How many letters are in the Hebrew alphabet?

22, all of them consonants. Five letters (כ מ נ פ צ) have a separate final form used at the end of a word (ך ם ן ף ץ), so the keyboard has 27 letter keys.

What are Hebrew final letters?

The forms ך ם ן ף ץ, used only as the last letter of a word. For example, מים (water) starts with מ and ends with ם. Using the regular form at the end of a word is a spelling error.

How do I type Hebrew vowels (niqqud)?

Type the letter first, then open Niqqud and tap the vowel point: ב + ָ gives בָ. The popup also has dagesh (ּ) and the shin and sin dots (שׁ, שׂ).

Why is Hebrew usually written without vowels?

Hebrew readers recognise words from their consonants, so everyday text, newspapers and signs leave the vowels out. Niqqud is added in children’s books, poetry, prayer books and when a word could be misread.

Which keyboard layout does this page use?

The Israeli standard layout, SI-1452, the one on keyboards sold in Israel. Hebrew starts at the E key (ק); Q and W carry / and ’ on that layout.

Why did my Hebrew come out as “akuo”?

Your computer was set to the English layout while you typed Hebrew by position. On the Israeli layout A is ש, K is ל, U is ו and O is ם, so שלום becomes “akuo”. Typing on this page avoids that.

Why does punctuation jump to the wrong end of my Hebrew sentence?

Hebrew runs right to left, while numbers and Latin words inside it run left to right. Apps that do not handle mixed direction can show a full stop or bracket at the wrong end. The text itself is correct; the app is displaying it wrongly.

What are geresh (׳) and gershayim (״)?

Hebrew punctuation marks. Geresh marks abbreviations and sounds borrowed from other languages, as in ג׳ for “j”. Gershayim marks acronyms, as in צה״ל, and numbers written with letters. Both are in the Niqqud popup.

Do Hebrew letters have number values?

Yes. א is 1, י is 10, ק is 100, and so on. The word חי (alive) adds up to 18, which is why gifts are often given in multiples of 18, and the Hebrew calendar writes its years in letters.

Where did the Hebrew alphabet come from?

The square script used today developed from the Aramaic alphabet during the Second Temple period and was established by the 1st century CE. Ancient Hebrew was first written in the older Paleo-Hebrew script.

Who revived spoken Hebrew?

Eliezer Ben-Yehuda, together with teachers and families in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, turned Hebrew from a language of prayer and study back into an everyday spoken language.

How many people speak Hebrew?

About 5 million people speak Hebrew natively, and about 9 million speak it in total, most of them in Israel, with large communities in the United States and elsewhere.

Is Yiddish written with the same letters?

Yes, Yiddish uses the Hebrew alphabet, but it adds combinations like װ, ױ and ײ and writes vowels with letters. This keyboard is set up for Modern Hebrew.

Why is alef shown as ʼ and ayin as ʿ?

They show each letter’s sound. ʼ marks alef and ʿ marks ayin, which are often silent in Modern Hebrew; ח is ḥ, a sound like the ch in Scottish “loch”.

What is the ₪ symbol?

The sign of the Israeli new shekel. It is in the Niqqud popup with the other Hebrew marks.

Why does the full stop key type ץ in Hebrew?

On the long-standing Israeli layout, the comma key types ת, the full stop key types ץ and the semicolon key types ף. The full stop sits on the slash key and the comma on the apostrophe key, while Q and W type / and '. The 2018 SI-1452-2 variant moves the full stop, comma, apostrophe and slash back to their English positions.

Why is אמא sometimes written אימא?

Because of ktiv male, the “full spelling” used for Hebrew without vowel points. It adds ו and י to show vowels, so שניים (two) and אימא (mum) gain a letter compared with their pointed forms. The Academy of the Hebrew Language set the rules for spelling without niqqud in 1996 and recommends adding a vowel point only when a word would otherwise be ambiguous.

Why does handwritten Hebrew look different from typed Hebrew?

Israelis write by hand in cursive Hebrew, a script that developed among Ashkenazi Jews in Central Europe by the 13th century. Many letters are simplified or rounded in cursive, and א is written in two separate parts, so a handwritten note can be hard to match to the printed letters on a keyboard. Typed text always uses the square print forms.

Hebrew Keyboard Onlineמקלדת עברית

All 22 Hebrew letters and 5 final forms on the Israeli layout, typing right to left, with niqqud vowel points and ₪ one tap away.

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Hebrew square Script

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The Hebrew letters used today came from Aramaic. Ancient Israel first wrote Hebrew in the Paleo-Hebrew script, whose descendant is still used by the Samaritans. During the Second Temple period the “square” Aramaic script replaced it, a change that was complete by the 1st century CE; the Dead Sea Scrolls are largely written in it. The alphabet has 22 letters, all consonants, and five of them have a separate final form. Vowels were not written at all until scholars known as the Masoretes developed systems of vowel points, niqqud, between roughly the 7th and 10th centuries, to preserve the exact reading of the Bible. For almost two thousand years Hebrew was a written language of prayer and scholarship; at the end of the 19th century Eliezer Ben-Yehuda and others revived it as an everyday spoken language. Today about 5 million people speak it natively and about 9 million speak it in all. Hebrew has been in Unicode since its first version in 1991.

Everyday Hebrew is written without vowels. Only consonants appear on signs, in newspapers and in messages, and readers supply the vowels from context. Niqqud, the system of dots and dashes above and below the letters, is added in children’s books, poetry and prayer books: שלום becomes שָׁלוֹם. Five letters, כ מ נ פ צ, change shape at the end of a word (ך ם ן ף ץ), so מים (water) uses both forms of the same letter. Every letter also has a number value: חי, “alive”, equals 18.

Hebrew is typed on the Israeli SI-1452 layout, and mixing it up is the most common slip. On that layout Q and W are punctuation keys, A is ש, K is ל, U is ו and O is ם, so a message typed with the English layout on comes out as “akuo” instead of שלום. The second problem is direction. Hebrew runs right to left while numbers and Latin words inside it run left to right, so pasting mixed text into an app that does not handle direction can move punctuation to the wrong end of a sentence. Niqqud is hard to reach too: most phone keyboards hide the vowel points behind long presses, if they offer them at all, which matters for teachers, students, poets and anyone writing a name that must be read exactly. Large Hebrew-speaking communities live outside Israel, above all in the United States. This keyboard shows all 27 letter forms, types right to left, and puts the niqqud points, geresh, gershayim, maqaf and the shekel sign ₪ in one popup.

Hebrew Keyboard Onlineמקלדת עברית

One click to insert — or copy straight to clipboard

How To Use

Type

Copy

Paste

Hebrew Keyboard for Any App

Snapchat

WhatsApp

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Free Hebrew Keyboard Online.
Type from any device — no download, no install.

The Vowels Hide Under the Letters

שלום → שָׁלוֹם

Five letters change at the end

חי = 18

“akuo” means שלום

Frequently Asked
Questions

Free Keyboards, All Online

Hebrew Keyboard Onlineמקלדת עברית

One click to insert — or copy straight to clipboard

How To Use

Type

Copy

Paste

Hebrew Keyboard for Any App

Snapchat

WhatsApp

Instagram

TikTok

Free Hebrew Keyboard Online.Type from any device — no download, no install.

The Vowels Hide Under the Letters

שלום → שָׁלוֹם

Five letters change at the end

חי = 18

“akuo” means שלום

Frequently AskedQuestions

Free Keyboards, All Online

Free Hebrew Keyboard Online.
Type from any device — no download, no install.

Frequently Asked
Questions