Hebrew Letter Values

Every Letter and Its Number

How the Counting Works

The values are not arbitrary. They follow the alphabet in three ranks: the first nine letters are the units 1 to 9, the next nine are the tens 10 to 90, and the remaining four are 100, 200, 300 and 400. Position in the alphabet decides everything.

That leaves a problem at the top. Twenty two letters cannot reach 900, so numbers above 400 are built by addition. 500 is tav plus qof, 400 + 100. 900 is tav, tav, qof: 400 + 400 + 100. The system is purely additive, with no place value and no zero, so the order of letters is a reading convention rather than arithmetic.

Why 15 and 16 Are Written Oddly

Fifteen would naturally be yod-he, 10 + 5, and sixteen would be yod-vav, 10 + 6. Both spell fragments of the divine name, so tradition avoids them. Fifteen is written טו, tet-vav, which is 9 + 6, and sixteen is טז, tet-zayin, 9 + 7.

This is not a curiosity confined to religious texts. It is how the fifteenth and sixteenth day of any Hebrew month are written, including on ordinary calendars, and it is the one place where the numbering system visibly bends around something outside arithmetic.

The Marks That Make Letters Into Numbers

Without a mark, a string of Hebrew letters is a word. Two pieces of punctuation signal that it should be read as a number instead. A geresh, a single stroke, follows a one letter number. A gershayim, a double stroke, sits before the last letter of a longer one.

So ז״ is seven, and תשפ״ו is a year. A geresh can also mark thousands, which is why Hebrew years are often written with the thousands digit separated, though in everyday use the thousands are frequently dropped altogether and only the last three digits appear.

Where You Meet These Numbers

Counting Numbers Is Not Gematria

The same values do two different jobs, and keeping them apart avoids most of the confusion around this subject. Writing תשפ״ו for a year is counting: the letters are the number and spell nothing. Adding the letters of אמת to reach 441 is gematria: the letters spell a word, and the total is a property of that word.

The arithmetic is identical. The intent is not, and no interpretive claim attaches to a date written in letters. If you want the gematria side, the Hebrew gematria calculator applies all four classical methods, and the alphabet chart lays the values out for printing.

Final Letters

Five letters change shape at the end of a word: kaf, mem, nun, pe and tsadi. For counting, the change is cosmetic and the value does not move, so a final mem is still 40. The extended values of 500 to 900 belong to Mispar Gadol, a gematria method, and do not apply when you are simply writing a number.

The Greek numeral system solved the same shortfall differently, keeping three obsolete letters as numerals. The Greek numerals converter handles that side, and the date calculator writes any calendar date in these letters.

Frequently Asked Questions