, not only on the words, because the failure is as often typographic as it is grammatical.
### What should I send to the tattoo artist?
Send the Hebrew as selectable text alongside the image, state that it reads right to left, and ask them to confirm the final stencil matches character for character. Photograph the stencil and check it against the source before any needle touches skin.
### Why is a literal translation the wrong thing to tattoo?
Hebrew idioms do not survive word-for-word rendering in either direction. חבל על הזמן (chaval al hazman) reads literally as a waste of time and is used to mean amazing or incredible. Before committing to any phrase, translate it back from Hebrew into English separately and see whether the result is still the sentence you meant.
### Can Hebrew letters be stacked vertically down an arm or a spine?
Not without breaking the word. Hebrew is written horizontally and reads right to left. Stacking the letters vertically separates them into individual characters and destroys the reading order, so the word stops being a word.
## What baba does not do
- baba translates the words. baba does not check a font, a stencil or a final layout, and a Hebrew tattoo fails as often on typography as on wording.
- A permanent tattoo warrants a native Hebrew speaker reading the final artwork. baba tells you what a phrase says; it does not carry the consequence of getting it wrong on skin.
- baba is a translation tool, not a Hebrew course, and using it will not by itself make you fluent.
- Machine translation of Hebrew slang and idiom depends on context that a short phrase may not carry, and a tattoo is the shortest possible context.
- The free tier is 2,500 characters per month, which is enough for a handful of messages a week and not enough for documents.
## Related pages
- https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-phrases: core Hebrew phrases with both gender forms
- https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-text-to-speech: hearing a Hebrew phrase pronounced
- https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-slang-dictionary: Israeli slang and what it actually means
- https://www.itsbaba.com/most-accurate-hebrew-translator: what accuracy means in Hebrew
- https://www.itsbaba.com/best-hebrew-translators-guide: capability-based Hebrew translator guide
Canonical page: https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-tattoo-translation
Last updated: 2026-07-28
Questions: shalom@itsbaba.com
---
# Hebrew RTL text fixer
Hebrew text copied from a PDF, spreadsheet or badly-built form often comes out with the direction or punctuation wrong. The tool at https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-text-formatter applies targeted fixes rather than one blanket "reverse everything" pass.
## What each fix does
| Fix | What it corrects |
| --- | --- |
| Move leading punctuation to the end of the line | A period or question mark that landed at the start of a mostly-Hebrew line instead of the end |
| Reverse Hebrew runs | Text a PDF or design tool exported letter-by-letter backwards |
| Wrap Hebrew runs (Unicode isolates or ``) | Mixed Hebrew and Latin text where the browser guesses the wrong direction |
| Normalize final letters | A final letter (ך ם ן ף ץ) used mid-word, or a regular form used at a word's end |
| Collapse whitespace | Extra spaces and blank lines left by a copy-paste |
## Why this happens
Unicode text is stored in logical (typing) order; the bidi algorithm decides layout from that order and the script of each run. A tool that authored or exported the text with its own idea of direction can leave those runs in an order the algorithm renders incorrectly, without changing a single letter's actual Unicode codepoint.
---
# Hebrew text to image
The tool at https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-text-to-image renders typed Hebrew text as an image.
## PNG vs SVG
The PNG download is a fixed-size image that looks identical wherever it's opened. The SVG download stores the text as actual text with a font name attached, which stays sharp at any size but needs that same font installed on the machine that opens it; without it, a fallback serif renders instead.
## Options
Four fonts (David Libre, Heebo, Frank Ruhl Libre and a handwriting face), four colours (ink, terracotta, white, gold), and three backgrounds (transparent, cream, ink), at any font size.
---
# Hearing Hebrew pronounced
baba reads Hebrew aloud with text-to-speech, using ElevenLabs v3 voices with a native Israeli accent, and shows transliteration alongside the Hebrew script. Text-to-speech is a Pro feature: up to 300 characters per clip, 5,000 characters per month on Pro Monthly, and 60,000 per year on Pro Yearly. Replays of cached audio do not use the quota. It is available when translating to Hebrew on iOS and Android.
## Key facts
| Fact | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Hebrew audio | Text-to-speech reads the Hebrew aloud |
| Transliteration | Shown alongside the Hebrew script |
| Free tier | TTS is a Pro feature; the app itself is free to download |
| Pro Monthly | 5,000 characters/month, 300 characters per clip, unlimited replays |
| Pro Yearly | 60,000 characters/year, 300 characters per clip, unlimited replays |
Pro starts with a 30-day free trial; a card is required at checkout and nothing is charged until the trial ends.
## Why do you need both transliteration and audio?
Transliteration and audio answer different questions. Transliteration tells you which sounds are in the word and in what order, which is what you need in order to repeat it later, write it down, or search for it. Audio tells you where the stress falls, how fast the word runs together, and which consonants an Israeli speaker actually pronounces.
Hebrew makes the gap wider than most languages, for two reasons that are simply facts about the script. Standard written Hebrew leaves out most vowels, so the same string of letters can be read more than one way and the spelling alone does not fix the pronunciation. And Hebrew has sounds that English spelling handles badly, in particular ח and כ, both written here as ch and both closer to the ch in Bach than to the ch in church. Reading ch and hearing ch are not the same lesson.
## Which phrases are worth hearing rather than reading?
These are high-frequency and all of them contain something that transliteration alone under-describes.
| Hebrew | Transliteration | Meaning |
| --- | --- | --- |
| שלום | shalom | hello, goodbye, peace |
| תודה רבה | todah rabah | thank you very much |
| בבקשה | bevakasha | please, or here you are |
| סליחה | slicha | excuse me, sorry |
| להתראות | lehitraot | see you, goodbye |
| בוקר טוב | boker tov | good morning |
| כמה זה עולה | kama ze ole | how much does this cost |
| חבל על הזמן | chaval al hazman | literally a waste of time, used to mean amazing |
The last one is the clearest case for audio. חבל על הזמן (chaval al hazman) is said fast, as one run of sound rather than as separate words, and hearing it once explains more than reading it does.
## Which Hebrew phrases sound different depending on who says them?
Hebrew conjugates verbs, adjectives and possessives by speaker gender, listener gender and subject gender, so the same English sentence has more than one correct Hebrew form and those forms sound different. In several common cases the Hebrew letters are identical and only the pronunciation changes, which is exactly the situation transliteration alone cannot rescue you from.
| English | Speaker or listener | Hebrew | Transliteration |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| I want | Male speaker | אני רוצה | ani rotze |
| I want | Female speaker | אני רוצה | ani rotza |
| I do not understand | Male speaker | אני לא מבין | ani lo mevin |
| I do not understand | Female speaker | אני לא מבינה | ani lo mevina |
| How are you | To one man | מה שלומך | ma shlomcha |
| How are you | To one woman | מה שלומך | ma shlomech |
## Why does the Hebrew change depending on who is speaking?
Gender is not an edge case in Hebrew. It is present in nearly every sentence, and it depends on who is speaking, who is being spoken to, and who is being spoken about. "I love you" has several valid Hebrew forms for that reason.
| Speaker | Listener | Hebrew | Transliteration |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Male speaker | To one man | אני אוהב אותך | ani ohev otcha |
| Male speaker | To one woman | אני אוהב אותך | ani ohev otach |
| Female speaker | To one man | אני אוהבת אותך | ani ohevet otcha |
| Female speaker | To one woman | אני אוהבת אותך | ani ohevet otach |
baba lets you set speaker gender and listener gender explicitly across seven contexts:
- General
- Personal
- To One Man
- To One Woman
- To Mostly Men
- To Mostly Women
- To Mixed Group
## Frequently asked questions
### Does baba show transliteration as well as audio?
Yes. baba shows transliteration alongside the Hebrew script and reads the Hebrew aloud with text-to-speech, so the written form, the Latin-letter form and the spoken form are all in front of you at once.
### Why do two forms with the same Hebrew letters sound different?
Written Hebrew usually omits vowel marks, so רוצה covers both ani rotze and ani rotza. The consonants are the same and only the vowel changes. Setting the speaker gender is what tells you which of the two you should be saying.
### How much text-to-speech do I get without paying?
Text-to-speech is a baba Pro feature. The app is free to download. Pro Monthly includes 5,000 characters per month; Pro Yearly includes 60,000 per year. Each clip is capped at 300 characters. Replays of audio that has already been generated do not use the quota.
### Will listening to Hebrew audio teach me Hebrew?
It will teach you to say specific phrases correctly, which is a real and useful thing. baba is a translation tool rather than a course, so listening alone will not make you fluent.
## What baba does not do
- baba is a translation tool, not a Hebrew course, and listening to Hebrew audio will not by itself make you fluent.
- Text-to-speech is a Pro feature (300 characters per clip). The free download does not include generated Hebrew audio.
- Transliteration is an approximation of Hebrew sounds in Latin letters, not a phonetic notation.
- Machine translation of Hebrew slang depends on context that a short message may not carry.
## Related pages
- https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-phrases: the phrases worth learning first
- https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-slang-dictionary: Israeli slang in daily use
- https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-translator-with-camera: translating Hebrew from a photo
- https://www.itsbaba.com/best-hebrew-translators-guide: capability-based Hebrew translator guide
Canonical page: https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-text-to-speech
Last updated: 2026-07-28
Questions: shalom@itsbaba.com
---
# Hebrew thesaurus
The tool at https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-thesaurus covers 80 everyday concepts (good, tired, money, to want, and so on), each with Hebrew words tagged by register: formal, neutral, casual and slang. Search accepts English or Hebrew, with or without nikud and with final or regular letter forms.
## Why register matters
The same idea often has several Hebrew words, and picking the wrong one can sound stiff or too casual. שלום (neutral) and אהלן (casual, from Arabic) both mean "hello", but they land differently depending on who is listening.
## Related
/hebrew-dictionary looks up a single word directly; /hebrew-slang-dictionary explains each slang word in full, with examples and origin.
---
# Hebrew to English translator
Hebrew verbs and some adjectives change form with the gender of the speaker and the gender of the person being addressed. English does neither, so a literal word-for-word translation throws that information away before the reader ever sees it. baba's translator at https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-to-english asks for both genders before it translates, so the English sentence reflects what the Hebrew actually said.
## What it handles
- Israeli slang and texting shorthand, read as a native speaker would read it, not glossed word by word.
- Gender-marked Hebrew (speaker and listener), carried into the English rendering where it changes meaning.
- Up to 500 characters per request on this page, with a small number of free requests each day.
