The word alphabet can be described as a set of letters that were created for written language.
English Alphabets consist of 26 letters from A to Z – A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, X, Y, Z. Out of 26 letters, five are vowels and rest 21 are consonants. We will learn more about it in the following blog.
Letters can be uppercase or lowercase. Uppercase letters are called capital letters. Lowercase letters are small letters.
Capital Letters A to Z
These are the big letters of the alphabets – A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, V, W, X, Y, Z. Big letters are the uppercase version of the Alphabet.
Upper case letters are used in following cases:
- The first letter in a sentence is always an uppercase letter.
Example:
- My name is Sarah. Red is my favorite color.
So “m” is the first word in the sentence so it is capital. The letter “r” is first in the second sentence after full stop so it is also capital.
- The first letter of a pronoun (Name of a person, country, city, place etc.)
- The first letter of the words in the title of a novel, movies and books.
Example:
- Sarah, Adam, George. These are the names of persons so there first letter will always be capital.
- France, London, Canada. These are the names of countries so there first letter will always be capital.
- Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. You can see that in the title of a novel the first letter of every letter is capital.
Small Letters from a to z
These are the small letters of the alphabets – a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i, j, k, l, m, n, o, p, q, r, s, t, u, v, w, x, y, z. Small letters are the lowercase version of alphabet.
You must have notices that uppercase letters are bigger than their lowercase case versions.
You can practice lowercase alphabet using our small letters worksheets.
What is a Vowel?
It is a speech sound that is produced without any significant constriction of the flow of air from the lungs. There are 12 pure vowel sounds in English.
There are five vowels in English i.e a, e, i, o, u.
Vowels can come at the start of the words, middle or end of the words. Examples: Apple, Balloon, Pea.
Vowels represent speech sounds that are produced with relatively an open vocal tract. There are different types of vowels in phonics depending on how they sound when they are spelled.
What is a Consonant?
- A basic speech sound which can be combined with a vowel to form a syllable. There are various types of consonants sounds.
- The 21 Consonants in English are B, C, D, F, G, H, J, K, L, M, N, P, Q, R, S, T, V, W, X, Y, Z.
When a group of 2 or 3 consonants come together in a word and form a group, and have no vowel in between, then they are called consonant clusters.
Keep exploring EnglishBix to find alphabet worksheets for your kids to practice at home.