Learn the Hebrew Alphabet (Aleph Bet)

The Hebrew alphabet — the Aleph Bet — has 22 letters, and every one of them is a consonant. That single fact explains most of what feels unfamiliar to an English-speaking family at the start. There are no vowel letters in the way English has A, E, I, O and U. Vowel sounds are carried instead by Nikud: small dots and dashes written underneath, inside, or above the letters. Children's books, prayer books, and beginning school texts all include those marks, which is why a child who learns letters plus Nikud can read almost any book written for their age.

Five of the 22 letters change shape when they land at the end of a word: כ becomes ך, מ becomes ם, נ becomes ן, פ becomes ף, and צ becomes ץ. These are called final forms, or sofit letters. They make no new sound — they are simply how the letter is written in that position — so most children pick them up quickly once they have met the regular form first.

A few letters are worth flagging early because they trip up new readers. Aleph (א) and Ayin (ע) are silent on their own and take whatever vowel sits beneath them. Bet (ב), Kaf (כ) and Pe (פ) each have two sounds depending on whether they carry a dot in the middle: B/V, K/KH, and P/F. And several pairs sound identical in modern Hebrew — Tet (ט) and Tav (ת) both say T, Kaf (כ) and Kuf (ק) both say K, Samech (ס) and Sin (שׂ) both say S — which matters for spelling later, but not for reading now.

Tap any letter below to open its own guide, with the letter's sound, how it is written, the words children usually meet it in first, and a short practice list.