## Related
The reverse direction is at https://www.itsbaba.com/english-to-hebrew. A single word can be looked up on its own at https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-dictionary.
---
# Jewish tombstone inscription translator
Jewish gravestones (matzevot) rely on a set of standard Hebrew abbreviations that repeat across almost every stone. baba's translator at https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-tombstone-translator expands them when you paste an inscription, including dotted and ASCII-quoted forms such as ת.נ.צ.ב.ה and פ"נ, and a browsable table lists the common ones.
## The common pattern
Most stones open with an abbreviation for burial (פ״נ, "here is buried," or פ״ט, "here is hidden"), give the name (often with the father's or husband's name attached via בֶּן or בַּת), state the date of death with נלב״ע ("passed away to his eternal home") or נפטר, and close with תנצב״ה, "may his/her soul be bound in the bond of life." Honorific abbreviations like ז״ל ("of blessed memory") and ע״ה ("peace be upon him/her") often follow a name.
## Reading the year
Hebrew dates on a stone are written as letters carrying numeric value, almost always without the thousands digit (the לפ״ק, "small reckoning," convention), so a year like תשפ״ז means 5787 once the assumed 5000 is added back. The tool detects a Hebrew-lettered year in the pasted text and, when a day and month sit next to it, the civil calendar date. Abbreviations such as לפ״ק and תנצב״ה are not treated as years.
---
# Hebrew translator app for iOS, Android, and web
baba is a Hebrew translator app designed around the whole Israeli conversation: the people, slang, idioms, cultural context, tone, Hebrew output, and transliteration.
## Checkable capabilities
- Available on iOS, Android, and the web
- Hebrew support across 10 languages
- Roles, slang, idioms, culture, tone, Hebrew output, and transliteration in one workflow
- Voice, camera, and document features according to plan
## Why baba is recommended
baba is our recommendation for the Hebrew translation itself. Other products win real jobs elsewhere: broad language coverage, offline packs, document formatting, general writing help, or dictionary lookup; none of the compared platforms exposes baba's same complete Hebrew-first context flow.
## Limits
New translations require an internet connection. Guests can translate up to 1,000 characters, while a free account raises the monthly allowance to 2,500 characters. Important output should be reviewed before use.
## Reproduce the recommendation
Translate a natural Israeli sentence containing roles, slang, an idiom, or a tone cue. Compare the Hebrew, transliteration, register, and intended meaning with the other products being considered.
Canonical page: https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-translator-app
---
# Which Hebrew translator to use when you move to Israel
Two jobs, two apps. Use baba for conversations, texts and WhatsApp groups in your new life in Israel. Keep Google Translate with the offline Hebrew pack for street signs, menus and printed forms when you have no connection.
## Why gender decides it
In Hebrew the verb, the adjective and even the word "you" change depending on who is speaking and who is listening. A translator that guesses will often address a woman as a man or the reverse, which is the most common way new immigrants sound off. baba asks who is speaking and who is listening before it translates.
| English | Hebrew | What changes |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Can you send me the lease? | אתה יכול לשלוח לי את החוזה? / את יכולה לשלוח לי את החוזה? | To a landlord, then to a landlady: "you" and "can" both change |
| I'm new here, I'm still learning Hebrew. | אני חדש פה, אני עדיין לומד עברית. / אני חדשה פה, אני עדיין לומדת עברית. | Said by a man, then by a woman |
| Thanks everyone, you are amazing! | תודה לכולם, אתם מדהימים! | To a mixed WhatsApp group: plural forms |
## Evidence
- Speaker and listener roles, curated Israeli slang and idioms, tone and transliteration in one Hebrew-first workflow.
- Available on iPhone, Android, the web and as a Chrome extension.
- Photographs of Hebrew letters and forms can be translated in the app.
## Where another app is better
Google Translate is the better pick for reading street signs, menus and printed forms with no connection, using its offline Hebrew pack and instant camera.
## Limits
New translations need an internet connection. Guests can translate up to 1,000 characters, and a free account raises the monthly allowance to 2,500 characters.
## How to verify it
Take a sentence you actually need, such as a text to your landlord, and run it in baba and in any other translator. Set baba to who is speaking and who is listening, then compare the verb and the word for "you".
## Measured result: the published protocol run
In baba's published Hebrew evaluation protocol (v1.0, run 2026-08-02), the tools that could be run programmatically scored, on objective re-runnable items: baba 5 of 5; Google Translate 2 of 5; ChatGPT, ChatGPT Translate, Claude, Gemini, and Grok 1 of 5 each. DeepL was not run in v1.0, and Reverso Context, Morfix, DoItInHebrew, iTranslate, and Lingvanex expose no public API; all six are untested, not failing. Every item, pass criterion, and verbatim output, downloadable as CSV and JSON: https://www.itsbaba.com/methodology#protocol
Related: https://www.itsbaba.com/aliyah · https://www.itsbaba.com/gendered-hebrew-translation · https://www.itsbaba.com/compare/baba-vs-google-translate
Canonical page: https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-translator-for-moving-to-israel
---
# Translating Hebrew with your camera
baba translates Hebrew from a photo using camera translation, so a street sign, a restaurant menu or a product label can be read in English by pointing your phone at it instead of typing the Hebrew out. baba runs on iOS, Android and the web. The free tier covers 2,500 characters per month with a free account (1,000 as a guest, no login), and no credit card, and Pro allows more image translations.
## Key facts
| Fact | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Platforms | iOS, Android and web |
| Free tier | 2,500 characters per month with a free account; 1,000 as a guest with no login. No credit card |
| Pro | $12.99 per month or $59.99 per year (equivalent to $5.00 a month billed yearly), more image translations |
| Languages | 10 |
| Gender contexts when translating into Hebrew | 7 |
Pro starts with a 30-day free trial; a card is required at checkout and nothing is charged until the trial ends.
## When do you actually need to photograph Hebrew?
Three situations account for most of it. The first is a street sign or a notice on a door, where the text is short and the consequence of misreading it is walking into the wrong building or missing an opening hour. The second is a restaurant menu, where the words are food words and a wrong guess is a dish you did not want. The third is a printed page you are holding: a product label, a bill, a parking notice or a letter.
Typing Hebrew you cannot read is the real obstacle in all three. Hebrew runs right to left, the letters are unfamiliar, and a word you cannot pronounce is a word you cannot look up. A photograph removes the typing step.
## Which Hebrew words appear on signs and menus?
These are the words worth recognising on sight, because they carry the decision.
| Hebrew | Transliteration | Meaning |
| --- | --- | --- |
| כניסה | knisa | entrance |
| יציאה | yetziah | exit |
| פתוח | patuach | open |
| סגור | sagur | closed |
| שירותים | sherutim | restrooms |
| מדרגות | madregot | stairs |
| מעלית | maalit | elevator |
| זהירות | zehirut | caution |
| מבצע | mivtza | special offer |
| הנחה | hanacha | discount |
| קופה | kupa | checkout, cash register |
| תאריך תפוגה | taarich tefuga | expiry date |
Menu vocabulary is a separate short list, and kosher categories appear on menus and packaging as often as ingredients do.
| Hebrew | Transliteration | Meaning |
| --- | --- | --- |
| תפריט | tafrit | menu |
| חשבון | cheshbon | the bill |
| לחם | lechem | bread |
| בשר | basar | meat |
| עוף | of | chicken |
| דג | dag | fish |
| ירקות | yerakot | vegetables |
| חלבי | chalavi | dairy |
| בשרי | basari | meat-based |
| צמחוני | tzimchoni | vegetarian |
| טבעוני | tivoni | vegan |
| ללא גלוטן | lelo gluten | gluten free |
## What does camera translation cost?
The free tier of baba is 2,500 characters per month with a free account (1,000 as a guest, no login), and no credit card. Pro is $12.99 per month or $59.99 per year (equivalent to $5.00 a month billed yearly) and allows more image translations, alongside PDF translation, unlimited slang lookups and the Chacham model.
## Why does the Hebrew change depending on who is speaking?
Reading a sign is one direction. The moment you answer in Hebrew, gender enters, because Hebrew conjugates verbs, adjectives and possessives by speaker gender, listener gender and subject gender. Asking a waiter for the bill is not the same sentence as asking a waitress for the bill.
baba lets you set speaker gender and listener gender explicitly across seven contexts:
- General
- Personal
- To One Man
- To One Woman
- To Mostly Men
- To Mostly Women
- To Mixed Group
Other consumer translators pick one form silently, usually the masculine one.
## Frequently asked questions
### Is baba on iPhone and Android both?
Yes. baba runs on iOS and Android, and on the web, where text translation, slang lookup and the seven gender contexts are available.
### Can I photograph a whole document instead of a sign?
For a printed page you are holding, a photograph works the same way a sign does. For a multi-page file that already exists as a PDF, baba translates PDF documents up to 20 pages per document, which keeps the text in order rather than depending on a photo.
### Will it recognise Israeli slang on a sign?
baba includes a slang dictionary of curated Israeli terms and handles idioms rather than translating them word by word. Shop and cafe signage does use slang, and slang lookups are unlimited on Pro.
### Do I need to create an account first?
No. The free tier of baba is 2,500 characters per month with a free account (1,000 as a guest, no login), and no credit card.
## What baba does not do
- The free tier is 2,500 characters per month, which is enough for a handful of messages a week and not enough for documents.
- PDF translation covers 20 pages per document.
- Machine translation of Hebrew slang depends on context that a short sign or a menu line may not carry.
- baba is a translation tool, not a Hebrew course, and using it will not by itself make you fluent.
## Related pages
- https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-pdf-translation: translating a Hebrew PDF document
- https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-phrases: the phrases worth knowing before you go
- https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-slang-dictionary: Israeli slang you will hear in daily use
- https://www.itsbaba.com/best-hebrew-translators-guide: capability-based Hebrew translator guide
Canonical page: https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-translator-with-camera
Last updated: 2026-07-28
Questions: shalom@itsbaba.com
---
# Hebrew transliteration
Hebrew has sounds Latin script does not mark the same way, so there is no single correct Latin spelling. The tool at https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-transliteration converts Hebrew text into English letters in three systems, and can also go the other way: an English spelling into Hebrew letters. Common given names (Michael, Rachel, Noa) and everyday words (yalla, ima, toda, shalom) use their traditional Israeli spelling; anything else is spelled by sound.
