The Hebrew Alphabet

 א AlephA cutting off of the breath, like the 'h' in 'honest'1
בּב BethThe dotted Beth is pronounced 'b,' the undotted 'v'2
גּג GimelThe dotted Gimel is a hard 'g,' and the undotted is a soft gutteral 'gh'3
דּד DalethThe dotted Daleth is pronounced 'd,' and the undotted is a voiced 'th' as in 'the'4
 ה HeyPronounced 'h'5
 ו WawPronounced 'w'6
 ז ZayinPronounced 'z'7
 ח HethA gutteral 'h' as in the Scottish 'loch'8
 ט TethA dull 't'9
 י YodPronounced 'y'10
כּכךKaphThe dotted Kaph is 'k,' undotted 'ch'20
 ל LamedPronounced 'l'30
 מםMemPronounced 'm'40
 נןNunPronounced 'n'50
 ס SamekA dull 's'60
 ע AyinHard to pronounce. Like a gulping sound.70
פּפףPeyThe dotted Pey is 'p,' undotted is 'f'80
 צץTsadeA harsh dental 's'90
 ק KophA 'k' at the back of the throat100
 ר ReshPronounced 'r'200
שׂשׁ Sin, ShinSin (with a dot over the left) pronounced 's,' Shin (dot over the right) is 'sh'300
תּת TawThe dotted Taw is a 't,' undotted 'th' as in 'think'400

The Hebrew characters shown here are those of the "square" script, which the Jews borrowed from Assyria during the Babylonian exile. Prior to that, Israelites had used alphabetical characters closely resembling those of the Phoenicians, who were the first to devise a phonetic alphabet. The original characters of the Phoenician alphabet are shown above the corresponding "square" script characters in the table below.

The Phoenician alphabet (top) compared with the square Hebrew characters

The historical development of the Hebrew alphabet may be seen in the Table of Alphabets by M. Lidzbarski.