Lesson 1: The Hebrew alphabet (square script). First sounds. Numbers 1–10

Part 1: The key thing to understand about Hebrew script

Hebrew is written right to left. A line starts at the right edge of the page and runs left. Books are bound the other way too — what looks like the "back cover" to you is actually the front.

This isn't cosmetic — it's a flip of your mental model. If you're used to text flowing "like water to the right", here you'll have to retrain your eye. The first three days will feel awkward. On day four it's normal.

The second foundational thing:

The alphabet has 22 letters — all consonants. There are no vowel letters.

This is not a typo. Hebrew writes the consonants; the vowels are either marked by special signs below or above the letter (nikkud — lesson 2) or guessed from context (which is what every adult Israeli does — newspapers and adult books have no nikkud).

Third:

Five letters have two forms: the regular one (at the start or middle of a word) and the final one (at the end of a word). The final form is called sofit (סופית, "final"). Only the shape of the letter changes — the sound is the same.

These are the pairs: כ/ך, מ/ם, נ/ן, פ/ף, צ/ץ. Mnemonic below.

Fourth — the most unexpected thing for an English speaker:

A letter on its own carries no vowel sound. When you see the letter ב, it just means "the consonant B/V". Which vowel comes after it — Ba, Be, Bi, Bo, Bu — is determined by the nikkud (which doesn't appear in real-world text). This is opposite to English, where if you write "B" you've decided how it sounds in that word.

Don't panic: by lesson 22 you'll be reading without nikkud, pulling the vowels out of the word from the root and the pattern. For now — nikkud (lesson 2) gives you temporary scaffolding.

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Part 2: The alphabet — 22 letters in order

The name of the letter is its own name (like "bee", "cee" in English). The sound is how it's read in modern Hebrew. Translit is the standard Latin transcription. Memorize the order — it works like A-B-C, in dictionaries and indexes.

#	Letter	Name	Sound	Translit	Note
1	א	alef	(silent / "glottal stop")	' / none	No sound of its own; a "carrier" for a vowel. This is a mater lectionis — a letter that hints at a vowel.
2	ב	bet	B (with dagesh) / V (without dagesh)	b / v	In modern speech: בּ = "b", ב without a dot = "v". Without nikkud you tell from context.
3	ג	gimel	G	g	Always hard "g", as in "go".
4	ד	dalet	D	d	Clean "d".
5	ה	hey	English h (aspirated) / often silent at word end	h	A light exhalation, not a harsh sound. Often a mater lectionis at the end of a word.
6	ו	vav	V / O / U	v / o / u	The consonant V or a mater lectionis for "o"/"u". Depends on context.
7	ז	zayin	Z	z	Clean "z", as in "zoo".
8	ח	chet	Guttural ch	ch / kh	Deep "ch", from the throat — rougher than the German "ch" in Bach. A new sound; learn it on its own.
9	ט	tet	T	t	Same sound as ת (see below). The historical distinction is gone.
10	י	yod	Y / I	y / i	The consonant "y" or a mater lectionis for "i".
11	כ / ך	kaf / kaf sofit	K (with dagesh) / Ch (without dagesh)	k / kh	כּ = "k", כ without the dot = "ch" (like ח, but softer). Sofit ך — at the end of a word.
12	ל	lamed	L	l	A little softer than English "l", somewhere between "l" and the Italian "gli".
13	מ / ם	mem / mem sofit	M	m	Sofit ם — at the end of a word.
14	נ / ן	nun / nun sofit	N	n	Sofit ן — at the end of a word, long vertical stroke.
15	ס	samech	S	s	Clean "s". Same sound as one of the forms of ש (see below).
16	ע	ayin	(silent / guttural)	'	In modern speech for most Israelis — silent, like א. Among speakers of Middle Eastern origin — a guttural sound. For us: silent.
17	פ / ף	pey / pey sofit	P (with dagesh) / F (without dagesh)	p / f	פּ = "p", פ without the dot = "f". Sofit ף — at the end.
18	צ / ץ	tsadi / tsadi sofit	Ts	ts / tz	Like the "ts" in "cats". Sofit ץ — at the end.
19	ק	kof	K	k	Same sound as כּ. The historical distinction is gone.
20	ר	resh	R	r	Not a rolled English/Spanish "r"! Throaty, like the French or German R.
21	ש	shin / sin	Sh / S	sh / s	With a dot on the right שׁ = "sh", with a dot on the left שׂ = "s". In unpointed text — guess from the word.
22	ת	tav	T	t	Same sound as ט.

