The Hebrew Alphabet

The Hebrew alphabet has twenty-two consonants. It is written from the right to the left.
Five consonants are modified when at the end of a word. Six consonants have two ways of pronunciation (hard and soft).

The Alphabet (Form, Final Form, Name Pronunciation)

א Aleph Silent

בּ (ב) Beth Hard – B as bat; Soft – V as very

גּ (ג) Gimel G in goat

דּ (ד) Daleth Hard – D in done; Soft – Th in them

ה He H in hot

ו Waw (vav) W as in with

ז Zayin Z in zoom

ח Heth Ch in character

ט Teth T in tone

י Yodh Y in you

כּ (כ) ך (ךּ) Kaph Hard - K in keep; Soft – Ch as in bach

ל Lamedh L in let

מ ם Mem M in mom

נ ן Nun N in net

ס Samekh S in sun

ע Ayin Silent

פּ (פ) ף Pe Hard - P in play; Soft – Ph as in phew

צ ץ TSadhe Ts in tsar

ק Qoph Q in antique

ר Resh R as right

שׂ Sin S in summer

שׁ Shin S in shop

תּ (ת) Taw Hard – T in take; Soft – Th in three

שׂ and שׁ are consider the same consonant.

The five consonants that have final ending form changes.

Ending Form, Primary Form

כ ך

נ ן

פ ף

צ ץ

מ ם

Five consonants are pronounced with a strong or soft emphasis.

These are known by the beghadh kephath mnemonic. When written with a dot inside the letter, called a daghesh lene (כּ), they are pronounced with a hard sound.

תּ פּ כּ דּ גּ בּ (beghadh kephath)

Alpeh (א) and Ayin (ע) are guttural consonants pronounced with a slight audible breath; hence in English they are considered to be silent.