Bet (letter) facts for kids
Bet, Beth, or Vet is the second letter of the Hebrew alphabet. It looks like "ב". The Hebrew alphabet is often called "aleph-bet" because its first two letters are Aleph and Bet.
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What is the Hebrew Letter Bet?
The letter Bet is a very old letter. It comes from an even older alphabet called the Phoenician alphabet. Many letters in alphabets we use today, like the English "B", actually came from the Phoenician Bet.
How Bet Sounds and Looks
In Hebrew, Bet can make two different sounds. It can sound like the "b" in "ball" or the "v" in "van". The sound depends on a small dot, called a dagesh, inside the letter. If it has the dot (בּ), it sounds like "b". If it doesn't (ב), it sounds like "v".
Why "Aleph-Bet"?
The word "alphabet" itself comes from the first two letters of the Greek alphabet: "alpha" and "beta". In the same way, the Hebrew alphabet is often called "aleph-bet" because its first letter is Aleph (א) and its second is Bet (ב). This shows how important these first two letters are!
Bet in Mathematics: Understanding Infinity
Sometimes, the letter Bet (written as 
) is used in a special part of mathematics called set theory. It helps mathematicians talk about different "sizes" of infinity. Imagine you have an endless number of things. It might seem like all infinities are the same, but mathematicians use Bet numbers to show that some infinities are actually "bigger" than others! This is a complex idea, but it shows how a simple letter can be used in advanced ways.
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