Note: in the table the letters are laid out left-to-right — that's for the comfort of your eye. But inside a word Hebrew reads right to left.

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Part 3: Right-to-left direction — flipping your mental model

Take the word שלום (shalom, "hello"). Break it down letter by letter:

• The rightmost letter is ש (shin) → "sh"
• Next to the left — ל (lamed) → "l"
• Next to the left — ו (vav) — here a mater lectionis for "o"
• The leftmost letter is ם (mem sofit) → "m"

Read: sh-l-o-m → "shaLOM". The vowel "a" after sh isn't written — it's supplied by the nikkud (which we haven't shown here).

Rule: the eye moves right to left. The first letter of a word is the rightmost one. The last is the leftmost. The final form (sofit) sits at the left end.

Example with a whole phrase

The phrase "שלום, מה שלומך?" (shalom, ma shlomkha? — "hi, how are you?"):

• Read from the right: שלום → shalom
• Comma (placed as in English)
• Next — מה → ma ("what")
• Next — שלומך → shlomkha ("your wellbeing")
• The question mark at the end — on the left, but oriented "the normal way"

Trap 1: numerals in Hebrew text are written left to right (as in English): 2025. Only letters go right to left. On a single line — two directions at once. Trap 2: if an address or sign contains Latin words — they also run left to right, sitting in the middle of right-to-left text. That's normal.

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Part 4: The five final forms (sofit — סופית)

When one of the five letters lands in the last position of a word, it's written differently. The sound is the same — only the shape changes.

Regular	Sofit	Name	How to remember
כ	ך	kaf / kaf sofit	The sofit "hangs down" with a long tail
מ	ם	mem / mem sofit	The sofit is a closed little square
נ	ן	nun / nun sofit	The sofit is a long vertical stick
פ	ף	pey / pey sofit	The sofit is a hook going down
צ	ץ	tsadi / tsadi sofit	The sofit is a hook with a little notch

Mnemonic (order): "ך ם ן ף ץ" — all five "tails" hang below the baseline, except ם (it's a closed little square sitting on the line). This is the visual marker for "end of word".

Example: שלום — at the end the mem has turned into ם. If you wrote שלומ, that would be a writing error — a mem at the end of a word must take the sofit form.

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Part 5: Letters that sound the same (to an English ear)

In modern speech, historically different letters end up sounding identical. They differ only in writing. You need to know this — otherwise you'll be looking up the wrong letter in the dictionary.

Sound	Which letters	Note
"'" (silent / glottal)	א (alef) and ע (ayin)	For most Israelis, both are just "vowel carriers". Almost impossible to tell apart by ear.
"v"	ב without dagesh and ו (vav as consonant)	By context: ו more often appears in the middle of a word as V between two vowels.
"k"	כּ (kaf with dagesh) and ק (kof)	Same sound, but different letters in the dictionary.
"t"	ט (tet) and ת (tav)	Same sound.
"s"	ס (samech) and שׂ (sin — ש with the dot on the left)	Same sound.
"ch"	ח (chet, guttural) and כ without dagesh (softer)	There actually is a difference: ח is rougher, from the throat. But many Israelis merge them.

Key point: telling these apart by ear is hard (sometimes impossible). So spelling is its own task, the way English has to memorize "knight" vs "night". Learn the whole word, don't try to guess the letter from the sound.

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Part 6: Guttural sounds (new for an English speaker)

English has neither of the two sounds Hebrew uses here. You need to install them from scratch.

The sound ח (chet)

A deep throat "ch", like clearing your throat. Don't mix it up with the soft "h" in English "house" — Hebrew is rougher, lower. Words with ח: חבר (chaver, "friend"), חמש (chamesh, "five").

How to make it: say "k-k-k", then, keeping your tongue in the same position, exhale without closing — you'll get a rough "ch". That's ח.

The sound ר (resh)

Not a rolled Spanish/Italian "r"! The modern Israeli ר is guttural, like the French R or the German R (the one that starts with a soft trill at the back of the throat).

How to make it: try saying English "g", but don't close fully. There should be a rasping airflow at the back of the throat.

