ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

The modern English alphabet is a Latin alphabet consisting of 26 letters, each having an upper-

and lower-case form. It originated around the 7th century from Latin script. Since then, letters
have been added or removed to give the current Modern English alphabet of 26 letters with
no diacritics, digraphs, and special characters. The word alphabet is a compound of the first two
letters of the Greek alphabet, alpha and beta.
 A a
 B b
 C c
 D d
 E e
 F f
 G g
 H h
 I i
 J j
 K k
 L l
 M m
 N n
 O o
 P p
 Q q
 R r
 S s
 T t
 U u
 V v
 W w
 X x
 Y y
 Z z
The exact shape of printed letters varies depending on the typeface (and font), and the standard
printed form may differ significantly from the shape of handwritten letters (which varies between
individuals), and cursive especially.
Written English has a large number of digraphs. It stands out almost uniquely as a European
language without diacritics in native words. A diaeresis may be used to distinguish two vowels
with separate pronunciation, such as "coöperation", [nb 1] from a double vowel.[1] Very occasionally,
a grave may be used to indicate that a normally silent vowel is pronounced (as in learnèd, an
adjective).

Contents

 1Letter names
o 1.1Modern letters
 1.1.1Etymology
o 1.2Ampersand
o 1.3Archaic letters
 2Diacritics
o 2.1Loanwords
o 2.2Native English words
  3Punctuation marks within words
o 3.1Apostrophe
o 3.2Hyphen
 4Frequencies
 5Phonology
 6History
o 6.1Old English
o 6.2Modern English
o 6.3Ligatures in recent usage
 7Proposed reforms
 8See also
 9Notes and references
o 9.1Notes
o 9.2References
o 9.3Further reading

Letter names[edit]
Modern letters[edit]
English alphabet

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A Received
Pronunciation British
English speaker reciting
the English alphabet

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help.

The names of the letters are sometimes spelled out. Some compound words (e.g., tee-shirt,
deejay, emcee, okay, etc.), derived forms (e.g., exed out, effing, to eff and blind, aitchless, etc.)
and objects named after letters (e.g., em in printing and wye in railroading) may be written with
the letter names. The spellings listed below are from the Oxford English Dictionary. Plurals of
consonant names are formed by adding -s (e.g., bees, efs, ems) or -es in the cases of aitch, ess,
and ex (i.e., aitches, esses, exes). Plurals of vowel names add -es (i.e., aes, ees, ies, oes, ues),
but these are rare. Most commonly, the letter (generally in capitalized form) and not its name is
used, in which case plural just adds -s.

Name Name pronunciation

Lette Frequenc
r Old Middle y
Modern Lati Modern Lati
Frenc Englis
English n English n
h h

A a ā /ˈeɪ/, /ˈæ/[nb /aː/ /aː/ /aː/ 8.17%

 Name Name pronunciation

Lette Frequenc
r Old Middle y
Modern Lati Modern Lati
Frenc Englis
English n English n
h h

2]

B bee bē /ˈbiː/ /beː/ /beː/ /beː/ 1.49%

/tʃeː/ >
C cee cē /ˈsiː/ /keː/ /tseː/ > /seː/ 2.78%
/seː/

D dee dē /ˈdiː/ /deː/ /deː/ /deː/ 4.25%

E e ē /ˈiː/ /eː/ /eː/ /eː/ 12.70%

ef
F ef /ˈɛf/ /ɛf/ /ɛf/ /ɛf/ 2.23%
eff as a verb

G gee gē /ˈdʒiː/ /ɡeː/ /dʒeː/ /dʒeː/ 2.02%

aitch /ˈeɪtʃ/ /haː/

>
H hā /ˈaha/ /ˈaːtʃə/ /aːtʃ/ 6.09%
>
haitch[nb 3] /ˈheɪtʃ/ /ˈakːa/

I i ī /ˈaɪ/ /iː/ /iː/ /iː/ 6.97%

jay /ˈdʒeɪ/
J – – – [nb 4]
0.15%
jy[nb 5] /ˈdʒaɪ/
 Name Name pronunciation

Lette Frequenc
r Old Middle y
Modern Lati Modern Lati
Frenc Englis
English n English n
h h

