---
title: "The Hebrew Alphabet"
category: "other"
description: "The 22 Hebrew letters and their five final forms, the vowel points, how each is pronounced, the academic transliteration, the ancient Paleo-Hebrew shapes, and the number each letter stands for."
tags: ["lang/hebrew", "alphabet", "learning", "pronunciation"]
draft: false
date_created: 2026-10-17
date_modified: 2026-10-17
ai_provider_models:
  - anthropic/claude-opus-5
  - anthropic/claude-opus-5.5
  - anthropic/claude-sonnet-4.5
  - anthropic/claude-sonnet-5
---

# The Hebrew alphabet

**In one sentence:** Hebrew is written right to left in 22 letters, all consonants, with the vowels
added as dots and dashes beneath and above them, and you can learn to read every one of them.

The letters are the same in a Hebrew Bible and on a street sign in Jerusalem today. What differs is
how they are pronounced and whether the vowels are printed. This page gives both, and uses
**modern Israeli pronunciation** as its standard: it is the pronunciation every study on this site
spells out, and the one you will hear from Israeli speakers and most recordings.
[How Hebrew Is Pronounced](https://the-way.lewy.au/hebrew/pronunciation/) explains the other traditions you will meet.

The 22 letters, in order, read from right to left:

<p class="he-big" dir="rtl">א ב ג ד ה ו ז ח ט י כ ל מ נ ס ע פ צ ק ר ש ת</p>

Psalm 119 is built on this order. Its 176 verses fall into 22 stanzas of eight, one for each
letter, and every verse in a stanza begins with that stanza's letter. The psalm in praise of God's
word is laid out in His people's alphabet from first letter to last.

## The letters

| Letter | Final | Name | Sound (Israeli, this site's standard) | Biblical, where it differs | Academic | Paleo |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| <span class="he-big">א</span> |  | Alef | silent (carries a vowel) | a catch in the throat, as between *uh-oh* | ʾ | <span class="paleo" dir="rtl">𐤀</span> |
| <span class="he-big">ב</span> |  | Bet / Vet | *b* with the dot (בּ), *v* without | — | b | <span class="paleo" dir="rtl">𐤁</span> |
| <span class="he-big">ג</span> |  | Gimel | *g* as in *go* | without the dot, *gh* (reconstructed) | g | <span class="paleo" dir="rtl">𐤂</span> |
| <span class="he-big">ד</span> |  | Dalet | *d* as in *day* | without the dot, *th* as in *the* (reconstructed) | d | <span class="paleo" dir="rtl">𐤃</span> |
| <span class="he-big">ה</span> |  | He | *h* as in *hay*, silent at a word's end | — | h | <span class="paleo" dir="rtl">𐤄</span> |
| <span class="he-big">ו</span> |  | Vav | *v* as in *vine*; also a vowel letter (וֹ *o*, וּ *u*) | *w* as in *way* | w | <span class="paleo" dir="rtl">𐤅</span> |
| <span class="he-big">ז</span> |  | Zayin | *z* as in *zoo* | — | z | <span class="paleo" dir="rtl">𐤆</span> |
| <span class="he-big">ח</span> |  | Het | *kh*, as *ch* in *Bach* | a breathy *h* from the throat, distinct from כ | ḥ | <span class="paleo" dir="rtl">𐤇</span> |
| <span class="he-big">ט</span> |  | Tet | *t* as in *toy* | an emphatic *t*, distinct from ת | ṭ | <span class="paleo" dir="rtl">𐤈</span> |
| <span class="he-big">י</span> |  | Yod | *y* as in *yes*; also a vowel letter (ִי *i*, ֵי *e*) | — | y | <span class="paleo" dir="rtl">𐤉</span> |
| <span class="he-big">כ</span> | <span class="he-big">ך</span> | Kaf / Khaf | *k* with the dot (כּ), *kh* without | — | k | <span class="paleo" dir="rtl">𐤊</span> |
| <span class="he-big">ל</span> |  | Lamed | *l* as in *lamp* | — | l | <span class="paleo" dir="rtl">𐤋</span> |
| <span class="he-big">מ</span> | <span class="he-big">ם</span> | Mem | *m* as in *mother* | — | m | <span class="paleo" dir="rtl">𐤌</span> |
| <span class="he-big">נ</span> | <span class="he-big">ן</span> | Nun | *n* as in *now* | — | n | <span class="paleo" dir="rtl">𐤍</span> |
| <span class="he-big">ס</span> |  | Samekh | *s* as in *sun* | — | s | <span class="paleo" dir="rtl">𐤎</span> |
| <span class="he-big">ע</span> |  | Ayin | silent (carries a vowel) | a voiced sound from the throat, distinct from א | ʿ | <span class="paleo" dir="rtl">𐤏</span> |
| <span class="he-big">פ</span> | <span class="he-big">ף</span> | Pe / Fe | *p* with the dot (פּ), *f* without | — | p | <span class="paleo" dir="rtl">𐤐</span> |
| <span class="he-big">צ</span> | <span class="he-big">ץ</span> | Tsadi | *ts* as in *boots* | an emphatic *s* (reconstructed) | ṣ | <span class="paleo" dir="rtl">𐤑</span> |
| <span class="he-big">ק</span> |  | Qof | *k* as in *king* | a *k* from further back in the throat | q | <span class="paleo" dir="rtl">𐤒</span> |
| <span class="he-big">ר</span> |  | Resh | *r*, rolled or from the throat | — | r | <span class="paleo" dir="rtl">𐤓</span> |
| <span class="he-big">ש</span> |  | Shin / Sin | *sh* with the dot on the right (שׁ), *s* with it on the left (שׂ) | — | š / ś | <span class="paleo" dir="rtl">𐤔</span> |
| <span class="he-big">ת</span> |  | Tav | *t* as in *toy* | without the dot, *th* as in *thin* (reconstructed) | t | <span class="paleo" dir="rtl">𐤕</span> |

