Pronunciation guide

How to read and say Hebrew

Letters, sounds and stress from Wikivoyage's Hebrew phrasebook. Then hear the phrases and practice them, free.

The Hebrew script is an abjad, not an alphabet, meaning that it consists entirely of consonants, and vowels are usually not written out. Vowels can be indicated by a system of dots and dashes next to the letters (called the Hebrew Nikud), these are normally omitted in modern Hebrew books with the exception in Bibles and children's books. It is common for words, especially foreign words, to be spelled in more than one way; the Abu-l`afia Synagogue has five different spellings of its name on its signs.

The stress is usually on the last syllable; most of the exceptions are segol-ates (words in which segol, the /e/-sound), such as elef "thousand". Some words have a diphthong "ua" or "ia" which is one syllable but sounds like two, like English "oil". This is called patah gnuva "stolen /a/-sound" and occurs in שבוע shavua[`] "week", which is stressed on the -u-.

In conversational Hebrew, only three letters (בכפ) are pronounced differently when they contain a dot in the center called a dagesh.

Five letters (מנצפכ) have a different form at the end of a word (םןץףך, respectively). These are named by adding סופית (sofit - so-FEET) "final" to the name of the letter, e.g. נון סופית (nun sofit - noon so-feet).

Below you will find a list of the letters, those letters which sound differently and have a dagesh (dot in the middle) are noted, as well as letters with final forms. For audio pronunciations of all letter below you can use Free Hebrew Pronouncing Guide

Letter	Name	Romanization	Sounds	Notes
א	Alef	silent A	A, E, I, O, U	Glottal stop or silent; acts as vowel carrier — sound depends on attached vowel
בּ	Bet	b	Ba Be Bi Bo Bu	With dagesh (dot): like b in "big"
ב	Vet	v	Va Ve Vi Vo Vu	Without dagesh: like v in "move"
ג	Gimel	g	Ga Ge Gi Go Gu	Like g in "go"
ד	Dalet	d	Da De Di Do Du	Like d in "dark"
ה	He	h / silent	Ha He Hi Ho Hu	Like h in "he"; silent at end of word after -a or -e
ו	Vav (consonant)	v	Va Ve Vi Vo Vu	Like v in "violin"
ו	Vav (vowel)	o / u	O, U	O as cholam; U as shuruq
ז	Zayin	z	Za Ze Zi Zo Zu	Like z in "zoo"
ח	Het	χ / ħ	χa χe χi χo χu	Like ch in Scottish "loch" / German "Bach" (/χ/); some use Arabic ح (/ħ/)
ט	Tet	t	Ta Te Ti To Tu	Like t in "stick" (unaspirated)
י	Yud (consonant)	y	Ya Ye Yi Yo Yu	Like y in "yet"
י	Yud (vowel)	e / i	E, I	E as tsere; I as hiriq
כּ	Kaf	k	Ka Ke Ki Ko Ku	With dagesh: like k in "skip"
כ ך	Khaf / Khaf sofit	kh	χa χe χi χo χu	Without dagesh: like ch in "loch"; ך is the final form
ל	Lamed	l	La Le Li Lo Lu	Like l in "leave", pronounced forward in the mouth
מ	Mem	m	Ma Me Mi Mo Mu	Like m in "mother"
ם	Mem sofit	m	Ma Me Mi Mo Mu	Final form of Mem
נ	Nun	n	Na Ne Ni No Nu	Like n in "never"
ן	Nun sofit	n	Na Ne Ni No Nu	Final form of Nun
ס	Samekh	s	Sa Se Si So Su	Like s in "some"
ע	Ayin	ʔ / ʕ	A, E, I, O, U	Glottal stop or silent in modern Hebrew; traditional/Mizrahi speakers use pharyngeal ʕ as in Arabic ع
פּ	Peh	p	Pa Pe Pi Po Pu	With dagesh: like p in "spoon"
פ ף	Feh / Feh sofit	f	Fa Fe Fi Fo Fu	Without dagesh: like f in "off"; ף is the final form
צ	Tsadi	ts	Tsa Tse Tsi Tso Tsu	Like ts in "boots"
ץ	Tsadi sofit	ts	Tsa Tse Tsi Tso Tsu	Final form of Tsadi
ק	Kof	k	Ka Ke Ki Ko Ku	Like k in "skip"; same as Kaf with dagesh in modern Hebrew
ר	Resh	ʁ / r	Ra Re Ri Ro Ru	Usually uvular/French r (IPA: [ʁ]); some use rolled r as in Spanish "burro" ([r])
שׁ	Shin	sh	Sha She Shi Sho Shu	Right-hand dot: like sh in "shoot" ([ʃ])
שׂ	Sin	s	Sa Se Si So Su	Left-hand dot: like s in "see"
ת	Tav	t	Ta Te Ti To Tu	Like t in "stick"; same as Tet in modern Hebrew

Geresh (apostrophe ׳) additions — used mainly for sounds borrowed from other languages:

Letter	Name	Sound	Sounds	Example
ג׳	Gimel + geresh	dʒ	Ja Je Ji Jo Ju	like j in "jam" (IPA: [dʒ])
ז׳	Zayin + geresh	ʒ	Ža Že Ži Žo Žu	like s in "pleasure" (IPA: [ʒ])
צ׳ ץ׳	Tsadi + geresh	tʃ	Cha Che Chi Cho Chu	like ch in "chat" (IPA: [tʃ])