Any questions?

Please email questions to shalom@tov.com

The Hebrew Alphabet — Printable Reference
הָאָלֶפְבֵּית הָעִבְרִי
א ב ג ד ה ו ז ח ט י כ ל מ נ ס ע פ צ ק ר ש ת

The Hebrew Alphabet

Modern Hebrew letters, final forms, sounds, traditional numerical values, and their relationship to the ancient Northwest Semitic writing tradition.

About this table. This reference brings together the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet, their five special final forms, modern Israeli pronunciation, traditional numerical values, and standardized Phoenician characters from the ancestral Northwest Semitic writing tradition. The final column summarizes commonly proposed origins of the letter names and, where appropriate, their traditional pictorial associations. Because the earliest forms and meanings of several letter names remain uncertain, disputed interpretations are identified as such rather than presented as established linguistic facts.

Ancient Script Reference Images

Paleo-Hebrew alphabet, an open-license Wikimedia Commons illustration
Paleo-Hebrew abjad. Illustration by W1k0, Wikimedia Commons, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source page.
Phoenician alphabet, public-domain Wikimedia Commons illustration
Phoenician alphabet. Wikimedia Commons illustration by Luca; released to the public domain. Source page.

Alphabet Table

Modern Final Letter name Romanization Modern sound / use Value Phoenician Name-origin / pictorial association
א — Alef ʾ / often silent Usually silent in modern speech; historically a glottal stop /ʔ/. 1 𐤀 Ox / cattle; one of the clearer traditional acrophonic name associations.
ב — Bet / Vet b / v בּ = b; ב = v. 2 𐤁 House.
ג — Gimel g Hard g as in “go.” 3 𐤂 Often connected with “camel”; the ancient etymology is not completely certain.
ד — Dalet d d as in “door.” 4 𐤃 Door.
ה — He h h as in “house”; may be silent word-finally. 5 𐤄 Ancient name origin uncertain; proposed pictorial explanations vary.
ו — Vav v v in modern Israeli Hebrew; historically /w/. 6 𐤅 Traditionally associated with a hook or peg.
ז — Zayin z z as in “zone.” 7 𐤆 Ancient etymology uncertain; traditionally associated with a weapon.
ח — Het ḥ / kh A voiceless guttural sound, commonly /χ/ in Israeli Hebrew. 8 𐤇 Ancient etymology uncertain; often associated with an enclosure or fence.
ט — Tet t t in modern Hebrew; historically distinct from Tav. 9 𐤈 Ancient name origin is uncertain.
י — Yod y y as in “yes”; also functions in vowel spelling. 10 𐤉 Hand.
כ ך Kaf / Khaf k / kh כּ = k; כ/ך = /χ/ (“kh”). 20 𐤊 Palm of the hand.
ל — Lamed l l as in “light.” 30 𐤋 Goad or staff used to drive animals.
מ ם Mem m m as in “mother.” 40 𐤌 Water.
נ ן Nun n n as in “now.” 50 𐤍 Ancient etymology uncertain; often associated with a fish.
ס — Samekh s s as in “sun.” 60 𐤎 Ancient name origin uncertain; later Hebrew associations with “support” should not be treated as certain pictorial history.
ע — Ayin ʿ / often silent Usually not pronounced distinctly in mainstream Israeli Hebrew; historically /ʕ/. 70 𐤏 Eye.
פ ף Pe / Fe p / f פּ = p; פ/ף = f. 80 𐤐 Mouth.
צ ץ Tsadi ts ts as in “cats.” 90 𐤑 Ancient name origin is uncertain.
ק — Qof q / k Usually pronounced k in modern Israeli Hebrew. 100 𐤒 Ancient etymology uncertain; several traditional proposals exist.
ר — Resh r Modern Israeli pronunciation is commonly uvular; other Hebrew traditions use a trilled/tapped r. 200 𐤓 Head.
ש — Shin / Sin sh / s שׁ = sh; שׂ = s. 300 𐤔 Tooth.
ת — Tav t t in modern Israeli Hebrew. 400 𐤕 Mark or sign.
Reading notes. Hebrew is written from right to left. Five letters have special final forms: ך, ם, ן, ף, ץ. In ordinary gematria the final forms retain the same values as their standard forms. The Phoenician column uses Unicode Phoenician characters (U+10900–U+10915), which gives a standardized, non-copyrightable textual representation of the ancient script family; actual inscriptional forms vary by place and period.
Pronunciation note. Modern Israeli Hebrew has merged several distinctions that existed in earlier Hebrew. For example, Vav is normally /v/ today but derives from an earlier /w/ sound, and Ayin is frequently not pronounced as a separate consonant in mainstream Israeli speech. Bet, Kaf, and Pe still show familiar stop/fricative alternations associated with the presence or absence of a dagesh.

Sources & Licensing

  • Unicode Consortium: Unicode character charts for Hebrew and Phoenician. Unicode Character Code Charts.
  • Paleo-Hebrew illustration: “Paleo-Hebrew abjad.svg,” W1k0, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0. The image is shown unchanged and attributed above.
  • Phoenician illustration: “Phoenician alphabet.svg,” Luca, Wikimedia Commons, public domain.
  • Editorial approach: letter names, modern pronunciations, and standard gematria values are presented as reference data. Where the ancient etymology or pictorial origin of a letter name is disputed, the table says so rather than assigning a speculative symbolic meaning.