Lesson 1: The Hebrew Alphabet (Aleph-Bet)

Welcome to your very first Hebrew lesson! Before you can read words, you need to know the building blocks: the Aleph-Bet (אָלֶף־בֵּית), the Hebrew alphabet.

Hebrew reads right to left

Unlike English, Hebrew is written and read from right to left. The first letter of the alphabet, א (aleph), sits on the right-hand side. There are also no separate capital letters — every letter has just one form (apart from the five “final” forms you’ll meet below).

The 22 letters

Here is the complete alphabet, in order. A few letters carry two sounds depending on whether they have a dot (dagesh) inside them — those are shown together.

Letter	Name	Sound
א	Aleph	silent (a vowel carrier)
ב	Bet / Vet	”b” / “v”
ג	Gimel	”g” as in go
ד	Dalet	”d”
ה	He	”h”
ו	Vav	”v” (also marks an “o”/“u” vowel)
ז	Zayin	”z”
ח	Chet	”ch” (guttural, as in Bach)
ט	Tet	”t”
י	Yod	”y”
כ	Kaf / Khaf	”k” / “kh”
ל	Lamed	”l”
מ	Mem	”m”
נ	Nun	”n”
ס	Samekh	”s”
ע	Ayin	silent (a guttural vowel carrier)
פ	Pe / Fe	”p” / “f”
צ	Tsadi	”ts”
ק	Qof	”k”
ר	Resh	”r” (a soft, throaty roll)
ש	Shin / Sin	”sh” / “s”
ת	Tav	”t”

The five final forms (sofit)

Five letters take a different shape when they fall at the end of a word. These are called sofit (final) forms — same letter, same sound, just a different look:

Normal	Final	Name	Sound
כ	ך	Khaf sofit	”kh”
מ	ם	Mem sofit	”m”
נ	ן	Nun sofit	”n”
פ	ף	Pe sofit	”f”
צ	ץ	Tsadi sofit	”ts”

You can see one in the word שָׁלוֹם (shalom) — the final letter is the Mem sofit ם.

Don’t try to memorize all 27 shapes at once. You’ll absorb them naturally as you read real words across the next lessons. For now, just get familiar with the order and the sounds.

Vowels are dots and dashes

You may notice small dots and lines above, below, and inside letters — like in שָׁלוֹם. These are nikkud, the vowel markings. Most everyday Hebrew (newspapers, signs) is written without them, but they’re invaluable while you’re learning, so we keep them throughout these lessons.

Practice

Try to recognize א and ב in this word:

אַבָּא

That’s abba — it means “dad”. You just read your first Hebrew word!