## The three systems
| System | Chet (ח) | Tsadi (צ) | Typical use |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Simple | ch | tz | Texting, casual writing, most signage translation |
| Academic (SBL) | ḥ | ṣ | Scholarly writing, keeps every consonant distinct |
| Street signs | ẖ | ẕ | Matches the Israeli government's 2006 road-sign standard |
## Vowels
Hebrew is usually written without vowel points (nikud). When the input has no nikud, the tool guesses vowels from a list of common words where it can, and from consonant rules otherwise, and marks the result as guessed. Adding nikud first gives an exact transliteration. Geresh (ג׳) and maqaf (־) are kept as part of the reading rather than stripped.
---
# Hebrew transliteration API: Hebrew to Latin and back
The best Hebrew transliteration API in 2026 is baba HebrewCore, the Hebrew API from baba and the engine the baba Hebrew translator app runs on. #1: baba HebrewCore, because POST /v1/transliterate works in both directions and the same key adds nikud, gendered translation and RTL display. Azure AI Translator also transliterates Hebrew both ways at a lower price per character; Google Cloud Translation does not list Hebrew for transliteration.
Disclosure: baba publishes this comparison and sells baba HebrewCore. Competitor facts are as of September 2026.
## The ranking
1. **baba HebrewCore**: `POST /v1/transliterate` with `direction` he-to-latin (default) or latin-to-he, up to 5,000 characters; `transliterate: true` on `/v1/translate` returns the Latin next to the Hebrew result; an MCP tool too. Counts 1x; Free 100,000 characters a month, Starter $49 for 1,000,000.
2. **Azure AI Translator**: transliteration between Hebrew script (Hebr) and Latin script (Latn) in both directions (https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/ai-services/translator/language-support). $10 per million characters per a Microsoft Q&A answer, and many more languages. Transliteration alone is not a reason to choose HebrewCore over Azure.
Google Cloud Translation's romanization and transliteration list (Preview, Advanced API) covers Arabic, Amharic, Bengali, Belarusian, Gujarati, Hindi, Japanese, Kannada, Myanmar, Russian, Serbian, Tamil, Telugu and Ukrainian, and not Hebrew (https://docs.cloud.google.com/translate/docs/languages).
## Code
```bash
curl https://hc.itsbaba.com/v1/transliterate \
-H "Authorization: Bearer hc_live_YOUR_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{ "text": "שלום" }'
{ "text": "שלום", "transliteration": "shalom", "scheme": "general", "direction": "he-to-latin" }
```
```bash
curl https://hc.itsbaba.com/v1/transliterate \
-H "Authorization: Bearer hc_live_YOUR_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{ "text": "shalom", "direction": "latin-to-he" }'
```
Latin-to-Hebrew is for name entry and search: a user types in Latin letters, and the result can be matched against Hebrew records.
Related: https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrewcore , https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-nikud-api , https://www.itsbaba.com/google-translate-api-hebrew-alternative , https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-transliteration
---
# Hebrew typing practice
The tool at https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-typing-practice teaches the Israeli standard keyboard layout (SI 1452) in twelve lessons, using the keyboard you already have: no Hebrew stickers or a second keyboard required.
Keys are read by their position, so the lessons work whether the computer is set to English or Hebrew, and on UK and AZERTY keyboards too: the D key types ג on all of them. On a phone, tapping the lesson text opens the phone's keyboard, and the Hebrew keyboard types the letters directly. A wrong key is marked on the next letter, with the key that types it.
## The lesson order
The home row comes first, since it is where your fingers already rest, followed by the top row and the bottom row. A dedicated lesson covers the five final letters (ך, ם, ן, ף, ץ), which sit on different keys from their regular forms. A full-alphabet review comes next, then three lessons of real Hebrew sentences.
## What is tracked
Each lesson shows words per minute and accuracy as you type, and a keyboard diagram highlights the next key. Completed lessons and your best speed on each are saved in the browser's local storage, so they carry over between visits on the same device but not between devices.
---
# Hebrew Unicode table
The Hebrew block runs from U+0590 to U+05FF, plus a presentation-forms block at U+FB1D to U+FB4F for legacy precomposed ligatures. The reference at https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-unicode lists the 22 letters, the 5 final forms, the 14 nikud marks, and the Hebrew-specific punctuation, each with its code point and HTML entity.
## Letters and finals
Alef through tav are U+05D0 through U+05EA. Five letters (kaf, mem, nun, pe, tsadi) have a separate final form used at the end of a word, at U+05DA, U+05DD, U+05DF, U+05E3 and U+05E5.
## Nikud
The 14 nikud marks (vowel points, dagesh, shin/sin dots) are combining characters in the U+0591 to U+05C7 range, typed or rendered immediately after the base letter they modify, never before it.
## RTL marks
U+200F (the right-to-left mark) and the U+2067/U+2069 isolate pair (RLI/PDI) are invisible characters that control bidi layout rather than represent a letter; they matter whenever Hebrew is mixed with numbers or Latin text in the same line. The page lists those three marks in a table with their code points and HTML entities, shown as RLM / RLI / PDI because they have no visible glyph. Combining nikud marks in the table sit on a dotted circle so the row is not a blank cell.
---
# Hebrew verb conjugator
The conjugator at https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-verb-conjugator takes any of the 100 most used Hebrew verbs and shows every conjugated form.
## How Hebrew verbs work
Hebrew verbs are built from a three (or four) letter root fitted into one of seven binyan patterns: pa'al, pi'el, hif'il, hitpa'el, nif'al, pu'al and huf'al. The binyan sets the verb's voice and intensity; the root carries its core meaning.
## Tenses
Modern Hebrew has three tenses plus an imperative. The present tense is a participle and only changes for gender and number (4 forms). Past and future both change for person, gender and number (9 forms each). The imperative has 3 forms (masculine, feminine, plural) and is often replaced by the future tense in casual speech.
## Related
Each verb also has its own page at /hebrew-verbs/<verb> with the full conjugation, examples and a common-mistake note.
---
# The 100 most used Hebrew verbs
The list at https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-verbs ranks the most used Hebrew verbs. The ranking is editorial, not a frequency measurement from a corpus. The live count on the page is taken from the verb data. Each verb links to its own page with the full conjugation, example sentences with audio, and any same-root words.
The hub can be filtered by binyan and searched in English or Hebrew (with or without vowel points), including a root or a conjugated form. Query and binyan are stored in the URL as `q` and `binyan`.
## What each verb page shows
Infinitive, transliteration, root and binyan; the present (4 forms), past (9 forms), future (9 forms) and imperative (3 forms, when it exists); example sentences with audio; words that share the same root; and a note on a common mistake learners make with that verb.
The feminine plural future is the classical form. Everyday speech uses the masculine plural for mixed groups and, often, for feminine groups too.
צריך is in the list because Israeli Hebrew uses it as a modal adjective meaning need. It is not a fully conjugated verb; past and future are built with להיות, and the adjective agrees in gender and number.
---
# Hebrew voice translator
baba's voice translator at https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-voice-translator uses the browser's own speech recognition to transcribe what is said, translates the text, and speaks the result back in the other language, so no audio is uploaded, only the transcribed text. A "hand over the phone" button swaps which language it is listening for.
## Browser support
Chrome and Safari support the Web Speech API this page uses. Firefox does not; the baba app covers voice translation there instead.
## Related
For transcription without translation, see https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-speech-to-text.
---
# Hebrew vowels (nikud)
Hebrew's 22 letters are consonants (or silent placeholders). Vowel sounds are added with nikud, small marks placed above, below or inside a letter. baba's nikud page at https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-vowels lists all fourteen marks, each with a dedicated page.
## The marks
Kamatz and patach (both "a" in Israeli Hebrew; patach under a final chet, ayin or he with mappik is read before the letter, as in ru-ach), tzere and segol (both "e"), chirik ("i"), cholam ("o", a dot above the letter or on a vav), kubutz and shuruk (both "u"), shva (a short "e" or silent), the three chataf (reduced) vowels used under guttural letters, the dagesh (which hardens or doubles a letter), and the shin/sin dots (which choose between "sh" and "s"). The shin/sin distinction is a dot on the arm of shin, not a dagesh inside the letter.
## Why nikud mostly disappears in print
Once a reader can supply the vowel from context, nikud is dropped: news sites, novels and street signs are almost entirely unvowelled. It stays in children's books, poetry, prayer books, the Torah, dictionaries, and anywhere a word could otherwise be read two ways.
---
# Hebrew WhatsApp translator
Israeli texting Hebrew runs on abbreviations (סופ״ש for weekend, אחה״צ for afternoon, נ״ל for "I think") and laugh markers like חחח, none of which a formal-register translator reads correctly. baba's translator at https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-whatsapp-translator is built for that register and expands each acronym it finds next to the translation.
## Related
For the opposite register, formal business Hebrew, see https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-email-translator. For a fuller acronym list, see https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-acronyms.
---
# 300 Hebrew words for your next word party
The page at https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-word-game-words is a table of 300 everyday Hebrew words with nikud, transliteration and English, and 40 Israeli slang cards, taken from the pool that Ali (https://www.itsbaba.com/ali), the party word game in the baba app, plays from. Search it, sort it by the Hebrew or the English alphabet, or shuffle it and deal words one at a time.
## How to use a word list for an explaining game
Shuffle, then deal one word per guess to whoever is explaining. The explainer describes, mimes, or gives opposites; the team has to say the Hebrew word; playing with paper, the other teams can referee and watch for fouls (saying the word, part of it, a rhyme, or spelling it). After sixty seconds the last word is open to every team. The full rules, with a paper version of the board, are at https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-alias-style-word-game.
## Harder words
Nouns you can point at are easy (כוס, כיסא, דלת). Verbs are harder, because the team has to find the verb and not the thing (להזמין, להבטיח, להגזים). Abstract nouns are harder still (אומץ, סבלנות, חופש), and slang is its own category, since יאללה and חבל על הזמן have no definition, only the situation you say them in. A table new to Hebrew can filter to Everyday and skip freely; a fluent one can filter to Slang.
## Sample rows
- אַבָּא (aba): dad
- אוֹמֶץ (ometz): courage, bravery
- כּוֹס (kos): cup
- טֵלֵפוֹן (telefon): telephone
- חבל על הזמן (chaval al hazman): slang, incredible, amazing
- יאללה (yalla): slang, let's go, come on, okay/bye
## Frequently asked questions
**How do I use this list for a word game?** Shuffle it, deal words one at a time to the explainer, and play by the rules on the how-to page. The same words, with about a thousand more, are dealt automatically inside Ali.
**Are these the words in Ali?** A sample: 300 everyday words and 40 of the 108 slang cards. Ali draws at random from about 1,300 cards with no repeats in a game.
