English is a globally spoken language with roots in the Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family. It developed over centuries through influences from Latin, French, Norse, and other languages.

Today, English is spoken by more than 1.5 billion people around the world[1]. It is the official or national language in many countries[2], including the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, and several Caribbean and African nations.

The English alphabet has 26 letters – 5 vowels and 21 consonants[3]. Each letter comes in uppercase and lowercase forms. English writing also uses a wide range of punctuation and special characters.

Below is the breakdown of all letters and characters used in English.

English Vowel Letters

The English alphabet has 5 vowel letters: a, e, i, o, u. These vowels are essential for forming syllables and words.

English Vowels (Lowercase)

a
[ae]
e
[eh]
i
[ai]
o
[oh]
u
[yu]

English Vowels (Uppercase)

A
[ae]
E
[eh]
I
[ai]
O
[oh]
U
[yu]

English Consonant Letters

English has 21 consonant letters. They form the backbone of words along with vowels. Consonant sounds can be voiced or unvoiced, and many have similar sounds to other languages.

English Consonants (Lowercase)

a
[ae]
e
[eh]
i
[ai]
o
[oh]
u
[yu]
h
[aitch]
j
[jay]
k
[kay]
l
[el]
m
[em]
n
[en]
p
[pee]
q
[cue]
r
[ar]
s
[es]
t
[tee]
v
[vee]
w
[double-u]
x
[eks]
y
[wy]
z
[zee]

English Consonants (Uppercase)

B
[bee]
C
[cee]
D
[dee]
F
[ef]
G
[jee]
H
[aitch]
J
[jay]
K
[kay]
L
[el]
M
[em]
N
[en]
P
[pee]
Q
[cue]
R
[ar]
S
[es]
T
[tee]
V
[vee]
W
[double-u]
X
[eks]
Y
[wy]
Z
[zee]

Special Characters in English

English writing uses a variety of punctuation marks and symbols such as full stop (.), comma (,), question mark (?), exclamation mark (!), apostrophe ('), quotation marks ("), and more.

These characters enhance clarity and structure in written English.

.
,
;
:
?
!
'
"
-
_
(
)
[
]
{
}
/
\
|
@
#
$
%
^
&
*
+
=
<
>
`
~

Digits in English

English uses the standard Arabic numerals 0–9. These are universally recognized and are used in both mathematics and everyday writing.

0
[zero]
1
[one]
2
[two]
3
[three]
4
[four]
5
[five]
6
[six]
7
[seven]
8
[eight]
9
[nine]
.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

References:

Sambhu Raj SinghSambhu Raj Singh · LinkedIn · GitHub · Npm

Updated:


Affiliate Link: https://amzn.to/3G5j9yN

Discover French letters with beautiful accented characters and diacritics
Learn German letters including unique umlauts ä, ö, ü and sharp ß
Affiliate Link: https://amzn.to/44kTzOg
Discover Italian letters with melodious pronunciation and accented vowels
Affiliate Link: https://amzn.to/3I7NVru
Learn Turkish letters with unique characters like ğ, ı, ş, and ç
Learn Hangul, Korea's scientific and elegant 40-letter writing system