Introduction
The word “alphabet” in English comes from the Greek words, alpha and beta. The letters in the alphabet are used to form words and words are used to form sentences.
In spoken English, the letters represent sounds. But this is not always the case, as some words are pronounced differently from the way they are spelt. For example, “ph” in the word alphabet is pronounced /f/.
Pronunciation and spelling of the English alphabet
As stated above, some letters in English are pronounced as they are spelt while others are not. Below there is a table that contains the 26 letters of the English alphabet and how they are pronounced.
| Upper case form | Lower case form | Pronunciation | Examples |
| A | a | /eɪ/ | name |
| B | b | /bi:/ | bee |
| C | c | /si:/ | place |
| D | d | /di:/ | deed |
| E | e | /i:/ | bed |
| F | f | /ef/ | free |
| G | g | /dʒi:/ | gentle |
| H | h | /eɪtʃ/ | church |
| I | i | /aɪ/ | bike |
| J | j | /dʒeɪ/ | judge |
| K | k | /keɪ/ | Kyte |
| L | l | /el/ | led |
| M | m | /em/ | mother |
| N | n | /en/ | man |
| O | o | /əʊ/ | go |
| P | p | /pi:/ | sleep |
| Q | q | /kju:/ | quake |
| R | r | /a:(r)/ | rat |
| S | s | /es/ | sit |
| T | t | /ti:/ | teacher |
| U | u | /ju:/ | blue |
| V | v | /vi:/ | live |
| W | w | /dʌbəlyu:/ | work |
| X | x | /ex/ | fox |
| Y | y | /wai/ | yes |
| Z | z | /zed/ or /zi:/ | zebra |
Categories of the English alphabet
There are three categories in the English alphabet: consonants, vowels, and semi-vowels. They are classified in the following table.
| Consonants | b – c – d – f – g – h – j – k – l – m – n – p – q – r – s – t – v – x – z |
| Vowels | a -e – I – o – u |
| Semi-vowels | w – y |