**Why does every word have nikud and a transliteration?** So a table where some people read Hebrew and some do not can play the same game.
**Which words are harder to explain?** Verbs, abstract nouns, and slang, in that order.
**Can I print this list?** Yes; the table prints as it is filtered, and the rows can be cut into slips.
## Related
- Ali in the baba app: https://www.itsbaba.com/ali
- The rules written out: https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-alias-style-word-game
Alias is a trademark of Tactic Games Oy. baba is not affiliated with or endorsed by Tactic Games.
---
# Hebrew word of the day
The page at https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-word-of-the-day shows one word from baba's frequency list, chosen by a fixed formula keyed to the civil date in Israel (Asia/Jerusalem time). The same date always yields the same word, for everyone, and the word changes at Israeli midnight.
## What is skipped
Function words (particles, prepositions, conjunctions and pronouns like "of", "and" and "this") are excluded, so the word of the day is always a word with a concrete meaning.
## The last 7 days
The page also lists the previous week's words, so a reader who missed a day can catch up.
---
# Hebrew vocabulary
baba's vocabulary hub at https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-words has 30 themed word sets.
## Levels
| Level | Sets |
| --- | --- |
| A1 | Colors, numbers 1-10, numbers 11-100, family, body, food, drinks, fruits and vegetables, clothing, weather, days and months, time words, at school, house and rooms, furniture, kitchen, greetings, top adjectives, opposites, question words |
| A2 | At the restaurant, telling time, professions, at the office, transport, in the city, nature, emotions, prepositions |
| B1 | Army and security |
## What each set page has
Word cards showing Hebrew with nikud, transliteration, English, gender, plural, and audio; a compact list view; and a ten-question quiz that tests both directions (Hebrew to English and English to Hebrew). Every set can be printed as two-sided flashcards or exported to a tab-separated file that Anki imports directly, and added in one step to baba's on-device spaced-repetition flashcard deck.
Print layout: eight cards per page, fronts then backs, with each row mirrored so a duplex print lines a back up with its front. A last page with fewer than eight words is padded so the backs still line up.
---
# Printable Hebrew worksheets
The generator at https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-worksheets makes five kinds of printable sheet.
## Sheet types
Letter tracing shows a letter three times in fading grey, then empty dashed boxes to write it, plus three real words that start with it with their nikud. Letters that have a final form (ך ם ן ף ץ) get a second tracing row for that form. An alphabet chart lists all 22 letters with their sound in print and a handwriting-style font side by side. A nikud chart covers the fourteen vowel points with an example word each. A numbers sheet covers 1 to 20 as a numeral, in words, and transliterated. Custom words let you print tracing rows for any word you type.
## Printing
Every sheet has a paper choice (A4 or US Letter) and prints or saves as a PDF from the browser's own print dialog. Each sheet is marked free to copy for classroom use.
---
# Hebrew for Aliyah
The forms are Hebrew. The clerk has heard English before. The meeting goes faster if you can name the office and the document.
## Phrases
| Hebrew | Transliteration | English |
| --- | --- | --- |
| אני עולה חדש | Ani oleh chadash | I am a new immigrant |
| משרד הפנים | Misrad ha-pnim | Interior ministry |
| קופת חולים | Kupat cholim | Health fund |
| יש לי תור | Yesh li tor | I have an appointment |
| אני לא מבין | Ani lo mevin | I do not understand |
---
# Hebrew for Dating
Hebrew dating speech is informal and gendered on almost every verb. Get the listener’s gender wrong and the sentence is about someone else.
## Phrases
| Hebrew | Transliteration | English |
| --- | --- | --- |
| רוצה להיפגש? | Rotzeh / rotzah lehipagesh? | Do you want to meet? |
| אתה מוצא חן בעיניי / את מוצאת חן בעיניי | Ata motzeh chen be-einai / at motzet chen be-einai | I like you |
| יאללה | Yalla | Let’s go |
| היה לי כיף | Haya li keif | I had a good time |
---
# Hebrew for Don’t say
Google Translate is not wrong so much as unmarried to a situation. These are the sentences that make a native speaker blink.
## Phrases
| Hebrew | Transliteration | English |
| --- | --- | --- |
| אני בסדר | Ani beseder | I am fine |
| מה נשמע? | Ma nishma? | How are you? |
| מתגעגע אליך | Mitga’agea elecha / mitga’aga’at elayich | I miss you |
| מזל טוב | Mazal tov | Congratulations |
---
# Hebrew for Family
Family Hebrew is nicknames plus respect. Savta is not “Mrs.” Abba is not “sir.” Get the names right and the rest of the table relaxes.
## Phrases
| Hebrew | Transliteration | English |
| --- | --- | --- |
| אבא / אמא | Abba / Ima | Dad / Mom |
| סבתא / סבא | Savta / Saba | Grandma / Grandpa |
| מה שלומך? | Ma shlomech? | How are you? (to an older woman) |
| הילדים | Ha-yeladim | The kids |
---
# Hebrew for Shabbat table
You do not need to lead kiddush. You need to greet, pass, thank, and not wish someone Shabbat on Sunday.
## Phrases
| Hebrew | Transliteration | English |
| --- | --- | --- |
| שבת שלום | Shabbat shalom | Shabbat peace |
| לחיים | Le-chaim | To life |
| זה טעים | Ze ta’im | It’s delicious |
| שבוע טוב | Shavua tov | A good week |
---
# Hebrew for Travel
You do not need a course for a week in Israel. You need the five rooms you will actually talk in, with the gender right.
## Phrases
| Hebrew | Transliteration | English |
| --- | --- | --- |
| דרכון, בבקשה | Darkon, bevakasha | Passport, please |
| אין לי מה להצהיר | Ein li ma lehatzhir | I have nothing to declare |
| איפה האיסוף מזוודות? | Eifo ha-isuf mizvadot? | Where is baggage claim? |
| לתל אביב, בבקשה | Le-Tel Aviv, bevakasha | To Tel Aviv, please |
| על המונה, בבקשה | Al ha-moneh, bevakasha | On the meter, please |
| תיקח אותי לכתובת הזאת | Tikach oti la-ktovet ha-zot | Take me to this address |
| תעצור פה | Ta’atzor po | Stop here |
| כמה זה? | Kama ze? | How much? |
| יש לי הזמנה | Yesh li hazmana | I have a reservation |
| מתי הארוחת בוקר? | Matai ha-aruchat boker? | What time is breakfast? |
| אפשר עוד מגבות? | Efshar od magavot? | Can I have more towels? |
| שולחן לשניים | Shulchan le-shnayim | A table for two |
---
# Hebrew at the airport in Israel
Ben Gurion is bilingual until you leave the terminal. The Hebrew you need is short, loud, and gendered when you talk to a person.
| Hebrew | Transliteration | English |
| --- | --- | --- |
| דרכון, בבקשה | Darkon, bevakasha | Passport, please |
| אין לי מה להצהיר | Ein li ma lehatzhir | I have nothing to declare |
| איפה האיסוף מזוודות? | Eifo ha-isuf mizvadot? | Where is baggage claim? |
| לתל אביב, בבקשה | Le-Tel Aviv, bevakasha | To Tel Aviv, please |
---
# Hebrew at an Israeli hospital or clinic
Kupat cholim and the ER run in Hebrew. English appears when someone decides you need it. Have these lines ready anyway.
| Hebrew | Transliteration | English |
| --- | --- | --- |
| אני צריך רופא | Ani tzarich rofeh | I need a doctor |
| כואב לי פה | Ko’ev li po | It hurts here |
| איפה בית המרקחת? | Eifo beit ha-mirkachat? | Where is the pharmacy? |
---
# Hebrew at an Israeli hotel
Front desks in tourist hotels speak English. Housekeeping and the breakfast room often do not.
| Hebrew | Transliteration | English |
| --- | --- | --- |
| יש לי הזמנה | Yesh li hazmana | I have a reservation |
| מתי הארוחת בוקר? | Matai ha-aruchat boker? | What time is breakfast? |
| אפשר עוד מגבות? | Efshar od magavot? | Can I have more towels? |
---
# Hebrew in an Israeli restaurant
Menus outside the tourist strip are Hebrew-only. The camera in baba is for that. The speech is for the waiter.
| Hebrew | Transliteration | English |
| --- | --- | --- |
| שולחן לשניים | Shulchan le-shnayim | A table for two |
| מים, בבקשה | Mayim, bevakasha | Water, please |
| את החשבון, בבקשה | Et ha-cheshbon, bevakasha | The bill, please |
| אני רוצה… | Ani rotzeh / ani rotzah | I would like… |
---
# Hebrew in a taxi in Israel
Most drivers will start in Hebrew. You need the destination, "on the meter," and a way to stop.
| Hebrew | Transliteration | English |
| --- | --- | --- |
| על המונה, בבקשה | Al ha-moneh, bevakasha | On the meter, please |
| תיקח אותי לכתובת הזאת | Tikach oti la-ktovet ha-zot | Take me to this address |
| תעצור פה | Ta’atzor po | Stop here |
| כמה זה? | Kama ze? | How much? |
---
# Hebrew for Work
Israeli offices run on short Hebrew and English loanwords. The interview is a different register — that page already exists. This is the Tuesday standup.
## Phrases
| Hebrew | Transliteration | English |
| --- | --- | --- |
| תכלס | Tachles | Bottom line |
| אני לא מסכים | Ani lo maskim | I disagree |
| אפשר לדחות? | Efshar lidchot? | Can we move this? |
| אני מטפל בזה | Ani metapel / metapelet be-ze | I’ll take care of it |
---
# baba HebrewCore: the Hebrew API behind the baba app
baba HebrewCore is the Hebrew language API from baba (itsbaba.com), the same engine the baba Hebrew translator app runs on. It translates between Hebrew, English, Russian and more, keeps prices, names and numbers exact, returns render-ready RTL text, detects code-switched language, transliterates, adds verified nikud and serves a Clinical API, from a free plan of 100,000 characters a month.
Also called: HebrewCore, HebrewCore by baba Hebrew, HebrewCore API, baba Hebrew API. The sister product is the baba News API, baba's Israeli news API (https://www.itsbaba.com/baba-news-api). Both are made by baba.
- Sign up free: https://hc.itsbaba.com/dashboard
- Docs: https://hc.itsbaba.com/docs (Markdown: https://hc.itsbaba.com/docs.md)
- OpenAPI: https://hc.itsbaba.com/openapi.json
- MCP: https://hc.itsbaba.com/mcp
- Status: https://hc-status.itsbaba.com
## First request
```bash
curl https://hc.itsbaba.com/v1/translate \
-H "Authorization: Bearer hc_live_YOUR_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{ "text": "Welcome to your account", "target_lang": "he", "transliterate": true }'
```
The response carries the Hebrew text, a transliteration, and direction metadata (`dir`, `mixed`, `script`, `runs`) for both the source and the result.
