You can read Hebrew.Now say it out loud.
Years of Hebrew school. A long Duolingo streak. And still nothing comes out at the falafel stand. Kate is an AI tutor who talks with you in Modern Israeli Hebrew, catches every אתה that should have been את, and explains in English. Ten minutes a day, in your browser.
First conversation free · no card · no download
- Modern Israeli Hebrew
- Corrections explained in English
- Built in Israel
Kate
Hebrew lesson · explains in English
- Kate
בוקר טוב! מה עשית בסוף השבוע?
Boker tov! Ma asita besof hashavua?
Good morning! What did you do at the weekend?
- You
אני הלכתי ל... beach? עם חברים שלי.
Ani halachti le... beach? Im chaverim sheli.
I went to the... beach? with my friends.
- Kate
יפה!
Beach is חוף הים, chof hayam. And “my friends” takes the article: החברים שלי, hachaverim sheli. Can you say it?
הלכתי לחוף הים עם החברים שלי.
Halachti lechof hayam im hachaverim sheli.
- You
הלכתי לחוף הים עם החברים שלי.
Halachti lechof hayam im hachaverim sheli.
I went to the beach with my friends.
- Kate
מעולה! ומה עשיתם שם?
Metzuyan! Uma asitem sham?
Excellent! And what did you do there?
Reading Hebrew and speaking Hebrew are two different skills.
The alphabet was the easy part
Hebrew school and Duolingo both reward recognition: you see the letters, you match the meaning. Street Hebrew comes at you at speed, without vowels and without pauses, and the only way to keep up is to have produced those sentences yourself, many times, with someone answering back.
Same letters, different word
רוצה is rotze to a man and rotza to a woman, spelled identically. אתה and את change the verb after them. You can read a page of Hebrew without ever deciding these, and you cannot say one sentence without deciding them. Nobody in a reading app is listening for it.
Prayer-book Hebrew is not cafe Hebrew
The vocabulary you can read is often liturgical. The Hebrew you need in Israel is sababa, yalla, ein be'aya, a price at the shuk and a question at the pharmacy. Kate speaks the Hebrew Israelis speak, and tells you in English when a word you know is not the one people use.
Ten minutes with Kate, and what happens in them
You talk first
Kate asks about your weekend, your family, your work. In Hebrew.
She leads at your level, waits for you to finish, and gives you a sentence to copy when you are stuck. Say it badly; that is the point.
She catches it
The wrong gender, the missing ה, the English word that slipped in.
The fix comes the second you make the mistake, with the reason in English, and you say the right version once before she moves on.
It sticks
Your mistakes become your review cards. Tomorrow she remembers.
Every phrase you got wrong comes back a few days later, right before you would have forgotten it, and the next lesson picks up where you left off.
Rehearse the conversation you are actually dreading
Pick a situation and Kate plays the other person: the waiter, the landlord, the clerk, your partner's mother. Or type your own, in English, and she builds the scene in Hebrew.
- Ordering at a cafe in Tel Aviv
- A taxi from Ben Gurion airport
- Shabbat dinner with your partner's family
- Calling your savta
- Renting an apartment
- A doctor's visit
- The phone call to Misrad Hapnim
- A job interview in Hebrew
Hebrew school, Duolingo, a tutor, Kate: what each one gives you
None of these is a waste. Hebrew school taught you to read. Duolingo gave you a habit. A tutor is the real thing when you can get one. The gap they leave is daily spoken practice with someone catching your mistakes, and that is the gap this fills.
| What you get | Hebrew school | Duolingo | Private tutor | SpeakBase |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| You actually talk, out loud, every day | Scripted sentence repeats | Once or twice a week | Up to 20 minutes a day | |
| Someone answers what you just said | Live AI calls on the top plan only | |||
| Every ata and at caught in the moment | Rarely | |||
| Explained in English when you are stuck | Right or wrong, little why | |||
| Israeli Hebrew, not prayer-book Hebrew | Often not | Depends on the tutor | ||
| Your own situations rehearsed | If you ask | Type any situation | ||
| What it costs | Years ago | Free, ads | By the hour, booked ahead | $119.99 a year |
Less than a coffee a week. Twenty minutes of Hebrew a day.
Billed in US dollars, no VAT, cancel anytime. Your first conversation is free and asks for no card.
Annual
$119.99a year
About $10 a month
- Up to 20 minutes with Kate every day
- Every situation, your own included
- Review cards from your own mistakes
Monthly
$11.99a month
Same lessons, month by month
- Up to 20 minutes with Kate every day
- Every situation, your own included
- Review cards from your own mistakes
Frequently asked questions
Is this Modern Hebrew or Biblical Hebrew?
Modern Israeli Hebrew, the language spoken in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Haifa today. Kate uses the words, the speed and the everyday expressions you will hear in Israel, not textbook or prayer-book Hebrew. If you learned to read in Hebrew school, that reading is a head start; this is where you learn to talk.
I finished the Duolingo Hebrew course. Why can I still not speak?
Because Duolingo trains recognition: you read a sentence and pick the right pieces. Speaking is production under time pressure, with a listener waiting, and nobody checks whether you said ata or at to the right person. Duolingo is a fine daily habit. Keep it, and add ten minutes a day of actual conversation with correction.
Do I need to read Hebrew to use SpeakBase?
No. Everything is spoken. You listen and you talk; Kate explains in English whenever you are stuck, and the few lines of Hebrew on screen come with a transliteration. If you can read, you will read along. If you cannot yet, you will still speak from the first minute.
Does Kate correct masculine and feminine forms?
Every time. Gender agreement is the mistake English speakers make in almost every Hebrew sentence: ata rotze to a man, at rotza to a woman, and the same letters spell both. It only goes away when someone catches it in the moment and makes you say it right straight away, which is exactly what Kate does.
What does it cost?
Your first conversation is free: five minutes with Kate, no card and no form. After that, daily practice is $119.99 a year (about $10 a month) or $11.99 a month, billed in US dollars with no VAT, and you can cancel anytime. A private Hebrew tutor is booked by the hour; this is twenty minutes a day, whenever you have them.
How long until I can hold a conversation in Hebrew?
The US Foreign Service Institute rates Hebrew at around 1,000 class hours for a diplomat's fluency, but a conversation at a cafe, a family dinner or a doctor's visit comes long before that. With ten minutes of spoken practice a day most learners who already read Hebrew handle everyday situations within two to three months. Take the free three-minute level test to see where you start.
Say your first Hebrew sentence to Kate today.
Five free minutes, in your browser, right now. She will ask how you are. Answer in Hebrew, badly. That is how it starts.
No card · no download · then $119.99 a year
Not sure where you stand? Take the free three-minute Hebrew level test.