Mistake 1 for an English speaker: producing the English alveolar "r" (tongue at the front of the mouth) instead of the throaty one. You'll be understood, but immediately tagged as a foreigner. Mistake 2: confusing ה (h — light exhalation) with ח (ch — rough throat sound). These are completely different. ה — like whispering "h"; ח — like clearing your throat.

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Part 7: Matres lectionis — letters that hint at vowels

Four consonant letters double as "helpers" for vowels. They are א, ה, ו, י — mnemonic: "AHOY" (string them out: alef-hey-vav-yod).

Letter	When "consonant"	When "vowel hint"
א	at the start of a syllable — vowel carrier	(always a "carrier", no sound of its own)
ה	at the start of a word — soft "h"	at the end of a word — usually silent, marks feminine gender
ו	between vowels — "v"	in the middle or at the end — "o" or "u"
י	at the start of a syllable — "y"	in the middle of a word — "i"

This is the critical idea, without which it's impossible to understand how Hebrew reads anything without nikkud at all: half the "vowels" in modern unpointed text are really these four letters, dressed up as vowels. See a ו in the middle of a word — it's most likely an "o" or "u", not a "v".

Example: תודה (toda, "thank you") = tav + vav + dalet + hey. Vav = "o", hey at the end — silent (marking the feminine noun). Reads "toDA".

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Part 8: BeGeD KeFeT — letters with two sounds

Six letters historically had two sounds — "hard" (with a dagesh — a dot inside) and "soft" (without a dagesh). In modern Hebrew the distinction survives only in three of them:

Letter	With dagesh (dot)	Without dagesh
ב	בּ = "b"	ב = "v"
כ / ך	כּ = "k"	כ / ך = "ch"
פ / ף	פּ = "p"	פ / ף = "f"

The name "BeGeD KeFeT" (בגד כפת) is a mnemonic word made from the six letters (ב ג ד כ פ ת). Historically all six had a "hard/soft" variant. In modern speech the distinction is live only for ב, כ, פ. For ג, ד, ת the sound is always one and the same — the dagesh has no effect on pronunciation.

In practice: in unpointed text the dagesh is usually not written, and you tell "b" from "v", "k" from "ch", "p" from "f" from context and from knowing the word. Scary at first, normal later — the way English readers tell "read" (present) from "read" (past) by context.

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Part 10: Numbers 1–10 — masculine and feminine

Hebrew counts in a very strange way: numbers agree in gender with what's being counted. And the masculine form differs from the feminine in a way that's opposite to what an English speaker expects: the masculine numbers (3–10) take an "-ah" suffix that looks like a feminine ending, while the feminine forms are short and "bare".

This is the famous "reversed" system. We'll dig into it in L28. Here — just the forms, to drill them in.

#	Masculine (m)	Translit	Feminine (f)	Translit
1	אחד	echad	אחת	achat
2	שניים	shnayim	שתיים	shtayim
3	שלושה	shlosha	שלוש	shalosh
4	ארבעה	arba'a	ארבע	arba
5	חמישה	chamisha	חמש	chamesh
6	שישה	shisha	שש	shesh
7	שבעה	shiv'a	שבע	sheva
8	שמונה	shmona	שמונה	shmone
9	תשעה	tish'a	תשע	tesha
10	עשרה	asara	עשר	eser

How to pick: counting a masculine noun (sefer — book, m.) → use the masculine form (chamisha sefarim — five books). Counting a feminine noun (mora — teacher, f.) → use the feminine (chamesh morot — five female teachers).

The paradox: the shorter forms (shalosh, arba, chamesh) are feminine. The longer ones with -ah are masculine. This is opposite to English intuition. Don't try to "make sense" of it — just memorize.

Exception: numbers 1 and 2 come after the noun (sefer echad — "book one"), while 3–10 come before (shlosha sfarim — "three books").

Special: the number "8" is spelled the same in both genders (שמונה), but the masculine reads "shmona" and the feminine "shmone". Only the final vowel differs.

When counting "1, 2, 3…" (no noun) — which gender?

When you're just counting off ("one, two, three, four…"), you use the feminine form (achat, shtayim, shalosh, arba, chamesh, shesh, sheva, shmone, tesha, eser). The convention is that an invisible word "unit" (feminine) is implied.

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