- **Final forms.** Five letters change shape at the end of a word: כ→ך, מ→ם, נ→ן, פ→ף, צ→ץ. They
  are the same letter with the same sound. Two of them are in the Bible's first verse:
  <span dir="rtl">הַשָּׁמַיִם</span> (*hashamayim*, "the heavens") ends in ם, and
  <span dir="rtl">הָאָרֶץ</span> (*ha'arets*, "the earth") in ץ.
- **The dot inside a letter** (*dagesh*) changes three letters in Israeli speech: בּ *b* and ב
  *v*, כּ *k* and כ *kh*, פּ *p* and פ *f*. In biblical pronunciation it changed six (ב ג ד כ
  פ ת, remembered as *begadkephat*), which is why the "Biblical" column above gives a softer sound
  for ג, ד and ת without the dot.
- **Letters that sound alike.** Israeli speech merged several pairs the biblical scribes kept apart:
  ט and ת are both *t*, כ and ח are both *kh*, ק and כּ are both *k*, ס and שׂ are both *s*, and א
  and ע are both silent. Spelling still keeps them apart, so learn each word with its letters.
- **The academic column** is the transliteration commentaries and lexicons use (the SBL style).
  You need it to read a commentary, but read the words aloud with the Israeli sounds.
- **Paleo-Hebrew** is the older script Israel wrote in before the exile: the same 22 letters in the
  shapes they shared with the Phoenicians. The square letters above were adopted from the Aramaic
  script after the exile and are the ones every printed Hebrew Bible uses. [Three
  Scripts](https://the-way.lewy.au/hebrew/three-scripts/) tells how the change happened.

## The vowels

The biblical text was written in consonants only for over a thousand years. Between about AD 600 and
1000, the Masoretes, Jewish scribes in Tiberias, added vowel points so that the pronunciation they
had received would never be lost. Printed Bibles carry them; modern Israeli books and newspapers
mostly leave them out.

Each point sits under or over a letter and is read *after* it: <span dir="rtl">בַ</span> is *ba*.
The faint ב below only carries the point.

| Point | Name | Sound | Like |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| <span class="he-vowel"><span class="carrier">ב</span>ַ</span> | Patach | a | *a* as in *father* |
| <span class="he-vowel"><span class="carrier">ב</span>ָ</span> | Qamats | a | *a* as in *father* (in a few words *o*) |
| <span class="he-vowel"><span class="carrier">ב</span>ֶ</span> | Segol | e | *e* as in *bed* |
| <span class="he-vowel"><span class="carrier">ב</span>ֵ</span> | Tsere | e | *e* as in *bed* (some say *ay* as in *they*) |
| <span class="he-vowel"><span class="carrier">ב</span>ִ</span> | Hiriq | i | *ee* as in *machine* |
| <span class="he-vowel"><span class="carrier">ב</span>ֹ</span> | Holam | o | *o* as in *more* |
| <span class="he-vowel"><span class="carrier">ב</span>ֻ</span> | Qubuts | u | *oo* as in *food* |
| <span class="he-vowel"><span class="carrier">ב</span>ְ</span> | Sheva | e or silent | a short *e*, or nothing at all |
| <span class="he-vowel"><span class="carrier">ב</span>ֲ</span> | Hataf patach | a | a short *a* |
| <span class="he-vowel"><span class="carrier">ב</span>ֱ</span> | Hataf segol | e | a short *e* |
| <span class="he-vowel"><span class="carrier">ב</span>ֳ</span> | Hataf qamats | o | a short *o* |
| <span class="he-vowel">בוֹ</span> | Holam male | o | *o*, written with a vav |
| <span class="he-vowel">בוּ</span> | Shuruk | u | *oo*, written with a vav |

