The Hebrew alphabet in print and ksiva
The Hebrew alphabet has 22 letters, and each one has two shapes a child must learn: the print form used in books and siddurim, and the ksiva form used for handwriting. Five letters take a third shape at the end of a word. Every form is below, in alef beis order, right to left.
- print — the letter you read
- ksiva — the letter you write
- Alef 1
- Beis-Veis 2
- Gimmel 3
- Dalet 4
- Hai 5
- Vov 6
- Zayen 7
- Ches 8
- Tess 9
- Yud 10
- Kof-Chof 20
- Lamed 30
- Mem 40
- Noon 50
- Samech 60
- Ahyin 70
- Pai-Fai 80
- Tsadik 90
- Koof 100
- Raish 200
- Shinn-Sinn 300
- Tov-Sov 400
What is ksiva?
Ksiva is Hebrew handwriting — the script a person actually writes in, as distinct from the print letters they read. It is not a decorative variant. For several letters the two shapes have nothing in common: print mem is מ and ksiva mem is a shape closer to a printed N, and print shin has three arms where ksiva shin is a single loop. A child who knows only print cannot write, and a child who knows only ksiva cannot read a siddur.
Which letters change at the end of a word?
Five. Chof, mem, noon, fai and tsadik each take a final form — a sofis — when they fall at the end of a word: ך ם ן ף ץ. Four of the five drop below the line, which is the first time most children write anything that does.
A printable chart
The chart below sets all 22 letters in both scripts on one sheet, drawn from the workbook's own letterforms. It is free, there is nothing to fill in, and it prints on a single page. Put it on a classroom wall or give a copy to each child.
Where these letters come from
Every letterform on this page is taken from My Ksiva Workbook, an 82-page Hebrew handwriting workbook by Menucha Zeligwarger, a teacher of more than twenty years. The ksiva forms carry the book's own stroke-order marks, which is how the workbook shows a child where a letter begins.