The Hebrew letters

This chart shows the sequence of the Hebrew letters. The sequence is organized vertically in groups of five letters.When using a Netscape browser you can point at any of the letters to see its name.

The principles of Hebrew letters

  • Similar to English, in the concepts of using about 25 consonants to compose words.
  • There are 22 Hebrew consonants, each of them has a name. However, some of them have a two form (with a dot and without one) altogether students have to remember 32 characters.
  • There are no upper case letters in Hebrew.
  • Similar to the idea of using upper case letters in English, some letters in Hebrew are written differently when they appear in a certain place.1)That certain place is end of a word.2)The letters are: Chaf, Mem, Nun, Pay, and Tzadi.3)When they appear at an end of a word they are called: Final Chaf, Final Mem, Final Nun, Final Pay, and Final Tzadi.4)Final letters sound the same as other letters but their figure is a little different.
  • There are 3 letters that sound different if a dot is inserted in their midst. That is: Beit, Caf, and Pay.
  • Without the dot Beit sounds like "V", Caf sounds like "CH" but NOT like a "SH" and NOT a "CH" like in "Charley.
  • Without the dot, Pay is sound like an "F".
  • One way to remember this principle is by thinking that removing the dot from a letter is like puncturing a ball. As the air comes out and the ball softens, so does the letter.
  • Another letter with two sounds is Shin. When the shin is written with a dot above it. When the dot is on the right hand side, it is pronounced as a "SH".When the dot is on the left hand side, it is pronounced as a "S". Most of the time Shin makes the sound of "SH" rather than "S".In advance Hebrew (when people are familiar with the vocab) dot is not used. For this Web site (for practical purposes) "Shin" with no dot should be treated as a "SH".If shin should be pronounced as "S" as in YisRaEl, There will be a dot on the left side of the Shin.
  • Despite a few similar characters between Alef and "A", Alef is a consonant and not a vowel.
  • Two of the letters are define as "silent", those are Alef and Ayin. Describing such letters as silent is correct only in situations where no vowel is applied to those letters. The letter Hay behaves as Alef and Ayin do and therefor, has to be defined similarly. Many Hebrew words end with a Hay and most of the time it is silent.
  • There is no Hebrew letters that make the sound of a "CH" (as in Charley), "J", and "W".To indicate that this is how a letter should be sound, an apostrophe is added after a number of letters. Tzadi and apostrophe should be pronounced as "CH" Gimel and apostropheshould be sound as "J". Two consecutive "VAV"s should be pronounced as "W".
  • Hebrew words are written and read from Right to left.

    Perhaps the following abbreviation will help you remember all of the letters.Please read it a number of times. Following, try applying the Hebrew consonants to each of the sounds:

    Abhgadah

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    Vazchati

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    Calmansa

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    Patzkareshet

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