Hebrew Numeral Converter
Type a number and get its Hebrew letter numeral — 5786 is ה׳תשפ״ו, and 15 is ט״ו rather than י״ה — or paste a numeral to read its value. The tool places the geresh and gershayim, shows each letter's value, lets you drop the thousands as Hebrew years usually do, and reads the older final-letter variants. Free, no sign-up, and everything runs in your browser.
A whole number from 1 to 9999.
In Hebrew letters
ה׳תשפ״ו
- Letters and values: 5000 ה + 400 ת + 300 ש + 80 פ + 6 ו
Why it is written this way
- A numeral of two or more letters takes a gershayim (״) before its last letter.
- Thousands come first as a single letter with a geresh, then the rest: ה׳ for 5000 and תשפ״ו for 786.
How to Use the Hebrew Numeral Converter
- 1. Choose the direction. Number → Hebrew letters writes a numeral; Hebrew letters → number reads one.
- 2. Enter the number or the letters. Numbers run from 1 to 9999. Hebrew input may include the punctuation marks or leave them out, and plain ASCII quotes are accepted.
- 3. Set the options. Keep the standard ט״ו and ט״ז for 15 and 16 or switch to the literal sum, leave out the thousands for a year in the short count, or ask for plain ' and " marks.
- 4. Read the letters and their values. The result lists each letter with its value and notes the rules that applied. Copy the numeral to paste it into your document.
How Hebrew Letter Numerals Work
Hebrew numerals are additive. Each letter has a fixed value, and a number is the sum of its letters, written from the largest to the smallest. The first nine letters are 1 to 9 (א to ט), the next nine are the tens from 10 to 90 (י to צ), and ק, ר, ש and ת are 100, 200, 300 and 400. There is no letter for zero and no place value, so the system suits dates, chapter and page numbers and lists rather than arithmetic.
| Units | Tens | Hundreds |
|---|---|---|
| א 1, ב 2, ג 3 | י 10, כ 20, ל 30 | ק 100, ר 200 |
| ד 4, ה 5, ו 6 | מ 40, נ 50, ס 60 | ש 300, ת 400 |
| ז 7, ח 8, ט 9 | ע 70, פ 80, צ 90 | תק 500, תר 600, תש 700, תת 800, תתק 900 |
There is no letter above 400, so 500 to 900 are written with more than one: תק for 500, תר for 600, תש for 700, תת for 800 and תתק for 900. A medieval variant used the five final letters ך ם ן ף ץ for 500 to 900; the converter reads them but does not write them.
Geresh, Gershayim and the 15 and 16 Rule
To show that letters are a number and not a word, a single-letter numeral takes a geresh (׳) after it — א׳ for 1, כ׳ for 20 — and a numeral of two or more letters takes a gershayim (״) before its last letter: י״א for 11, תשפ״ו for 786. The Hebrew marks are U+05F3 and U+05F4; plain ' and " are the keyboard stand-ins and the tool can write either.
15 and 16 are the one irregularity. Their plain sums, י״ה (10+5) and י״ו (10+6), spell forms of the divine name, so the convention is ט״ו (9+6) and ט״ז (9+7). The rule follows into larger numbers: 115 is קט״ו and 716 is תשט״ז. The tool applies it by default and has a switch for the literal sum. Tu BiShvat and Tu B’Av, the 15th of their months, are named after ט״ו.
Thousands and the Hebrew Year
Thousands are written as a letter with a geresh in front of the rest: ה׳תשפ״ו is 5000 + 786 = 5786, the Hebrew year that began in September 2025. In practice the thousands are usually left out and the year is just תשפ״ו; this is the short count (לפרט קטן), and it is why calendar dates give the year in three letters. Exact thousands are written with the word for thousand, אלף for 1000, אלפיים for 2000 and ג׳ אלפים for 3000, because a bare א׳ already means 1. For a conversion between Gregorian and Hebrew dates use the Hebrew Calendar Converter.
Frequently Asked Questions
- Why is 15 written ט״ו and not י״ה?
- The letters י and ה together read as יה, a name of God. To avoid writing it, Jewish tradition writes 15 as ט״ו (9+6), and 16 as ט״ז (9+7) rather than י״ו, which is also a form of the divine name. The convention is universal in modern Hebrew.
- What are the geresh and the gershayim?
- Two punctuation marks used in numerals and abbreviations. The geresh (׳) goes after a single letter, as in א׳. The gershayim (״) goes before the last letter of a longer numeral, as in כ״ה (25). They show that the letters are a number and are not a word.
- How do you write the Hebrew year in letters?
- Write the year's hundreds, tens and units as letters and leave out the thousands: 5786 becomes תשפ״ו. With the thousands it is ה׳תשפ״ו. Use the short count option to drop the thousands automatically.
- How do you write 500 to 900 in Hebrew?
- With two or more letters, since ת (400) is the highest single value: תק (500), תר (600), תש (700), תת (800) and תתק (900). Some medieval texts use the final letters ך, ם, ן, ף and ץ for the same values.
- Is there a Hebrew numeral for zero?
- No. Letter numerals start at 1, and the system has no zero and no place value. The word אפס is used when zero needs to be written, and ordinary Arabic digits are used in everyday Hebrew.
- What is gematria?
- Gematria assigns each word a number by adding the values of its letters, using the same letter values as the numerals. The converter gives the value of a numeral in letters, not the gematria of a word, so a word with letters in no particular order will be rejected.
- Where are Hebrew letter numerals used?
- To number Hebrew calendar days and years, chapters and verses, pages of the Talmud and other traditional books, list items, and classes in Israeli schools. Everyday amounts, prices and phone numbers use Arabic digits.