Find my free printable Hebrew Alphabet Flash Cards here!
Many Christians learn the Biblical Hebrew language to illuminate their Bible studies. Knowledge of the original languages brings an understanding of the Bible that can’t be reached through a translation.
Hebrew can be intimidating to English speakers because it’s a different alphabet, for starters. Not only do we have to learn the language, but we also have to start by learning an entirely different alphabet!
It’s not as difficult as it sounds, though. There are only 22 letters in the Hebrew alphabet and 12 vowels, called nikkud. Most Hebrew students start by learning the letters and their sounds, which isn’t very difficult with a bit of practice.
Here are my free printable Hebrew Alphabet Flash Cards so you can get started on memorizing the alphabet today!
The Hebrew alphabet is often called the aleph-bet because the first two letters are aleph and bet. Most letters have the same sound as the beginning of their name. For example, bet makes the “b” sound. That makes most letters easy to remember.
There are also some sounds in Hebrew that we don’t have in English, called gutturals. The letter Chet makes the same sound as the “ch” in “Bach.” You make this sound in the back of your throat like you’re clearing your throat.
Here’s a song commonly used to memorize the Hebrew alphabet. Putting the letters to music makes them so easy to remember!
א Aleph
Aleph is one of two letters in the Hebrew alphabet that are silent. When pronounced, it takes the sound of whatever vowel it accompanies.
בּ Bet
Bet is pronounced “b,” just like the letter B in English.
ב Vet
A vet is just a bet without the dot inside. The dot is called a dagesh, and vet is pronounced “v” like the letter V in English.
ג Gimmel
Gimmel makes a hard G sound, as in “goat.” It may have a dagesh inside like this גּ, but it makes the same sound with or without the dagesh.
ד Dalet
Dalet is pronounced “d,” like the letter D in English. It can also carry a dagesh, which doesn’t change its sound like this דּ.
ה Hay
Hay is pronounced “h” like the letter H in English. When it appears at the end of a word, it’s silent. It sometimes has a dot inside (הּ), called a mappiq, instead of a dagesh that appears in other letters. It indicates that the hay should be pronounced as a consonant, even though it may appear in a place in a word where it would usually be silent.
ו Vav
Vav makes the “v” sound, exactly like the letter vet above. What makes vav interesting is that it can also function as two different vowel sounds. When it appears as וֹ (called holem vav), it’s pronounced “oh,” like the sound at the end of “mow,” and when you see וּ (called shurek), you’d pronounce it “ooo” like the sound at the end of “blue.”
ז Zayin
Zayin is pronounced “zzz,” like the letter Z in English. It can carry a dagesh (זּ), which doesn’t change the pronunciation.
ח Chet
Chet is one of the guttural letters in Hebrew and, as I said above, is pronounced in the back of your throat and sounds like the “ch” in the name “Bach.”
ט Tet
Tet is pronounced “t” like the letter T in English. It will sometimes appear with a dagesh (טּ), which doesn’t change its pronunciation.
י Yod
The tiny letter yod sounds like the English letter “y,” as in “yellow.” Like others, it can carry a dagesh (יּ), which doesn’t change its pronunciation.
כּ Kaf
Kaf is pronounced “k” like the English letter K. It’s always pronounced this way when the dot (dagesh) is present. Without the dagesh, it makes the sound of the next letter on this list, Chaf.
כ Chaf
The “ch” in the name of the letter chaf is pronounced as a guttural, similar to the “ch” in “Bach,” like the letter chet above. It makes the same sound as chet also, the “ch” sound. When this letter has a dagesh, it makes the sound “k,” as described above.
What’s unique about Chaf that I haven’t discussed yet is that it looks different when it appears at the end of a word. Five Hebrew letters do this, and this end form of a letter is called the final (or sofit) form. When at the end of a word, chaf will look like this: ך.
ל Lamed
Lamed makes the same “l” sound as the letter L in English. Lamed may have a dagesh and look like this (לּ) but is pronounced the same.
מ Mem
Mem is pronounced “mmm,” like the letter M in English, and its sound is not changed when it appears with a dagesh (מּ). Mem also has a final form, ם, which is almost always found only when a mem is at the end of a word.
נ Nun
Nun (Pronounced both noon and nun) is pronounced “n” like the English letter N. It can have a dagesh, which would look like this (נּ), but the pronunciation remains the same. Nun has a final form for when it’s found at the end of a word, which looks like this: ן..
ס Samech
Samech is pronounced like the English letter S and is pronounced “s.” It can also have a dagesh (סּ) and is pronounced the same if it does.
ע Ayin
Like aleph, ayin is a silent letter. It only makes the sound of the vowel that accompanies it.
פּ Pey
Pey is pronounced “p,” like the letter P in the English alphabet. If it has a dagesh, it’s pronounced “p,” and if it doesn’t, it’s pronounced “f,” further explained below.
פ Fey
Fey is, like the English letter F, pronounced “f.” This sound is made only when it doesn’t have a dagesh because if it does, it’s pronounced “p.” Fey also has a final form, ף, for when it appears at the end of a word.
צ Tsade
This letter’s name is pronounced tsa-dee, with the “ts” being a consonant blend sound like the sound at the end of the word “nuts.” The “ts” sound is also the way the letter is pronounced. It’s said the same when it contains a dagesh and has a final form (ץ) when it’s at the end of a word.
ק Qof
Qof makes the “q” sound like the English letter Q. It can also appear with a dagesh, pronounced the same.
ר Resh
Resh is pronounced “rrr” like the English letter R. It’s a guttural, so it’s said from the back of your throat and is rolled like the letter R in Spanish.
שׁ Shin
Shin is pronounced “sh” like the commonly-used consonant blend in English, and it sounds the same when it has a dagesh. Which side the dot on top is on indicates whether it’s pronounced “sh” or “s.”
שׂ Sin
The name of this letter is pronounced sin or seen. It makes the same sound as the letter S in English, “sss.” This sound is the same as the letter samech, and sin makes the same sound when it has a dagesh. Pay careful attention to which side the dot is on, as this is what differentiates between shin and sin.
ת Tav
Tav, the last letter in the Hebrew alphabet, is pronounced “t” just like the English letter T. It sounds the same when it has a dagesh, like this: תּ.
That’s it! Pretty simple, right? With a bit of practice, you can master the Hebrew alphabet and, in doing so, conquer the first step to your knowledge of the Hebrew language!
For more helpful resources for learning Hebrew, visit my Resources page!
