ה, the Hebrew cursive letter he
ה (he) is the 5th letter of the Hebrew alphabet, representing the voiceless glottal fricative /h/ or serves as a mater lectionis for open vowels.
In words
משפחה · family
אהבה · love
תודה · thank you
Easy to confuse with
Looks like ח (het (ח))
The small inner stroke of the he must sit under the end of its top stroke; placed elsewhere, the he can read as a het.
History
ה is the 5th letter of the Hebrew alphabet and has a numerical value of 5. In traditional and modern Hebrew and Yiddish, it represents the voiceless glottal fricative /h/ or serves as a mater lectionis for open vowels.
The cursive letter he is written by forming a curved upper bar that drops into a right leg, accompanied by a separate interior stroke or quick loop that captures the detached left foot of square print in a continuous movement.
He frequently stands alone in handwritten documents as an abbreviation for the divine name (Hashem) or as the definite article prefix in Hebrew sentences.
A dot in a word-final he, the mappiq, shows that it is a consonant and not merely a vowel letter;[1] it marks the third-person feminine possessive.[2] At the start of a Hebrew year he means 5000.[3] As a prefix it can turn a sentence into a question,[4] and as a suffix after a place name it means towards, as in Yerushalaymah, towards Jerusalem.[5] Because it stands for five, he is often found on amulets, where it symbolises the five fingers of a hand.[6]
Sources
- [1] He (letter) — Wikipedia — mappiq in final he (accessed 2026-10-14)
- [2] He (letter) — Wikipedia — third-person feminine possessive (accessed 2026-10-14)
- [3] He (letter) — Wikipedia — at the start of a Hebrew year, 5000 (accessed 2026-10-14)
- [4] He (letter) — Wikipedia — question prefix (accessed 2026-10-14)
- [5] He (letter) — Wikipedia — towards suffix (accessed 2026-10-14)
- [6] He (letter) — Wikipedia — amulets, five fingers (accessed 2026-10-14)