The Hebrew Alphabet and Right-to-Left Script
Start reading Hebrew in its own script. Meet the alphabet, learn that it reads right to left with no capital letters, and discover the special final forms letters take at the end of a word.
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Meet the Hebrew alphabet 📜
Hebrew is written with an alphabet of **22 letters**, and it reads and writes **right to left**, the opposite of English. There are **no capital letters**. In everyday Modern Hebrew the vowels are usually not written, so you read **unpointed** text: just the consonant letters. Let us meet some of them.
The first letters 🔑
Each Hebrew letter has a name and a sound. Here are the first few:
Which way do you read? ↔️
The biggest change from English is the direction. Compare the two:
Match the letter to its name 🔗
- א
- ב
- ג
- ד
- Alef
- Bet
- Gimel
- Dalet
Which letter? 🔊
Which letter makes the sound b?
- ב Bet
- ד Dalet
- ג Gimel
- ה He
Letters that change at the end 🔚
Five letters change shape when they come at the **end** of a word. These are the **final forms**, or sofit. For example, the letter Mem is written מ inside a word, but ם at the end. The five letters with final forms are Kaf, Mem, Nun, Pe and Tsadi.
Match the letter to its sound 🔤
- ו
- ש
- ל
- ר
- the sound v
- the sound sh
- the sound l
- the sound r
Final forms? ✅
Select the TWO letters that have a special final form at the end of a word.
- מ Mem
- נ Nun
- ב Bet
- ד Dalet
Alphabet order 🪜
An interactive activity.
Complete the facts 🧩
The Hebrew alphabet has _____ letters. It is read from right to _____. It has no _____ letters. Five letters have a special _____ form used at the end of a word. When the vowels are not written, the text is called _____.
Spot the true statements 🖍️
An interactive activity.
Use the script 🧭
An interactive activity.
Explain the script ✍️
An interactive activity.