Words, languages, meanings.

Hebrew is written and read from right to left — the opposite direction from English.

Hebrew letters are consonants first. Vowel sounds are added separately, as small marks (called niqqud) printed above, below or beside a letter — most everyday Hebrew text is written without them, the way English text doesn't spell out every syllable's stress.

A dagesh is a dot placed inside certain letters. For a handful of them (shown below) it changes the sound — for example ב is "v" without a dagesh but "b" with one. For most letters today it makes no audible difference and is mostly a historical spelling convention.

Five letters — Kaf, Mem, Nun, Pe and Tsadi — take a different shape when they fall at the end of a word. These are called final forms: same letter, same sound, different silhouette because of where it sits in the word.