K kay kā /ˈkeɪ/ /kaː/ /kaː/ /kaː/ 0.77%

L el[nb 6] el /ˈɛl/ /ɛl/ /ɛl/ /ɛl/ 4.03%

M em em /ˈɛm/ /ɛm/ /ɛm/ /ɛm/ 2.41%

N en en /ˈɛn/ /ɛn/ /ɛn/ /ɛn/ 6.75%

O o ō /ˈoʊ/ /oː/ /oː/ /oː/ 7.51%

P pee pē /ˈpiː/ /peː/ /peː/ /peː/ 1.93%

Q cue[nb 7] qū /ˈkjuː/ /kuː/ /kyː/ /kiw/ 0.10%

ar /ˈɑːr/
R er /ɛr/ /ɛr/ /ɛr/ > /ar/ 5.99%
or[nb 8] /ˈɔːr/

ess

S es /ˈɛs/ /ɛs/ /ɛs/ /ɛs/ 6.33%

es- in
compounds[n
b 9]

T tee tē /ˈtiː/ /teː/ /teː/ /teː/ 9.06%

U u ū /ˈjuː/ /uː/ /yː/ /iw/ 2.76%

 Name Name pronunciation

Lette Frequenc
r Old Middle y
Modern Lati Modern Lati
Frenc Englis
English n English n
h h

V vee – /ˈviː/ – – – 0.98%

W double-u – /ˈdʌbəl.juː/ – – – 2.36%

[nb 10]

ex /ɛks/
X ex /ˈɛks/ /iks/ /ɛks/ 0.15%
ix /ɪks/

/hyː/
hȳ ui, gui ?
/iː/
Y wye /ˈwaɪ/ /wiː/ ? 1.97%

/iː
ī
ˈɡraɪka /iː ɡrɛːk/
graeca
/

zed[nb 11] /ˈzɛd/

Z zēta /ˈzeːta/ /ˈzɛːdə/ /zɛd/ 0.07%
zee[nb 12] /ˈziː/

Etymology[edit]
The names of the letters are for the most part direct descendants, via French, of the Latin (and
Etruscan) names. (See Latin alphabet: Origins.)
The regular phonological developments (in rough chronological order) are:

 palatalization before front vowels of Latin /k/ successively to /tʃ/, /ts/, and finally to

Middle French /s/. Affects C.
 palatalization before front vowels of Latin /ɡ/ to Proto-Romance and Middle
French /dʒ/. Affects G.
 fronting of Latin /uː/ to Middle French /yː/, becoming Middle English /iw/ and then
Modern English /juː/. Affects Q, U.
 the inconsistent lowering of Middle English /ɛr/ to /ar/. Affects R.
  the Great Vowel Shift, shifting all Middle English long vowels. Affects A, B, C, D, E,
G, H, I, K, O, P, T, and presumably Y.
The novel forms are aitch, a regular development of Medieval Latin acca; jay, a new letter
presumably vocalized like neighboring kay to avoid confusion with established gee (the other
name, jy, was taken from French); vee, a new letter named by analogy with the majority; double-
u, a new letter, self-explanatory (the name of Latin V was ū); wye, of obscure origin but with an
antecedent in Old French wi; izzard, from the Romance phrase i zed or i zeto "and Z" said when
reciting the alphabet; and zee, an American levelling of zed by analogy with other consonants.
Some groups of letters, such as pee and bee, or em and en, are easily confused in speech,
especially when heard over the telephone or a radio communications link. Spelling
alphabets such as the ICAO spelling alphabet, used by aircraft pilots, police and others, are
designed to eliminate this potential confusion by giving each letter a name that sounds quite
different from any other.

Ampersand[edit]
The ampersand (&) has sometimes appeared at the end of the English alphabet, as in
Byrhtferð's list of letters in 1011.[2] & was regarded as the 27th letter of the English alphabet, as
taught to children in the US and elsewhere. An example may be seen in M. B. Moore's 1863
book The Dixie Primer, for the Little Folks.[3] Historically, the figure is a ligature for the letters Et.
In English and many other languages, it is used to represent the word and, plus occasionally the
Latin word et, as in the abbreviation &c (et cetera).

Archaic letters[edit]
Old and Middle English had a number of non-Latin letters that have since dropped out of use.
These either took the names of the equivalent runes, since there were no Latin names to adopt,
or (thorn, wyn) were runes themselves.

 Æ æ ash or æsc /ˈæʃ/, used for the vowel /æ/, which disappeared from the language
and then reformed
 Ð ð edh, eð or eth /ˈɛð/, used for the consonants /ð/ and /θ/
 Œ œ ethel, ēðel, œ̄þel, etc. /ˈɛðəl/, used for the vowel /œ/, which disappeared from
the language quite early
 Þ þ thorn or þorn /ˈθɔːrn/, used for the consonants /ð/ and /θ/
 Ƿ ƿ wyn, ƿen or wynn /ˈwɪn/, used for the consonant /w/ (the letter 'w' had not yet
been invented)
 Ȝ ȝ yogh, ȝogh or yoch /ˈjɒɡ/ or /ˈjɒx/, used for various sounds derived from /ɡ/, such
as /j/ and /x/.