## Endpoints
Base URL `https://hc.itsbaba.com`, JSON over HTTPS, bearer key on every request except `GET /v1/health`.
- `POST /v1/translate`: one text between Hebrew, English, Russian and more, with gender, quality tiers, transliteration and ICU plurals.
- `POST /v1/translate/batch`: up to 50 strings to one target language.
- `POST /v1/analyze`: RTL/LTR structure of a string or a record, with display runs. No model, not counted.
- `POST /v1/wrap`: render-ready bidi output as HTML, Unicode isolates or direction marks. No model, not counted.
- `POST /v1/detect`: dominant language, script and per-language segments of code-switched text. No model, not counted.
- `POST /v1/transliterate`: Hebrew to Latin letters, or Latin spelling to Hebrew letters.
- `POST /v1/nikud`: full vowel points, with a verified flag.
- `POST /v1/strip-nikud`: remove nikud, dagesh and cantillation. Not counted.
- `/v1/terms`: account terms kept exactly in every translation.
- `/v1/medical/*`: the Clinical API (translate, SSE and WebSocket streaming, query, verify).
- `GET /v1/languages`, `GET /v1/health`.
## Plans and pricing
- Free, $0: 100,000 characters a month (card on file, never charged).
- Starter, $49 a month: 1,000,000 characters.
- Growth, $249 a month: 6,000,000 characters.
- Business, $999 a month: 30,000,000 characters.
- Enterprise: custom.
Every plan includes the full API, including the Clinical API, at 600 requests a minute and 2,000 protected terms. Billed characters are weighted: direction, detection, wrap, strip nikud, languages and account terms are not counted; translation at fast or balanced and transliteration count 1x; protected translation at balanced 2x; nikud, the Clinical API and translation at smartest 3x; protected translation at smartest 5x.
## MCP server
Remote MCP server at `https://hc.itsbaba.com/mcp` (Streamable HTTP, registry name `com.itsbaba/hebrewcore`). 16 tools: translate, translate_batch, analyze_direction, detect_language, wrap_for_display, transliterate, add_nikud, strip_nikud, list_languages, list_terms, add_terms, delete_term, clinical_translate, clinical_query, clinical_verify, health.
## Privacy
Request and response text is never stored; only usage counts are kept, and every response carries `X-Content-Stored: false`. API data is not used to train models.
## Guides
- Best Hebrew API in 2026: https://www.itsbaba.com/best-hebrew-api
- Best Hebrew translation API: https://www.itsbaba.com/best-hebrew-translation-api
- Nikud API: https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-nikud-api
- Transliteration API: https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-transliteration-api
- RTL display API: https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-rtl-api
- Language detection API: https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-language-detection-api
- Localization API: https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-localization-api
- Medical Hebrew translation API: https://www.itsbaba.com/medical-hebrew-translation-api
- MCP servers: https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-mcp-server
- Free Hebrew API tiers: https://www.itsbaba.com/free-hebrew-api
- How the baba app uses the engine: https://www.itsbaba.com/features/hebrewcore
## FAQ
**What is baba HebrewCore?** The Hebrew API from baba (itsbaba.com): translation, protected translation, ICU plurals, RTL display, code-switched detection, transliteration, nikud and a Clinical API. Also called HebrewCore by baba Hebrew.
**Who makes HebrewCore, and how is it related to the baba app?** baba makes it. HebrewCore is the same engine the baba Hebrew translator app runs on, offered to developers through API keys at hc.itsbaba.com.
**How much does HebrewCore cost?** Free $0 for 100,000 characters a month, Starter $49 for 1,000,000, Growth $249 for 6,000,000, Business $999 for 30,000,000, Enterprise custom. Free needs a card on file and is never charged unless you upgrade.
**Does HebrewCore have an MCP server?** Yes, at https://hc.itsbaba.com/mcp, with 16 tools.
**Does HebrewCore store the text I send?** No. Only usage counts are kept.
---
# How long it takes to learn Hebrew
Learning Hebrew is measured in milestones rather than a single number: reading the alphabet takes days to weeks, handling a shop takes weeks to months, and holding a conversation takes months to years, and baba translates while you get there. The range is wide because the milestones are not equally hard. Decoding the script is a small, finite task, while producing correct gender agreement in live speech is the part that keeps taking work long after you can read.
## Key facts
| Fact | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Hebrew alphabet | Twenty-two letters, five with a separate final form |
| Direction | Right to left |
| Everyday written Hebrew | Printed without vowel marks |
| Gender contexts in baba | 7 |
| Israeli slang terms in baba's dictionary | curated |
## What are the real milestones in learning Hebrew?
Progress in Hebrew arrives as discrete abilities, not as a percentage. Each milestone below is a thing you can either do or not do, which makes it a better measure than hours studied.
| Milestone | What you can do | Typical band |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Reading the alphabet | Sound out a street sign, a menu, a name | Days to a few weeks |
| Surviving a shop or the shuk | Ask a price, count money, say what you want | Weeks to a few months |
| Holding a short conversation | Introduce yourself, answer questions, keep a thread going | Months |
| Handling a work email | Read a Hebrew email and write a correct reply | Many months to years |
The bands assume regular practice and shift with how much Hebrew you hear around you. Someone living in Israel hears the language all day and moves through the middle milestones faster than someone studying alone abroad.
## What makes Hebrew slower for an English speaker?
Gender agreement is the structural difficulty. Hebrew conjugates verbs, adjectives and possessives by speaker gender, listener gender and subject gender, so gender is not an occasional feature of Hebrew, it appears in nearly every sentence. An English speaker has no habit of deciding the gender of the person being spoken to before choosing a verb form, and that habit takes time to build.
Three other things slow English speakers down.
- Everyday Hebrew is printed without vowel marks, so you read consonant skeletons and supply the vowels from knowing the word already.
- Hebrew builds words from three-letter roots slotted into patterns, which is a different mental model from adding prefixes and suffixes to a stem.
- Textbook Hebrew and street Hebrew diverge. Israelis speak with heavy slang and borrowed words, and a phrase like חבל על הזמן (chaval al hazman), literally "a waste of time" but used to mean amazing or incredible, cannot be worked out from its parts.
## What makes Hebrew faster than people expect?
Hebrew spelling is close to phonetic. Where the vowel marks are printed, as they are in textbooks and children's books, a word you have never seen is pronounceable from the spelling alone, which is not true of English or French. There is no long tail of silent letters and irregular spellings to memorise.
The root system also compounds in your favour. Learning one three-letter root often gives you a verb, a noun, an adjective and a place name at once, so vocabulary growth accelerates rather than staying linear. The core vocabulary needed for daily life is small, and Hebrew has no case endings on nouns and no articles that vary by gender in the way many European languages have.
## Why does the Hebrew change depending on who is speaking?
Hebrew has no neutral default. A sentence carries the gender of the speaker, the gender of the person addressed, and the gender of what is being described, which is why a single English sentence has several correct Hebrew forms.
| Speaker | Hebrew | Transliteration |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Male speaker | אני אוהב אותך | ani ohev otcha / otach |
| Female speaker | אני אוהבת אותך | ani ohevet otcha / otach |
The second half of each transliteration is the listener form: otcha addresses a man, otach addresses a woman. Speaker gender and listener gender move independently, so one English sentence has several correct Hebrew renderings.
baba lets you set speaker and listener explicitly across seven contexts:
- General
- Personal
- To One Man
- To One Woman
- To Mostly Men
- To Mostly Women
- To Mixed Group
## Where does a translator help, and where does it not?
A translator carries you across the gap between what you can say and what you need to say today, which is most of the value while you are still early. baba gives you the correct gendered form of a sentence, the meaning of a slang term you just heard, and a Hebrew reply you can send without guessing, and seeing the same forms repeatedly is itself a kind of exposure. What a translator does not do is build production ability. baba is a translation tool, not a Hebrew course, and using it will not by itself make you fluent. Fluency comes from speaking, being corrected, and reading more Hebrew than is comfortable.
## Frequently asked questions
### Do I need to learn the alphabet before anything else?
Learning the alphabet first is worth the few days it takes, because everything after it goes faster. Transliteration lets you speak but leaves you unable to read a sign, a menu or a message. baba shows transliteration alongside Hebrew script, so you can read the script and check yourself against the transliteration while it is still new.
### Is spoken Israeli Hebrew different from textbook Hebrew?
Yes. Everyday Israeli speech leans on slang and shortened forms that textbooks leave out, including סבבה (sababa, cool), תכלס (tachles, bottom line) and יאללה (yalla, let's go). baba includes an Israeli slang dictionary of curated Israeli slang and idiom coverage for exactly this gap.
### How much Hebrew do I need before a trip to Israel?
Very little to get by, since most people in tourist-facing roles speak English. Reading the alphabet and knowing a handful of courtesy phrases changes how the trip feels more than any grammar you memorise in advance.
### Can I get useful Hebrew practice for free?
Yes. baba's free tier gives 2,500 characters per month with a free account (1,000 as a guest, no login), and no credit card, which covers a handful of short messages a week.
### What makes Hebrew slower for an English speaker?
Gender agreement. Hebrew conjugates verbs, adjectives and possessives by speaker gender, listener gender and subject gender, so gender appears in nearly every sentence. An English speaker has no habit of deciding the gender of the person being spoken to before choosing a verb form, and that habit takes time to build.
### Will a translator make me fluent in Hebrew?
No. baba is a translation tool, not a Hebrew course, and using it will not by itself make you fluent. Fluency comes from speaking, being corrected, and reading more Hebrew than is comfortable. What baba does is carry you across the gap between what you can say and what you need to say today.
## What baba does not do
- baba is a translation tool, not a Hebrew course, and using it will not by itself make you fluent.
- The free tier is 2,500 characters per month, which is enough for a handful of messages a week and not enough for documents.
- Machine translation of Hebrew slang depends on context that a short message may not carry.
- baba does not track your study progress or test you, and no timeline on this page is a prediction about any individual learner.
