Alephbet 101 / Hebrew Reading FAQ

Is it hard to learn to read Hebrew?

The quick answer: it can be super easy and fun! I've seen a lot of boring ways of teaching Hebrew reading, which is why I made this site. The CartoonHebrew method is based on how I've learned lots of cool writing systems (including Russian, Chinese and the three writing systems of Japanese), and how I've taught my friends to read Hebrew in less than an hour!

Learning the Alephbet: The Hebrew Alphabet

Hebrew writing works differently than the English alphabet, so here's a little intro to what you can expect. If you just can't wait, though, click below to skip to the first letter of the Alephbet.

The Alephbet (also spelled Alephbet) is named after the first two letters, Aleph (Aleph) and Bet. It's a lot like how we sometimes call our English alphabet the ABC's.

In Hebrew, the letters are all consonants! What about vowels? Read on...

The Letters (Consonants)

The letters of the Alephbet look like this:

aleph bet vet gimel dalet hey vav zayin chet tet yod kaf chaf chaf-sofit lamed mem mem-sofit nun nun-sofit samech ayin peh feh tsadi tsadi-sofit kuf resh shin sin tav

The Vowel Marks

All of the letters are actually consonants. The vowels are marks like dots and dashes that are added to the letters, like this:

patach segol tsere vavo cholam vavu kamats shva chirik chet-patach kubuts short-vowels

The Good News About the Alephbet

Where Hebrew is Special and New

We'll be using the vowels to teach you to read.

Let's get started learning to read Hebrew!

We'll start at the beginning, with the letter Aleph.

Get started!

It's easy to get started: try learning your first letter!