Russian stress pattern
Hebrew usually stresses the last syllable (milra). Russian pulls it to the penultimate one.
מִשְׁפָּחָה — míshpacha → mishpachá
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The errors that give away a Russian accent in Hebrew
This is not an abstract list: each row is a drill in the trainer and an axis in your profile.
Final consonant devoicing
Russian devoices final consonants, Hebrew does not: ב stays [v], ד stays [d], ג stays [g], ז stays [z].
כֶּלֶב — kélef → kélev
Unstressed vowel reduction
Hebrew keeps unstressed vowels full. The Russian "o → a" reduction distorts the word.
שָׁלוֹם — shalám → shalóm
Dropping the ה
ה is an [h] aspiration absent in Russian. Drop it and the word changes: הַר (mountain) → אַר (nothing).
הָיָה — aya → haya
Rolled [r] instead of uvular ר
Israeli ר is produced at the back of the throat, like the French "r", not with the tongue tip.
רוֹצֶה — rrótse (rolled) → ʁotsé (uvular)
Confusing א and ע
Modern Hebrew often merges א and ע in speech, but they are written differently and distinguish words.
עַיִן / אַיִן — ayin = "eye"? → עַיִן — eye, אַיִן — nothing
Confusing ט and ת
ט and ת sound alike [t] but belong to different roots. The wrong letter means the wrong root.
טוֹב / תּוֹב — תוב → טוֹב — good
Confusing ח and כ
In modern Israeli Hebrew ח and כ without dagesh give the same [kh], yet they are different letters and roots.
חַם / כַּם — כם → חַם — hot
Reading without vowel points
Real texts have no vowel points. A word is read from its root and pattern, not letter by letter.
ספר — unclear what to read → séfer / sapár / sipér — by context