The Hebrew alphabet consists of twenty-two (22) consonants. They are as follows:
| א ב ג ד ה ו ז ח ט י כ ל מ נ ס ע פ צ ק ר ש ת |
Hebrew is read from right to left, so that in the above list the letter א (called alef) is the first and the letter ת (called tav) is the last. There is a set of marks that accompany these 22 letters to represent vowel sounds and to allow some of the letters to stand for more than one consonant sound (for example, שׁ stands for sh and שׂ for s, according to the placement of a dot on the top right or the top left, respectively).
Most letters represent one sound, and most of these sounds are similar to those represented by the English alphabet. Here is how the majority line up with their sounds, compared to English. Those that are dissimilar to English will be mentioned separately, as well as those which have more than one sound.
| Single-Sound Letters | ||
| ג | gimel | g as in gift Never as in gym |
| ד | dalet | d as in dig |
| ז | zayin | z as in zap |
| ח | ḥet (chet) | ch as in Scottish loch Never as in chat |
| ט | tet | t as in tall |
| ל | lamed | l as in lame |
| מ | mem | m as in made |
| נ | nun | n as in not |
| ס | samech | s as in seem |
| צ | tsade | ts as in hits Can begin a word |
| ק | kuf | k as in kid |
| ר | resh | r in French or German |
| ת | tav | t as in tall |
There are two “silent” letters in the Hebrew alphabet. I put the word “silent” in quotes because they really do (normally) have consonantal values. Here they are with some explanation:
| Silent Letters | ||
| א | alef | Hebrew syllables cannot begin with a vowel (except the use of וּ as a conjunction). To begin a word with a vowel sound, the letter א is used as a seat for the vowel. For example, to create the word éven – the Hebrew word for “stone” – you first use א to hold the vowel. This word is written in Hebrew as אֶבֶן. If it is not holding a vowel, it is generally part of a word’s root and truly becomes silent (in which case, it is called “quiescent” – as in בְּרֵאשִׁית breishit, the first word in the Bible, in which the א does not bear a vowel and is quiescent). If א appears between two vowels, then it stops the flow of air and acts like a buffer between syllables. In this instance, it sounds like the break in the middle of the word button in some dialects of English. It’s called a “glottal stop” and is represented by the symbol ʔ in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). |
| ע | ayin | For most Ashkenazi Jews, the letter ע is like א, nothing more than a glottal stop or silent letter. In Sefardic communities, however, it does have a real sound of its own – much like the letter ع in Arabic. It is more than acceptable for a student to pronounce ע as if it were silent. |
There are some letters in the Hebrew language that represent two different sounds, depending on the mark within the letter.
| Two-Sound Letters | |||
| ב | bet | בּ | b as in boy |
| ב | v (ḇ) as in very | ||
| כ | kaf | כּ | k as in kid Similar to ק (q) |
| כ | ch (ḵ) as in Scottish loch Similar to ח (ḥ) |
||
| פ | peh | פּ | p as in put |
| פ | f (p̄) as in fat | ||
| ש | shin/sin | שׁ | sh (š) as in shine |
| שׂ | s (ś) as in sin | ||
A dagesh (דָּגֵשׁ “piercing”) is a dot that appears inside a letter. There are actually two kinds of dagesh.
The first type of dagesh – called dagesh lene in Latin and דָּגֵשׁ קַל [dagesh kal] in Hebrew – appears only in the letters ב (bet), ג (gimel), ד (dalet), כ (kaf), פ (peh), ת (tav). These six letters are known collectively as בֶּגֶדְכֶּפֶת (begedkefet), an acronym created by simply listing the letters. Originally, each of these letters had two different sounds, just as כ ,ב and פ still do. Originally, ג (transcribed with ḡ by scholars) represented the sound of غ in Arabic, which is a very guttural sound produced in the throat that is quite foreign to English. Similarly, ד (without dagesh – transcribed with ḏ by scholars) represented the sound of th in the word “then” (as opposed to “thin”), which is represented by [ð] in the International Phonetic Alphabet. Additionally, ת (transcribed as ṯ by scholars) originally represented the th sound in the word “thin” (represented by [θ] in the IPA).
