The Hebrew alphabet is often called the "alefbet" because of its first two letters "Alef" and "Bet". Hebrew is written from right to left and is shown in order below:

There are two versions of some letters. Kaf, Mem, Nun, Pe, and Tzade all are written differently when they appear at the end of a word than when they appear in the beginning or middle of the word. The version used at the end of a word is referred to as Final Kaf, Final Mem, etc. and is not in the chart above. In all cases except Final Mem, the final version has a long tail.

The alefbet has no vowels but people who are fluent in the language do not need them to read Hebrew. The Hebrew literacy declined, particularly after the Romans expelled the Jews from Israel and the rabbis recognized the need for aids to pronunciation. As a result, they developed a system of dots and dashes called nikkud (points). These dots and dashes are written above, below, or inside the letter in ways that do not alter the spacing of the line. Most nikkud are used to indicate vowels. Text containing these markings is referred to as "pointed" text.