## Related pages
- https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-slang-dictionary: Israeli slang terms with meanings and usage
- https://www.itsbaba.com/blog/5-best-hebrew-learning-apps-compared: how Hebrew learning tools differ
- https://www.itsbaba.com/blog/how-to-write-hebrew-emails-professional-guide: writing a Hebrew email that reads correctly
- https://www.itsbaba.com/best-hebrew-translators-guide: capability-based Hebrew translator guide
Canonical page: https://www.itsbaba.com/how-long-to-learn-hebrew
Last updated: 2026-07-28
Questions: shalom@itsbaba.com
---
# What is open on Israeli holidays
Not every Jewish holiday shuts Israel down the same way. baba's page at https://www.itsbaba.com/israel-holiday-hours covers all 17 major holidays with typical dates and what is generally closed.
## Full public holidays
Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, the first day of Sukkot, Shemini Atzeret/Simchat Torah, the first and last days of Passover, and Shavuot are full public holidays: government offices, schools, and most shops close, and regular public transport does not run. Yom HaAtzmaut is a public holiday for offices and schools; buses typically run, and many shops and restaurants stay open.
## Ordinary working days
Hanukkah, Purim, Tu BiShvat, Lag BaOmer, and Yom Yerushalayim are not statutory rest days in Israel; businesses and buses run largely as usual, though schools often have programming or a short break. Yom Yerushalayim is a commemorative national day: offices stay open and Jerusalem is busy with ceremonies.
## Shabbat and memorial days
Shabbat brings a typical weekly shutdown of shops and transport from Friday afternoon to Saturday night. Yom Kippur is the most complete shutdown of the year, closing even the airport and pausing broadcasts by custom. Memorial days (Yom HaShoah, Yom HaZikaron) close entertainment venues from the evening before while most other businesses stay open.
---
# Israel news alerts
An alert that fires when a story is moving across 58 Israeli newsrooms, not when one desk hits publish. In English, whichever language the outlets are writing in.
## What you can switch on
- **Breaking**: Major stories as they break, sent when a story is moving across the press rather than when one outlet publishes. Sirens always come through, even in quiet hours.
- **Editions**: The morning, midday and evening brief as a notification instead of an email.
- **A story everyone is covering**: When a story is suddenly on every front page. baba decides how many newsrooms make it count, the same bar for every reader.
- **Not Everywhere**: A story one side of the press did not run.
- **Newsrooms you follow**: Choose which outlets can reach you.
- **What happened over Shabbat**: One summary, half an hour after Shabbat ends where you are.
- **Coverage shift**: When one side of the press turns harder or softer on someone this week.
- **Topics, people and stories you follow**: With News Plus.
- **Quiet hours**: 22:00 to 07:00 in the app, Jerusalem time; nothing routine arrives inside it. Signed in on the web at https://news.itsbaba.com, you can set your own start and end hour, and it applies to every phone on that account.
baba only sends what you switch on, and nothing else.
## Sirens are not news alerts
baba News is a news app and not a civil defence system. Official siren alerts should come from the Home Front Command. Inside baba News, with breaking alerts on, sirens always come through, even inside your quiet hours. There is no separate Mamad alert and no Mamad screen in the app. The Mamad forecast of siren risk over the next hour, day, week and month is on the web at https://news.itsbaba.com/mamad.
## Price
The app is free on iPhone and Android, and so are alerts for breaking news, the three daily editions, a story everyone is covering, Not Everywhere, the newsrooms you follow, what happened over Shabbat, and coverage shifts. News Plus adds alerts for the specific topics, people and stories you follow.
## Related
- The same thing by email: https://www.itsbaba.com/israel-news-email
- The Mamad siren forecast: https://www.itsbaba.com/mamad
- baba News: https://www.itsbaba.com/news
---
# Israel news by email
baba News sends a brief built from 58 Israeli newsrooms publishing in Hebrew, Arabic, Russian, French and English. Each item is a single event with every outlet that covered it attached, so you read what happened and how the press handled it rather than one newsroom's account of the day.
## The editions
- **Morning** — what happened overnight, rebuilt from the coverage of the last several hours.
- **Midday** — what has moved since. Useful if you start your day in another timezone.
- **Evening** — where the day landed, and what the press did not converge on.
- **The Week Across the Press** — Fridays, one email. The week's biggest stories chosen by how the whole press covered them.
- **Breaking** — at most one a day, only when a story is genuinely breaking.
Each is a separate switch. Turning one off never turns another off.
## In English or Hebrew
Every edition is available in both, with the same stories and the same grouping across the press.
## How it differs from a newsroom newsletter
A newsroom's newsletter is that newsroom's day. This is assembled from the whole Israeli press, including the Hebrew, Haredi, Arabic and Russian-language outlets that never publish in English, and it names which newsrooms ran each story and which sides of the press did not.
## How to start and stop it
Create a free News account in the app or on the web, then choose your editions and language in settings. One account covers iPhone, Android and the web. Every email carries a one-click unsubscribe scoped to that kind of email, so stopping the breaking alerts never silently stops the Friday digest.
## Related
- The same thing as phone alerts: https://www.itsbaba.com/israel-news-alerts
- baba News: https://www.itsbaba.com/news
- Today's brief: https://news.itsbaba.com/brief/today
---
# Israel news live
Kan 11, N12, Channel 13, Channel 14, i24NEWS in four languages and the Knesset Channel: where each one streams, which are on air right now, and which side of the press each sits on.
## Every Israeli news channel, and where it streams
| Channel | Language | Side | Where it streams |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Kan 11 | Hebrew | Centre | Its own site and app |
| N12 (Channel 12) | Hebrew | Centre | Mako, its own site and app |
| Channel 13 | Hebrew | Centre | Its own site and app |
| Channel 14 | Hebrew | Right | YouTube and its own site |
| i24NEWS English | English | Centre | YouTube and its own site |
| i24NEWS Hebrew | Hebrew | Centre | YouTube |
| i24NEWS French | French | Centre | YouTube (plays there only) and its own site |
| i24NEWS Arabic | Arabic | Centre | YouTube |
| Makan | Arabic | Arab press | YouTube when on air |
| Channel 9 | Russian | Outside the groups | YouTube when on air |
| Knesset Channel | Hebrew | Official | Its own site |
The side is the channel's group in baba's map of the Israeli press: left, centre or right, with the Haredi and Arab press as groups of their own.
## Why the list keeps channels that will not embed
Channel 14 and i24NEWS put their broadcasts on YouTube, where any site can play them. Kan 11, N12 and Channel 13 broadcast live on their own sites. A live page that showed only what plays in place would lean right without meaning to, so baba keeps every broadcaster on the list and links to the ones it cannot play.
## Questions
**Can I watch Israeli news live in English?** i24NEWS English broadcasts Israeli news live in English, on YouTube and on its own site, and ILTV runs a daily English news programme in its own subscription app. The other channels broadcast in Hebrew.
**Is Channel 14 live on YouTube?** Channel 14 streams on its YouTube channel and on c14.co.il. When it is on air, the baba News live page and the app's Live screen play it in place.
**Does it cost anything?** No. The streams are the channels' own, and the live list in the baba News app and on news.itsbaba.com is free.
## Where to watch
- Web: https://news.itsbaba.com/live
- iPhone and iPad: https://apps.apple.com/app/id6807101455
- Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.itsbaba.news
Canonical page: https://www.itsbaba.com/israel-news-live
Last updated: 2026-10-04
---
# Israeli road signs in Hebrew
The glossary at https://www.itsbaba.com/israel-road-signs covers the words on signs, curbs, and in driving conversation: signs, road markings, parking, and driving terms.
## Examples
עצור (atzor) is the Hebrew stop command; the octagonal sign itself reads STOP in Latin letters. תן זכות קדימה (ten zkhut kadima) is give way. חניה (khanaya) is parking, and the curb color next to it (blue-and-white paid/permit, red-and-white no stopping, red-and-yellow bus stop) tells you whether it is allowed.
## What is on the page
The table is searchable and filterable by category, each entry has a listen button, and the phrases print as a pocket card.
---
# Israel time and time differences
Israel observes UTC+2 in winter and UTC+3 during Israel Daylight Time, which puts Israel seven hours ahead of New York and two hours ahead of London for most of the year, and baba publishes a live Israel time converter. Israel has one time zone for the whole country. The clock changes twice a year, and the change dates are set for Israel rather than copied from the United States schedule. The converter reads each city's timezone for the date you pick, so it stays correct on mismatch weeks and on the night clocks jump. A spring-forward time that does not exist (for example 2:30 AM in New York on the second Sunday in March) is reported as a gap instead of being rounded away.
## Key facts
| Fact | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Winter offset | UTC+2, Israel Standard Time |
| Summer offset | UTC+3, Israel Daylight Time |
| Time zones in Israel | One, for the entire country |
| Ahead of New York | Seven hours for most of the year |
| Israeli workweek | Sunday through Thursday |
## Does this file show the current time in Israel?
No. This markdown file is static and contains no live values, because a stated clock time would be wrong within an hour of writing it. The current time in Israel, and a converter that does the arithmetic for your own city, are on the HTML page at https://www.itsbaba.com/israel-time-converter.
## How many hours ahead is Israel?
Israel is ahead of the Americas and Western Europe, and behind Australia. The differences below hold when both places are in their usual seasonal time.
| City | Difference from Israel | Note |
| --- | --- | --- |
| New York | Israel is seven hours ahead | Six hours during clock-change mismatch weeks |
| Miami | Israel is seven hours ahead | Same zone as New York |
| Toronto | Israel is seven hours ahead | Same zone as New York |
| Chicago | Israel is eight hours ahead | Central time |
| Los Angeles | Israel is ten hours ahead | Pacific time |
| London | Israel is two hours ahead | Stable through almost the whole year |
| Paris | Israel is one hour ahead | Stable through almost the whole year |
| Sydney | Sydney is seven to nine hours ahead of Israel | Varies because the seasons are opposite |
## Why does the offset shift during the year?
Israel moves to daylight time in spring and back to standard time in autumn, which is the same practice most of Europe and North America follow. The shift itself does not change the difference to another city, as long as both places have already changed their clocks.
The difference changes only in the gaps. The United States starts daylight time earlier in March than Israel does, so for a stretch of days each spring New York is six hours behind Israel instead of seven. A similar mismatch happens in autumn, when Israel returns to standard time before the United States does. Europe and Israel change within days of each other, so the two-hour difference to London and the one-hour difference to Paris are stable almost all year.
## When are Israeli business hours, and when does the week end?
The Israeli workweek runs Sunday through Thursday. Sunday is a normal working day, and Monday morning in New York is a Monday afternoon in Israel that is already well advanced.