Dagesh kal still appears in all six of the begedkefet letters, but it makes a difference only in the three letters bet, kaf and peh, as demonstrated among those letters that have two sounds. It appears at the beginning of a word or after a closed syllable. This will be clarified with the learning of vocabulary words in Hebrew.
The second type of dagesh – called dagesh forte in Latin and דָּגֵשׁ חָזָק [dagesh chazak] in Hebrew – can appear in almost any letter of the alphabet (including the begedkefet letters already mentioned). The exception exists in the gutturals and resh (discussed below). The purpose of this dagesh is to double the letter in which it is placed. It is similar in function to the shadda of the Arabic language. Thus, חִזֵּק has a doubled second root letter, represented as chizzek essentially. We tend not to represent the dagesh chazak in regular English letters. It is important to know about his doubling only because of the vocalic changes that it causes in syllables before consonants that cannot be doubled with the dagesh.
Among the letters presented above, there are a few letters that share some odd characteristics. Principle among these characteristics is the fact that they resist being doubled by the dagesh chazak. The letters alef (א), heh (ה), chet (ח) and ayin (ע) are called “guttural” letters. Although resh (ר) is not technically a guttural, it behaves like them in that it rejects doubling. Therefore, it is generally included with the gutturals in explanations.
I will need to hold off on a discussion of the differences between gutturals and other letters in terms of how they handle vowels (until the discussion of the vocal sheva), but for now we will say that the gutturals generally do not accept doubling (including resh). The rest of the special nature of these consonants must be saved until later.
Biblical Hebrew actually has a very complicated vowel system. I’ll try to lay it out as simply as possible. Essentially, there are the five vowels that we have in English: a, e, i, o and u. However, they are represented in different forms, one that is long, one that is short and one that can be best related to as “half” vowels. You can basically ignore the difference between them and pronounce them all the same, as is done in modern Hebrew. In the table below, the letter ם is just used to represent any consonant in the alphabet to demonstrate the placement of the vowel.
| Vowels of the Hebrew Language | |||
| Sound | Long | Short | Half |
| a as in father | םָ \ םָה | םַ | םֲ |
| e as in bed | םֵ \ םֵי | םֶ | םֱ |
| i as in machine | םִ \ םִי | םִ | - |
| o as in hope | םֹ \ םוֹ | םָ | םֳ |
| u as in flute | םֻ \ םוּ | םֻ | - |
With this we can see that vowels in Hebrew are marks that appear below the letter in most cases. In one instance, it is to the top left of the letter (םֹ), and in two cases it is to the full left (םוּ and םוֹ). The letters heh (ה), vav (ו) and yod (י) are discussed just below in their use to assist the reader by representing vowel sounds in the text.
You should recognize that in practice, the long, short and half sounds for each vowel are regarded as equivalent. Thus, in speech there are only five vowels in the Hebrew language. It is also worth noting that some distinguish between long and short e, pronouncing the long as the ey in English they and the short as e in bed. This is not observed in modern Hebrew most of the time. Long and short should be regarded as the same sound.
It will also be observed that there are two signs that look the same here. Most of the time, when you come across the symbol םָ it represents the sound a. However, you should be aware that when it is in a syllable that is both closed and unstressed, it is pronounced as o. The most common instance of this is in the word כֹּל (“all, each, every”), which most often appears closely associated with the word after it. In these cases, it loses its own stress to the following word and is followed by a makaf (־) – something similar to a hyphen joining two words together. Hence, we read כָּל־נַפְשְׁךָ as kol nafshecha and not as kal nafshecha. This is the most important instance to notice. Others will become clear as you learn grammar on a deeper level.
Some religious books make a distinction between the a and o in this situation by either making the o longer (see below) or by circling it. Neither is standard practice.
| In some books, םָ (a) can be contrasted with םׇ (o), which is slightly longer. |
The o variant is known as the kamats katan (the “small” kamats), whereas the a variant is known simply as kamats.
The three letters of the alphabet that have been left until now are used as both consonants and vowels. These letters are heh (ה), vav (ו) and yod (י).
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