- **Two points look alike.** Qamats ָ is usually *a*, but in a closed unstressed syllable it is a
  short *o* (*qamats qatan*): <span dir="rtl">כָּל־</span> (*kol*, "all").
- **Sheva** ְ is said as a short *e* at the start of a syllable and is silent at the end of one:
  <span dir="rtl">בְּרֵאשִׁית</span> is *be-re-SHIT*.
- **Stress** usually falls on the last syllable: *e-lo-HIM*, *sha-LOM*. A word stressed earlier is
  marked on this site's cards and transliterations.

## Read your first words

You can now read the first verse of the Bible, seven words long:

<p class="he-big" dir="rtl">בְּרֵאשִׁית בָּרָא אֱלֹהִים אֵת הַשָּׁמַיִם וְאֵת הָאָרֶץ</p>

*be-re-SHIT ba-RA e-lo-HIM et ha-sha-MA-yim ve-ET ha-A-rets*, "In the beginning, God created the
heavens and the earth" (Genesis 1:1, ESV). [Verses Quoted Well](https://the-way.lewy.au/scripture/verses-quoted-well/)
takes it word by word, and the [Memory Verse Cards](https://the-way.lewy.au/resources/memory-verses/) print it.

## Numbers

Hebrew does not have a separate set of characters to represent numbers (like the English 1, 2, 3, etc.). Rather, each letter of the Hebrew alphabet also does duty as a number — a system usually called **gematria**. This is just how the alphabet counts; later Jewish tradition (and, less carefully, some modern "Bible code" writers) built elaborate interpretive systems on top of it by comparing the numeric totals of different words, but that's a separate, much more speculative practice from the plain fact that every letter has a value.

| Hebrew Letter | Name | Value | | Hebrew Letter | Name | Value |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| א | Alef | 1 | | ל | Lamed | 30 |
| ב | Bet | 2 | | מ | Mem | 40 |
| ג | Gimel | 3 | | נ | Nun | 50 |
| ד | Dalet | 4 | | ס | Samek | 60 |
| ה | He | 5 | | ע | Ayin | 70 |
| ו | Waw | 6 | | פ | Pe | 80 |
| ז | Zayin | 7 | | צ | Tsade | 90 |
| ח | Ḥet | 8 | | ק | Qof | 100 |
| ט | Tet | 9 | | ר | Resh | 200 |
| י | Yod | 10 | | שׂ / שׁ | Sin / Shin | 300 |
| כ | Kaf | 20 | | ת | Taw | 400 |

So: א–ט give 1–9, י–צ give 10–90 in multiples of ten, and ק–ת give 100–400 (שׂ and שׁ share the value 300 — the dot that distinguishes them is a much later addition to the text).

What Scripture actually *does* with these values — the acrostic poems, the one number Revelation asks the reader to calculate, and why the modern "Bible code" systems fail — is the subject of [Biblical Numerology](https://the-way.lewy.au/scripture/numerology/), which also carries the table of recurring symbolic numbers that used to sit on this page.

## Where next

- [How Hebrew Is Pronounced](https://the-way.lewy.au/hebrew/pronunciation/): Israeli, Ashkenazi, Yemenite and academic
  pronunciation, and how the name of God is read.
- [The Names of God: Word Cards](https://the-way.lewy.au/hebrew/names-of-god-cards/): learn the letters through the names God
  gave Himself, printed as A4 flashcards.
- [Three Scripts](https://the-way.lewy.au/hebrew/three-scripts/) and [Writing Sheets](https://the-way.lewy.au/hebrew/writing-sheets/): the letters in
  Paleo-Hebrew, square script and cursive, with A4 sheets to practise writing them.
- [Aleph with Beth](https://the-way.lewy.au/hebrew/aleph-with-beth/): the free video course this site recommends for learning to
  read the Hebrew Bible.
- [Biblical Numerology](https://the-way.lewy.au/scripture/numerology/): how the letter values are used, and misused.