Diacritics[edit]
Main article: English terms with diacritical marks
The most common diacritic marks seen in English publications are the acute (é), grave (è),
circumflex (â, î or ô), tilde (ñ), umlaut and diaeresis (ü or ï – the same symbol is used for two
different purposes), and cedilla (ç).[4] Diacritics used for tonal languages may be replaced
with tonal numbers or omitted.

Loanwords[edit]
Diacritic marks mainly appear in loanwords such as naïve and façade. Informal English writing
tends to omit diacritics because of their absence from the keyboard, while professional
copywriters and typesetters tend to include them.
As such words become naturalised in English, there is a tendency to drop the diacritics, as has
happened with many older borrowings from French, such as hôtel. Words that are still perceived
as foreign tend to retain them; for example, the only spelling of soupçon found in English
dictionaries (the OED and others) uses the diacritic. However, diacritics are likely to be retained
even in naturalised words where they would otherwise be confused with a common native
English word (for example, résumé rather than resume).[5] Rarely, they may even be added to a
loanword for this reason (as in maté, from Spanish yerba mate but following the pattern of café,
from French, to distinguish from mate).

Native English words[edit]

Occasionally, especially in older writing, diacritics are used to indicate the syllables of a
word: cursed (verb) is pronounced with one syllable, while cursèd (adjective) is pronounced with
two. For this, è is used widely in poetry, e.g. in Shakespeare's sonnets. J.R.R. Tolkien used ë, as
in O wingëd crown.
Similarly, while in chicken coop the letters -oo- represent a single vowel sound (a digraph), they
less often represent two which may be marked with a diaresis as in zoölogist and coöperation.
This use of the diaeresis is rare but found in some well-known publications, such as MIT
Technology Review and The New Yorker.
In general, these devices are not used even where they would serve to alleviate some degree of
confusion.

Punctuation marks within words[edit]

Apostrophe[edit]
The apostrophe (ʼ) is not considered part of the English alphabet nor used as a diacritic even in
loanwords. But it is used for two important purposes in written English: to mark the "possessive" [nb
13]
 and to mark contracted words. Current standards require its use for both purposes. Therefore,
apostrophes are necessary to spell many words even in isolation, unlike most punctuation marks,
which are concerned with indicating sentence structure and other relationships among multiple
words.

 It distinguishes (from the otherwise identical regular plural inflection -s) the

English possessive morpheme 's (apostrophe alone after a regular plural affix,
giving -s' as the standard mark for plural + possessive). Practice settled in the 18th
century; before then, practices varied but typically all three endings were written -
s (but without cumulation). This meant that only regular nouns bearing neither could
be confidently identified, and plural and possessive could be potentially confused
(e.g., "the Apostles words"; "those things over there are my husbands" [6])—which
undermines the logic of "marked" forms.
 Most common contractions have near-homographs from which they are distinguished
in writing only by an apostrophe, for example it's (it is or it has), we're (we are),
or she'd (she would or she had).
Hyphen[edit]
Hyphens are often used in English compound words. Writing compound words may be
hyphenated, open or closed, so specifics are guided by stylistic policy. Some writers may use
a slash in certain instances.

Frequencies[edit]
Main article: Letter frequency
The letter most commonly used in English is E. The least used letter is Z. The frequencies shown
in the table may differ in practice according to the type of text. [7]

Phonology[edit]
Main article: English phonology
The letters A, E, I, O, and U are considered vowel letters, since (except when silent) they
represent vowels, although I and U represent consonants in words such as "onion" and "quail"
respectively.
The letter Y sometimes represents a consonant (as in "young") and sometimes a vowel (as in
"myth"). Very rarely, W may represent a vowel (as in "cwm")—a Welsh loanword.
The consonant sounds represented by the letters W and Y in English (/w/ and /j/ as in yes /jɛs/
and went /wɛnt/) are referred to as semi-vowels (or glides) by linguists, however this is a
description that applies to the sounds represented by the letters and not to the letters
themselves.
The remaining letters are considered consonant letters, since when not silent they generally
represent consonants.

