Hebrew Alphabet

| 2025-08-29 | Kärnbibeln

Hebrew Alphabet

The Hebrew alphabet consists of 22 letters. Originally, the letters were pictures that illustrated the letter. These pictograms also have a meaning that often reinforces the meaning of the words. The letters also have a numerical value. The first ten have values from 1 to 9, followed by tens from 10 to 90. The last four are 100, 200, 300 and 400.

The 22 letters

There are 22 letters in the Hebrew alphabet. Five of these also have a different form if the letter appears at the end of a word. This final form is called Sofit.

Nr Letter (end) Name Pictogram Numeric value
1 א   Alef ox 1
2 ב   Bet house 2
3 ג   Gimel camel 3
4 ד   Dalet Closed tent door 4
5 ה   He person with raised hands 5
6 ו   Vav tent peg 6
7 ז   Zain sword 7
8 ח   Chet fence 8
9 ט   Tet basket 9
10 י   Jod hand or arm 10
11 כ ך Kaf palm 20
12 ל   Lamed shepherd's crook or ox whip 30
13 מ ם Mem wave or water 40
14 נ ן Nun seed or fish. The modern word Nun means to continue, offspring and heir. 50
15 ס   Samech pillar, shield or thorn bush 60
16 ע‎   Ajin eye 70
17 פ ף Pe mouth 80
18 צ‎ ץ Tsade a fish hook or a man bowing down in humility 90
19 ק‎   Qof the back of one's head or the eye of a needle 100
20 ר‎   Resh head seen from the side 200
21 ש‎   Shin two teeth 300
22 ת   Tav A cross, probably two sticks crossed to mark a spot. 400

The twelfth Hebrew letter is Lamed (ל). It is the longest letter in the Hebrew alphabet in terms of size. This makes it highly visible, as it is the only letter that is so tall that it protrudes above the imaginary top line along the upper edge of the letters. This means that when writing the alphabet, there are two groups of 11 letters in each group, with Lamed starting the second group.

Below, Lamed is marked in yellow (the alphabet is read from right to left):

אבגדהוזחטיכלמנסעפצקרשת

Sofit - final form

Five letters have a different final form: Kaf, Mem, Nun, Pe, Tsadi. Hebrew sofit (סופית) means final/end. If this letter comes last in a word, this form is used.

Dagesh – dots that marks sound

Dagesh is a dot placed in the middle of certain letters to indicate pronunciation. Dagesh means emphasis.

בּ with dagesh (with a dot in the middle) is pronounced B

ב without dagesh (a dot) is pronounced V

There is also a use of dagesh that can be placed in almost all letters. This emphasis is then called Dagash-chazaq or Dagash-forte. What this marking does is double the consonant. It is used to indicate that there is a pause or breath in the word. For example, וַיִּהְיוּ (vajeho) helps the reader to see that it should be pronounced vaj-je-jo. The first part is ‘vaj’, then you start again with j, so it becomes “je” followed by the last part ‘jo’.

Maqqaf – hyphen

To combine two words into a new word, a hyphen, known as a maqqaf, is used. The symbol is written as a hyphen in the upper imaginary line ־.

Nikud – markings for the pronunciation of vowel sounds

Nikud is a system of various markings under letters to indicate vowel sounds.

Symbol Name Transliteration Comment
בְ Shva e Two vertical dots. Shva is treated as a vowel and written with an ‘e’ where necessary. Since Shva is not formally a vowel but a separate character that can be both silent and voiced, we use it as a vowel when necessary to facilitate reading in a Swedish context.
מֹ Cholem o A dot above the upper left corner
קֻ Qibbuts u Three diagonal dots under the letter
וּ Shorek
(Vav-Shruka)		 o The letter Vav with a dot in the middle on the left. Traditionally, this is often transliterated as ‘u’, but since it is an o-sound, the Kärnbibeln uses the letter ‘o’.
וֹ Cholam (Vav-Chaluma, Cholam Male) ó Bokstaven Vav med en punkt över (eller lite till vänster). The letter Vav with a dot above (or slightly to the left). Pronounced like ‘å’. The Core Bible uses the letter o with an accent mark (ó).
בִ Chirek i A dot under the letter
בֶ Segol e Three dots forming a triangle
בֵ Tsere e Two dots under the letter
בָ Kamats a Two lines under the letter, resembling a T
בַ Patach a Horizontal line under the letter

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