The Hebrew Alphabet for Beginners

Learning Hebrew from zero starts with the alphabet. It's short: 22 letters, with no upper and lower case. If you have moved to Israel or are about to, after a week of practice you'll start recognizing letters on shop signs, receipts and messages from your bank.

The Hebrew alphabet: all 22 letters

The table lists the letters in alphabetical order. The names are the ones used in Israel today. Sounds are shown with English approximations: listening gives you the exact pronunciation, but this is enough to get started.

Some letters sound the same in modern Hebrew: tet and tav both give "t", kuf and kaf with a dot both give "k", khet and kaf without a dot both give "kh", vav and bet without a dot both give "v", and alef and ayin are silent. That's a historical leftover. In speech there's no difference, so you learn the spelling together with each word.

How to read: right to left

Hebrew is written and read from right to left. A line starts at the right edge of the page, and the first letter of a word is the one on the right. The word שָׁלוֹם starts with shin, the rightmost letter.

Numerals still run left to right, as in English. There are no capital letters, so names and the start of a sentence look like everything else.

For the first few days, run a finger or a pencil along the line from right to left. Your eyes adjust within a few sessions.

Vowels and dots: what niqqud is

Most letters in the alphabet stand for consonants. Vowels are shown by small marks under and next to the letters, called niqqud, or vowel points. Adults read texts without them: newspapers, shop signs and messaging apps carry almost no vowel marks. Learning materials do use them, and later they are gradually dropped.

Starting with vowel marks is practical: you can read the whole word and hear it correctly right away.

Final forms: ך ם ן ף ץ

Five letters change shape when they come at the end of a word. They are called final forms. The sound stays the same.

• ך — final kaf, a variant of כ;
• ם — final mem, a variant of מ;
• ן — final nun, a variant of נ;
• ף — final pey, a variant of פ;
• ץ — final tsadi, a variant of צ.

Look at the word שָׁלוֹם: its last letter is a final mem. Inside a word you'll see the ordinary מ, and at the end always ם.

Four of the five final letters (ך ן ף ץ) descend below the line. The exception is final mem: it's closed and square, and sits on the line. These features help you spot the end of a word.

In ordinary counting the final forms equal the regular ones: ך is also 20 and ם is also 40. Separate values for them appear only in rare numbering systems, and you don't need them as a beginner.

Letters with two sounds: dagesh

Three letters are read differently depending on a dot inside them. The dot is called a dagesh. A fourth letter with two sounds is shin, which has its dot on top.

• בּ with a dot is read "b", ב without a dot is read "v";
• כּ with a dot is read "k", כ without a dot is read "kh";
• פּ with a dot is read "p", פ without a dot is read "f";
• שׁ with a dot over the right edge is read "sh", שׂ with a dot over the left edge is read "s".

The dot over shin isn't a dagesh. It only tells you whether you're looking at "sh" or "s". But it's handy to learn it together with the other three.

In words with vowel marks, these dots are always written in. In text without vowel marks you guess the sound from the word. The word בַּיִת ("house") has a bet with a dot, so it's read "bayit".

Look-alike letters that get mixed up

A few pairs give beginners the most trouble. Here's how to tell them apart.

• ב and כ. Bet has a sharp corner at the bottom, and its base sticks out to the right. Kaf has a rounded bottom with no corners.
• ד and ר. Dalet has a sharp point at the top right, like the peak of a cap. Reysh has a rounded top right corner.
• ה, ח and ת. Hey has a gap between the left leg and the roof. Khet has a solid, closed arch. Tav's left leg curls out to the left at the bottom, like a little boot.
• ו, ז and ן. Vav is a vertical stroke with a small head. Zayin has a short crossbar on top that sticks out on both sides. Final nun is a stroke too, but a long one that drops below the line.
• ס and ם. Samekh is round and can appear anywhere. Final mem is square and appears only at the end of a word.
• ע and צ. Both are built from two slanted lines. Ayin's lower tail runs to the left and dips a little below the line. Tsadi has a flat horizontal base. If you're unsure, think of the sound: tsadi gives "ts", ayin is silent.

Print and handwriting

Israelis use two kinds of script: print and handwriting. Print appears on signs, documents, books and your phone screen. Handwriting looks noticeably different: the letters are rounder and joined up, and some are hard to recognize at first glance.

If you're just starting, learn the print letters. Handwriting comes in handy when you need to read notes or write by hand yourself.

How to learn the Hebrew alphabet in a week

Study 20 to 30 minutes a day. Every day, review yesterday's letters first, then take new ones. Say the letter's name and sound out loud.

1. Day 1. The reading direction and the first five letters: alef, bet, gimel, dalet, hey. Read the table from right to left.
2. Day 2. The next five: vav, zayin, khet, tet, yud. Review the first five.
3. Day 3. Kaf, lamed, mem, nun, samekh. Add the final forms ך ם ן.
4. Day 4. Ayin, pey, tsadi, kuf, reysh, shin, tav. Now you've seen all 22 letters. Add the final ף ץ.
5. Day 5. Dagesh: bet, kaf, pey with and without a dot. The right and left dots of shin. Find these letters in ten words with vowel marks.
6. Day 6. The look-alike pairs from the section above. Drill the ones you personally mix up.
7. Day 7. Read words and short phrases with vowel marks. Then try to recognize letters on signs and shop names. Write down the ones you don't know and test yourself.

A little every day beats one three-hour session. Letters fade quickly, and coming back to them regularly works better than long stretches.

Where to practice so the letters stick

Flashcards and a table help in the first days. After that, move on to reading whole words as soon as you can. The Hebrew №1 app is built on the ulpan method: it starts with the alphabet and the vowel marks, and in your very first lesson you read a whole word. You can listen to any letter, word and line.

What to do after the alphabet

Once you recognize all 22 letters without a hint, move on to reading words with vowel marks and short dialogues. Take things from real life: greetings, food names, words for the bank and the clinic. After a few weeks you'll notice that you can read words without the marks too, because you recognize them as a whole.

The Hebrew alphabet is small, and that's your advantage. Every letter you learn starts paying off in your reading right away.