History[edit]
See also: History of the Latin alphabet and English orthography

Old English[edit]
Main article: Old English Latin alphabet
The English language itself was first written in the Anglo-Saxon futhorc runic alphabet, in use
from the 5th century. This alphabet was brought to what is now England, along with the proto-
form of the language itself, by Anglo-Saxon settlers. Very few examples of this form of written
Old English have survived, mostly as short inscriptions or fragments.
The Latin script, introduced by Christian missionaries, began to replace the Anglo-Saxon futhorc
from about the 7th century, although the two continued in parallel for some time. As such, the Old
English alphabet began to employ parts of the Roman alphabet in its construction. [8] Futhorc
influenced the emerging English alphabet by providing it with the letters thorn (Þ þ) and wynn (Ƿ
ƿ). The letter eth (Ð ð) was later devised as a modification of dee (D d), and finally yogh (Ȝ ȝ) was
created by Norman scribes from the insular  g in Old English and Irish, and used alongside
their Carolingian  g.
The a-e ligature ash (Æ æ) was adopted as a letter in its own right, named after a futhorc
rune æsc. In very early Old English the o-e ligature ethel (Œ œ) also appeared as a distinct
letter, likewise named after a rune, œðel[citation needed]. Additionally, the v-v or u-u ligature double-u (W
w) was in use.
In the year 1011, a monk named Byrhtferð recorded the traditional order of the Old English
alphabet.[2] He listed the 24 letters of the Latin alphabet first, including the ampersand, then 5
additional English letters, starting with the Tironian note ond (⁊), an insular symbol for and:
A B C D E F G H I K L M N O P Q R S T V X Y Z & ⁊ Ƿ Þ Ð Æ
Modern English[edit]
In the orthography of Modern English, thorn (þ), eth (ð), wynn (ƿ), yogh (ȝ), ash (æ), and œ are
obsolete. Latin borrowings reintroduced homographs of æ and œ into Middle English and Early
Modern English, though they are largely obsolete (see "Ligatures in recent usage" below), and
where they are used they are not considered to be separate letters (e.g. for collation purposes),
but rather ligatures. Thorn and eth were both replaced by th, though thorn continued in existence
for some time, its lowercase form gradually becoming graphically indistinguishable from
the minuscule y in most handwriting. Y for th can still be seen in pseudo-archaisms such as "Ye
Olde Booke Shoppe". The letters þ and ð are still used in present-day Icelandic, while ð is still
used in present-day Faroese. Wynn disappeared from English around the 14th century when it
was supplanted by uu, which ultimately developed into the modern w. Yogh disappeared around
the 15th century and was typically replaced by gh.
The letters u and j, as distinct from v and i, were introduced in the 16th century, and w assumed
the status of an independent letter. The variant lowercase form long s (ſ) lasted into early modern
English, and was used in non-final position up to the early 19th century. Today, the English
alphabet is considered to consist of the following 26 letters:
 A a
 B b
 C c
 D d
 E e
 F f
 G g
 H h
 I i
 J j
 K k
 L l
 M m
 N n
 O o
 P p
 Q q
 R r
 S s
 T t
 U u
 V v
 W w
 X x
 Y y
 Z z
Written English has a number[9] of digraphs, but they are not considered separate letters of the
alphabet:
 ch
 ci
 ck
 gh
 ng
 ph
 qu
 rh
 sc
 sh
 th
 ti
 wh
 wr
 zh
Ligatures in recent usage[edit]
Outside of professional papers on specific subjects that traditionally use ligatures in loanwords,
ligatures are seldom used in modern English. The ligatures æ and œ were until the 19th century
(slightly later in American English)[citation needed] used in formal writing for certain words of Greek or
Latin origin, such as encyclopædia and cœlom, although such ligatures were not used in either
classical Latin or ancient Greek. These are now usually rendered as "ae" and "oe" in all types of
writing,[citation needed] although in American English, a lone e has mostly supplanted both (for
example, encyclopedia for encyclopaedia, and maneuver for manoeuvre).
Some fonts for typesetting English contain commonly used ligatures, such as for ⟨tt⟩, ⟨fi⟩, ⟨fl⟩, ⟨ffi⟩,
and ⟨ffl⟩. These are not independent letters, but rather allographs.

Proposed reforms[edit]
Alternative scripts have been proposed for written English—mostly extending or replacing the
basic English alphabet—such as the Deseret alphabet, the Shavian alphabet, Gregg shorthand,
etc.

See also[edit]
 Alphabet song
 NATO phonetic alphabet
 English orthography
 English-language spelling reform
 American manual alphabet
 Two-handed manual alphabets
 English Braille
 American Braille
 New York Point
 Chinese respelling of the English alphabet
 Burmese respelling of the English alphabet