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.