The Alphabet

The alphabet is a group of letters. Each letter stands for a sound. When you put letters together, they make words. When you put words together, they make sentences. The English alphabet has 26 letters. It starts with A and ends with Z. People all around the world use alphabets to read and write every day.

Where the Alphabet Came From

The alphabet is very old. People made the first alphabet about 4,000 years ago. It started in a place near Egypt. Later, the Greeks and Romans changed it. The letters we use today came from the Romans. That is why we call it the Roman alphabet. Many countries use these same letters.

Letters and Sounds

The English alphabet has two kinds of letters. There are vowels and consonants. The vowels are A, E, I, O, and U. Sometimes Y is a vowel too. All the other letters are consonants. Each letter has a big shape and a small shape. We call them uppercase and lowercase letters.

Fun Facts

• The word alphabet comes from the first two Greek letters, alpha and beta.
• Some alphabets, like the one used in Cambodia, have more than 70 letters.
• The letter E is the most used letter in English words.

Did You Know?

Long ago, the letter J did not exist. People used the letter I instead. The letter J was added to the English alphabet only about 400 years ago.