The Hebrew alphabet: 22 letters, final forms and vowel points

Hebrew has 22 letters, and all of them are consonants. Vowels exist as small dots and dashes, but everyday Hebrew leaves them out, so a reader learns to recognise words from their consonants. That sounds harder than it is. This guide gives you every letter with its name, sound and number value, the five letters that change shape at the end of a word, and the words to practise on. When you are ready, take our free Hebrew level test.

Updated November 11, 2026 · 5 min read

Right to left, letter by letter

Hebrew is written from right to left. The Unicode Standard notes that the same script also writes Yiddish, Judezmo (Ladino) and several other languages. Unlike Arabic, the letters do not join: even handwritten Hebrew, which has its own rounded shapes, keeps its letters generally unconnected. So each letter has one printed shape, except the five final forms below.

All 22 letters

Order, names and number values come from each letter's Wiktionary entry. The sounds are our rough guide to Modern Israeli Hebrew for English speakers. The table reads left to right in English, but remember that a Hebrew word starts on the right.

The number column is worth a glance: in Hebrew numbering each letter also stands for a number, and Wiktionary gives the value in every letter's entry. ב is 2, י is 10, ק is 100 and ת, the last letter, is 400.

One letter, two sounds

Three letters change sound, and you cannot always see why in unpointed text. ב is b or v. כ is k or kh. פ is p or f; with a dot inside, called a dagesh, it is p. And ש is shin (sh) with a dot on its upper right, or sin (s) with the dot on its upper left. The dagesh, says the Unicode Standard, is the only mark that goes inside a letter, and it is not a vowel: it changes the consonant.

The five final forms

Five letters take a different shape at the end of a word: כ → ך, מ → ם, נ → ן, פ → ף, צ → ץ. They are not extra letters, just end-of-word shapes, and they keep the same sound and name. The Unicode Standard points out one exception to watch for: certain words, especially names and foreign borrowings, keep the normal form at the end.

Where are the vowels?

Hebrew writes its vowels as points placed under the consonants; only holam, an o, sits above. The Unicode Standard states that these marks are usually omitted, except in liturgical texts and other special uses. Our advice: expect most of what you read to be unpointed, and start with beginner materials that print the points.

So learn words with their points first, then practise the same words without them. Wiktionary shows both: שלום is written שָׁלוֹם with its points and read shalóm.

First words to read

Each word was checked on Wiktionary, with its Israeli pronunciation. Read the right-hand letter first.

Notice the final forms at work: מַיִם and לֶחֶם end in ם, the final mem. And in עִבְרִית the first letter, ayin, is not heard at all: the word starts with its vowel, i.

Two punctuation marks to know

The geresh ׳ and the gershayim ״ are Hebrew punctuation marks listed in the Unicode Standard. One use of the geresh is for sounds Hebrew borrows: Wiktionary notes that the zh of foreign words and names is commonly written ז׳.

A two-week plan

Our suggestion, about 15 minutes a day. Days 1–4: six letters a day, reading the pointed words above. Days 5–7: the four pairs (bet/vet, kaf/khaf, pe/fe, shin/sin) and the five final forms. Days 8–11: short pointed texts, read aloud, and writing by hand. Days 12–14: the same words without points. Then build vocabulary: 16Word drills the commonest words with spaced repetition and a Blocks break between answers, and our plans start free.

Keep learning

• Free Hebrew level test, or all 36 level tests
• Other right-to-left languages: Arabic and Persian level tests, and the Arabic alphabet
• Other scripts: the Russian alphabet, the Georgian alphabet, Serbian's two alphabets and Devanagari for Hindi
• Greek and Russian level tests
• Another Semitic language, another script: the Tigrinya alphabet, written in Ge'ez syllables
• All guides