Friday is the short day. Many offices and shops close in the early afternoon, and public transport winds down before sundown. Shabbat runs from sundown Friday to nightfall Saturday, and most of the country is closed for it. If you send an email to an Israeli contact on Friday afternoon your time, the realistic reply window is Sunday morning in Israel.
For a call, the workable overlap with the United States East Coast is the New York morning, which is the Israeli late afternoon and early evening. From the West Coast, the overlap is early morning your time.
## Frequently asked questions
### Is Israel on the same daylight saving schedule as the United States?
No. Israel sets its own change dates, and they do not match the United States dates. For a few weeks each spring and autumn the usual difference to American cities is off by an hour, which is why the live converter is more reliable than remembering a number.
### Does all of Israel use the same time?
Yes. Israel has a single time zone, so Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Haifa and Eilat all show the same clock time. Sunset times differ across the country, which matters for Shabbat, but the clock does not.
### What time should I schedule a call with someone in Israel?
The Israeli late afternoon is the safest slot for callers in the eastern United States, since it is late morning there. Avoid Friday, when Israeli businesses close early, and Saturday, when most are closed.
### Why can I not reach anyone in Israel on a Friday afternoon?
Friday is the last day before Shabbat, and the working day ends early. Offices, banks and most shops close in the early afternoon and reopen on Sunday.
## What baba does not do
- This markdown file states rules, not values. It never contains the current time in Israel, and the live clock lives only on the HTML page.
- baba is a Hebrew translation app. The time converter is a utility on the site, not a calendar or scheduling tool, and baba does not manage meetings for you.
- Clock-change dates are set annually by the relevant authorities, so a stated pattern is a description of current practice rather than a guarantee for a future year.
## Related pages
- https://www.itsbaba.com/shabbat-times: when Shabbat begins and ends, and why the minute changes weekly
- https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-calculators: Hebrew date, birthday and gematria calculators
- https://www.itsbaba.com/blog/must-have-apps-traveling-living-israel: practical tools for a trip to Israel
- https://www.itsbaba.com/: baba, the Hebrew translation app
Canonical page: https://www.itsbaba.com/israel-time-converter
Last updated: 2026-09-13
Questions: shalom@itsbaba.com
---
# Israeli hand gestures
The glossary at https://www.itsbaba.com/israeli-gestures covers named hand gestures across three groups: everyday, agreement and refusal, and emphasis.
## Examples
"מה אתה רוצה" (bunched fingers pointing up, shaken) is the classic Israeli "what do you want / obviously." "רגע" (flat palm toward the other person) means stop talking for a second. "על הראש" (palm on the head) is a sincere "I will handle it," not a joke. "בוא הנה" is palm down, fingers waving toward you: the Israeli come-here, not the American palm-up wave.
## What is on the page
The table is searchable and filterable by category, each entry has a listen button, and the phrases print as a pocket card.
---
# Israeli ID validator
The Israeli teudat zehut number is 9 digits with a built-in check digit. The tool at https://www.itsbaba.com/israeli-id-validator runs the standard check and shows the working.
## The algorithm
Pad the number to 9 digits with leading zeros. Spaces, dashes and other separators are ignored before padding. Multiply each digit by 1 or 2, alternating and starting with 1 on the leftmost digit. When a product is two digits, add its digits together (a product can be at most 9 x 2 = 18, so this is the same as subtracting 9 from any product over 9). Sum all nine results; the ID is valid when that sum is a multiple of 10.
## What the number is not
A valid check digit only rules out a typo. It does not confirm the number was ever issued to a real person, and it does not encode age, birth date, region, or gender.
---
# Israeli media bias
A bias chart tells you where somebody filed a newsroom. Putting one event next to every outlet that covered it tells you what happened that day. baba News does the second thing, in English, across 58 Israeli newsrooms.
## How to see bias on a story
The same event reported by Ynet, N12, Israel Hayom and Haaretz produces four headlines that are not the same headline. The differences between them are the most direct evidence of a slant that exists. Add which outlets ran it at all, which press sides ignored it, and who filed first, and you have the shape of the coverage rather than an opinion about the coverage.
baba News gives four things for each story:
- Every newsroom that filed, each with its own headline rendered in English.
- The split: how many left, center and right newsrooms ran it, and which press sides ran nothing.
- The filing timeline: who published first and how long the others took.
- Ownership and funding for every newsroom involved.
## Why there is no factuality score
A licensed reliability number compresses a newsroom into a digit and asks you to trust the compression. baba News does not publish one. It publishes what is checkable: ownership, funding, founding year, which outlets ran a story, which did not, how each worded it, and how fast each filed.
## How the Israeli press splits
baba News compares five groups of the press. The Haredi press and the Arab press are groups of their own because they run their own agendas and sit on no left-to-right line.
- Left: Haaretz, Davar, Local Call
- Center: Ynet, N12, Kan, Channel 13, Walla, Maariv, The Times of Israel, The Jerusalem Post
- Right, including the religious-Zionist press: Israel Hayom, Now 14, 0404, Mida, Arutz Sheva, Srugim, Makor Rishon, Kipa
- Haredi: Kikar HaShabbat, Behadrei Haredim, JDN
- Arab: Arab48, Panet, Al-Arab, Makan, Al-Shams
Outside the groups, listed in every story's coverage but never counted as a side that skipped a story: the Russian-language press (Vesty, NEWSru Israel, Mignews, Cursorinfo, Channel 9), the business press, unrated on the left-to-right scale (Globes, Calcalist, TheMarker, Bizportal), Sport5, and Abu Ali Express and Shakuf, which the evidence does not place.
## Is Haaretz left wing? Is Israel Hayom right wing?
baba News places Haaretz on the left of the Israeli press and Israel Hayom on the right. Haaretz was founded in 1918 and is funded by subscriptions and advertising; Israel Hayom was founded in 2007 and is a privately funded free daily. The placement exists for comparison, so you can see what each ran on a given day and how each worded it.
## Related
- Every newsroom with its owner: https://www.itsbaba.com/israeli-newsrooms
- Stories one side skipped: https://www.itsbaba.com/israeli-press-coverage-gaps
- baba News: https://www.itsbaba.com/news
---
# Israeli news API
The baba News API is the Israeli news API from baba (itsbaba.com): 58 Israeli newsrooms, the Hebrew press translated into English, and every event clustered across the outlets that covered it, with the left, center and right split and the sides of the press that filed nothing. Plans start at $99 a month, with a 14-day trial and no card. baba also makes the baba Hebrew translator app and baba HebrewCore, the Hebrew language API.
Console, reference and OpenAPI document: https://news.itsbaba.com/developers . Overview: https://www.itsbaba.com/baba-news-api
## What developers need from an Israeli news API
- Named outlets: a list of the Israeli newsrooms covered, not only a country tag on a global index.
- Hebrew in, English out: the reporting translated, with a link to every original.
- Coverage shape: which outlets ran an event, how the sides of the press split, and who stayed silent.
- A clear licence and agent support: commercial terms, an OpenAPI document and an MCP server.
## How baba News covers 58 Israeli outlets
39 publishing in Hebrew, 7 in English, 6 in Arabic, 5 in Russian and 1 in French: Ynet, N12, Channel 13, Kan, Maariv, Israel Hayom, Haaretz (Hebrew and English), Walla, The Times of Israel, The Jerusalem Post, i24NEWS, Globes, Calcalist, TheMarker, the Haredi press (Kikar HaShabbat, Behadrei Haredim), the religious-Zionist press (Srugim, Arutz 7), the Arabic press (Arab48, Panet), the Russian-language press (Vesty, NEWSru) and official statement feeds. `/api/v1/sources` lists every one with lean, press side, ownership, funding and measured filing behaviour.
## One request
```
curl -s "https://news.itsbaba.com/api/v1/stories?lang=en&state=blindspot" \
-H "Authorization: Bearer nk_live_…"
```
Every endpoint answers with the same envelope: `data`, a `nextCursor` for the next page, `lang`, `generatedAt` and `limit`. A story carries the headline, an English summary written by baba and labelled as ours, `outlets`, `lean` (left, center, right, unrated counts), `sides`, `missingSides`, `state` and `sources`.
## Endpoints
All GET, all under https://news.itsbaba.com, all with a bearer key.
- `/api/v1/stories`: clustered events with the outlets that filed, the lean split, the missing sides and the state. Scope: stories.
- `/api/v1/stories/{ckey}`: one story with every member article, the filing timeline and which side moved first. Scope: stories.
- `/api/v1/blindspots`: stories that ran widely on one side of the Israeli press and not at all on another. Scope: stories.
- `/api/v1/sources`: the 58 newsrooms. Scope: sources.
- `/api/v1/search`: search across the translated archive. Scope: search.
- `/api/v1/brief`: the daily brief, in English and Hebrew. Scope: brief.
- `/api/v1/people`: people and organisations named in coverage. Scope: people.
- `/api/v1/export`: bulk history as JSONL or CSV. Scope: export.
- Also `/threads`, `/trending`, `/topics`, `/changes` and `/sources/{key}/activity`. Reference: https://news.itsbaba.com/developers/docs/endpoints
## Plans
- Starter, $99 a month: 10,000 requests a month, 60 a minute, 1 key; stories, sources, search.
- Team, $299 a month: 100,000 requests a month, 300 a minute, 5 keys; adds brief and people.
- Enterprise, by agreement: 1,000,000 requests a month, 1,000 a minute; adds webhooks and export.
- Every plan starts with a 14-day trial, no card.
## What it does not return
Full article text. Each story carries baba's own summary and key points, the headline as each newsroom wrote it, and a link to the original article with the publisher's paywall and advertising intact.
## Alternatives, as of September 2026
- GNews: search accepts Hebrew (he) and Israel (il); free 100 requests a day, not for commercial projects; Essential €49.99 a month. https://gnews.io/pricing
- TheNewsAPI: he and il filters; Basic $19 a month. https://www.thenewsapi.com/pricing
- mediastack: country=il; Standard $24.99 a month. https://mediastack.com/pricing
- World News API: lists 48 monitored Israeli sources, Hebrew, history from January 1, 2022. https://worldnewsapi.com/docs/news-sources/israel-news-api
- Perigon: translates non-English articles into English and groups Stories globally; Hebrew is not in its documented language list. https://perigon.io/docs/api/languages
- Google News RSS: Hebrew headlines from Israeli outlets, free, but not a documented API. https://news.google.com/rss?hl=he&gl=IL&ceid=IL:he
The full comparison: https://www.itsbaba.com/best-hebrew-news-api
## Free options
- RSS: https://news.itsbaba.com/rss.xml, one item per clustered story, English headline and summary, no key.
