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The Hebrew alphabet

22 letters, each with its name and roughly the sound it makes. The sounds are English approximations — enough to sound a word out, not enough to pass for a local.

🇮🇱 Hebrew · An abjad: the consonants are written and the short vowels are not.

Twenty-two letters, written right to left, and ordinarily without vowels — a reader supplies them from the word. Five letters take a different shape at the end of a word, listed beside them here.

New to it? Our beginner's guide to the Hebrew alphabet explains how the script works and gives you a plan to learn it.

• א alef silent, carries a vowel
• ב bet b, or v without the dot
• ג gimel g
• ד dalet d
• ה he h
• ו vav v, or the o and u vowels
• ז zayin z
• ח het ch in loch
• ט tet t
• י yod y, or the i vowel
• כ ך kaf k, or ch in loch
• ל lamed l
• מ ם mem m
• נ ן nun n
• ס samekh s
• ע ayin silent, carries a vowel
• פ ף pe p, or f
• צ ץ tsadi ts in cats
• ק qof k
• ר resh r, in the throat
• ש shin sh, or s
• ת tav t

Now read something in it

The letters are the smaller half. The 6,856 commonest Hebrew words are where they start meaning something.

Reading it is one thing.

Being understood when you say it is another. That takes a person.

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