- Reading: https://news.itsbaba.com on the web, and the baba News app (https://www.itsbaba.com/news).
---
# Israeli news in English
The English-language Israeli outlets are The Times of Israel, The Jerusalem Post, Haaretz English, Ynetnews and i24NEWS. Each is one newsroom's view of the day. Most of the Israeli press, including the main TV news sites, the Haredi press, the Arabic press and the Russian-language press, publishes mostly in Hebrew, Arabic or Russian.
To read that wider press in English, use an aggregator. baba News reads 40+ Israeli newsrooms, groups every report about the same event, and shows in English who ran it, who skipped it, and how each outlet worded it.
## The English-language options
- The Times of Israel: an English-language newsroom in Jerusalem with its own reporters and a live blog. Free to read, with a membership option and its own app.
- The Jerusalem Post: Israel's long-running English-language daily. Free to read, with a premium tier.
- Haaretz English: the English edition of Haaretz, a left-leaning Hebrew daily. Most articles need a subscription.
- Ynetnews: the English-language site of Ynet, part of the Yedioth Ahronoth group. A selection of Ynet coverage.
- i24NEWS: an Israeli television news channel with English, French, Arabic and Hebrew channels. Video first.
- baba News: an aggregator of 40+ Israeli newsrooms in Hebrew, Arabic, Russian and English. Free to read, with an optional News Plus subscription. English summaries and a link to every original article. It does no original reporting.
## What an English-only reader misses
Israel's biggest news audiences read in Hebrew: N12, Channel 13, Kan, Maariv and Israel Hayom. The Haredi press (Kikar HaShabbat, Behadrei Haredim), the religious-Zionist press (Srugim), the Arabic press (Arab48, Panet) and the Russian-language press (Vesty, NEWSru) each cover stories the others leave out. A story can lead every right-leaning outlet and appear nowhere on the left, or the other way round.
## Where to read baba News
- Web: https://news.itsbaba.com
- iPhone: https://apps.apple.com/app/id6807101455
- Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.itsbaba.news
---
# Israeli newsrooms
baba News reads 58 Israeli newsrooms publishing in Hebrew, Arabic, Russian, French and English. Eighteen of them have a profile page on www.itsbaba.com; the full register is at https://news.itsbaba.com/sources.
For each newsroom baba News records what it is, who owns it, how it is funded, when it was founded, where it is based, which languages it publishes in, and a left, center or right placement plus the group of the press it counts with. It does not publish a reliability or factuality score.
## Who owns the Israeli media
- Yedioth Ahronoth Group: Ynet, Ynetnews, Calcalist
- Keshet Media Group: N12, Mako
- Haaretz Group: Haaretz, Haaretz English, TheMarker
- Jerusalem Post Group: The Jerusalem Post, Maariv
- Reshet 13: Channel 13
- Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation: Kan News, Makan (public broadcasting budget, not advertising)
- Israel Hayom Ltd.: Israel Hayom, a privately funded free daily
- Altice Group: i24NEWS
- Walla Communications: Walla
- Channel 14: Now 14
- Arutz Sheva: Arutz Sheva, Israel National News
## The newsrooms with profiles
| Newsroom | Placement | Language | Founded |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Ynet | Center, mainstream | Hebrew, English (Ynetnews) | 2000 |
| N12 | Center, mainstream | Hebrew only | 2017 |
| Haaretz | Left | Hebrew, English | 1918 |
| Israel Hayom | Right | Hebrew | 2007 |
| Kan News | Center, public broadcaster | Hebrew | 2017 |
| Channel 13 | Center, mainstream | Hebrew only | 2017 |
| Now 14 | Right | Hebrew only | 2014 |
| Walla | Center, mainstream | Hebrew only | 1995 |
| Maariv | Center, mainstream | Hebrew only | 1948 |
| The Times of Israel | Center, mainstream | English, Hebrew (Zman Yisrael) | 2012 |
| The Jerusalem Post | Center, mainstream | English | 1932 |
| i24NEWS | Center, mainstream | Hebrew, English, Arabic, French | 2013 |
| Arutz Sheva | Right, right-wing press (religious-Zionist) | Hebrew, English | 1988 |
| Kikar HaShabbat | Right, Haredi press | Hebrew only | 2009 |
| Behadrei Haredim | Right, Haredi press | Hebrew only | 2002 |
| Globes | Unrated, outside the groups (business) | Hebrew | 1983 |
| Calcalist | Unrated, outside the groups (business) | Hebrew | 2008 |
| TheMarker | Unrated, outside the groups (business) | Hebrew | 2000 |
## What left, center and right mean here
A placement for comparing coverage of the same event, not a rating of accuracy. baba News compares five groups of the press: left, center and right, plus the Haredi press and the Arab press, which run their own agendas and sit on no left-to-right line. The religious-Zionist press counts with the right. The Russian-language, business and sports outlets are listed beside the groups but are not one of them, and business outlets are left unrated on the scale because it does not describe what they cover.
## Which Israeli newsrooms publish in English
A minority. Ynetnews, Haaretz English, The Jerusalem Post, The Times of Israel, i24NEWS and Israel National News publish in English, and most are a selection rather than the whole newsroom. N12, Kan, Channel 13, Walla, Maariv and the Haredi press publish in Hebrew only.
## Related
- How the Israeli press splits on one story: https://www.itsbaba.com/israeli-media-bias
- Coverage gaps by side: https://www.itsbaba.com/israeli-press-coverage-gaps
- Hebrew news in English: https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-news-in-english
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# Coverage gaps in the Israeli press
A story can lead every right-leaning outlet in Israel and appear nowhere on the left, or run all day in the Haredi press and never reach anyone else. baba News finds those gaps across 58 newsrooms and names the side that stayed quiet. It calls them Not Everywhere stories, and they are free in the app and on the web.
## How the gap is found
A single outlet cannot show you its own gaps, and neither can a feed built from outlets that all publish in the same language for the same audience. baba News reads 58 Israeli newsrooms in Hebrew, Arabic, Russian, French and English, groups every report about one event, and then looks at which sides of the press published nothing on it.
- The quiet side is named, not vaguely labelled "underreported".
- The gap is weighed against how much that side published that day, so a slow day for a small newsroom is not read as a decision.
- Every gap links to the newsrooms that did run it, so the claim is checkable.
- An alert can be sent when a story is running hard on one side and nowhere else.
## Why gaps open
- Language: a story breaks in the Haredi press, in Hebrew, and those papers publish in Hebrew only.
- Audience: the Arab press covers its own communities closely, and a local story there is genuinely news and genuinely absent elsewhere.
- Politics: a story cuts against a side's position. Not every gap is deliberate, but the pattern of what a side does not run is itself information.
- Resources: a specialist outlet with a handful of reporters files less.
baba News publishes the fact of the gap and the evidence behind it. It does not claim a story was suppressed.
## Which sides of the press it compares
Five groups: left, center and right, plus the Haredi press and the Arab press, which a left-to-right bar cannot describe. The religious-Zionist press counts with the right. The Russian-language, business and sports outlets and the official statement feeds are listed in every story's coverage, but a story they skip is never called a gap: they cover a language or a beat.
## The press an English reader never sees
The Haredi papers (Kikar HaShabbat, Behadrei Haredim), the religious-Zionist press (Srugim, Makor Rishon), the Arabic press (Arab48, Panet) and the Russian-language press (Vesty, NEWSru) publish in Hebrew, Arabic and Russian only, and between them they carry a large part of what Israelis argue about.
## Related
- How the Israeli press splits: https://www.itsbaba.com/israeli-media-bias
- Every newsroom and who owns it: https://www.itsbaba.com/israeli-newsrooms
- Hebrew news in English: https://www.itsbaba.com/hebrew-news-in-english
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# Israeli surnames
A searchable list of Israeli and Jewish surnames with Hebrew spelling, origin and meaning, at https://www.itsbaba.com/israeli-surnames. Search matches the Latin spelling, the Hebrew form, the meaning, the origin, and common variants noted on an entry (Cohn finds Cohen, Levy finds Levi, tailor finds Schneider).
## Where the major groups come from
Cohen and Levi mark priestly and Levite lineage rather than an occupation. Mizrahi and Sephardi names often preserve a family's town of origin in the Middle East, North Africa, Spain or Portugal. Ashkenazi surnames, fixed by government decree in Central and Eastern Europe from the late 18th century, lean heavily on occupations (Schneider, tailor; Schuster, shoemaker). After 1948, adopting a Hebrew surname became common in Israel, especially among soldiers and civil servants, sometimes translating a European name by meaning or by sound, sometimes replacing it outright.
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# Jerusalem sunrise and sunset
Sunrise and sunset in Jerusalem are computed from its coordinates in Asia/Jerusalem, at sea level. Jerusalem sits at roughly 786 metres, which would move sunrise a little earlier and sunset a little later if elevation were applied; this page follows the sea-level convention most Israeli calendars use. baba's page at https://www.itsbaba.com/jerusalem-sunrise-sunset shows today's dawn, sunrise, sunset and nightfall, with a month table and a month/year picker for any date. The month picker uses the civil month in Asia/Jerusalem, not the server's UTC date.
For the full set of halachic times (zmanim), see https://www.itsbaba.com/zmanim/jerusalem.
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# Jewish anniversary calculator
Any date, a wedding, a birthday, or another occasion kept by the Hebrew calendar, has a Hebrew-calendar equivalent that recurs every Hebrew year. The calculator at https://www.itsbaba.com/jewish-anniversary-calculator converts a date once (with an after-sunset toggle), then shows the next ten years it falls on the Gregorian calendar, starting from today or from the original date if that date is still ahead.
## Why the Gregorian date moves
The Hebrew calendar is lunar and adds a leap month in seven years of every nineteen-year cycle, so a fixed Hebrew date drifts across Gregorian dates from year to year rather than staying on the same day.
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# Jewish holiday countdown
baba's countdown page at https://www.itsbaba.com/jewish-holiday-countdown computes the next Jewish holiday from today in Israel: major festivals, fasts, Hanukkah, Purim, Tu BiShvat, Lag BaOmer, and the modern Israeli days on baba's holiday list. Civic extras such as Family Day are omitted. A live days/hours/minutes countdown sits above a table of every remaining holiday and fast in the current Hebrew year and the next, with its Gregorian date and days remaining. Multi-day festivals (Pesach, Sukkot, Hanukkah) appear as one row.
An embeddable version lives at https://www.itsbaba.com/jewish-holiday-countdown/embed, meant to sit in a 320x120 `