How Many Letters Are In The Alphabet? Consonants & Vowels

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Let’s kick things off with a bit of fun.

Riddle: How many letters in ‘the alphabet?”

Think 25, 26, or 27? Wrong!

Answer: 11 (t, h, e, a, l, p, h, a, b, e, t)

Very clever, huh!

The alphabet is the foundation of written language. It’s a collection of letters that represent the sounds we speak, allowing us to read, write, and communicate through text.

Whether you’re introducing the ABCs to a child or brushing up on some linguistic trivia, this post will take you through everything you need to know about the English alphabet and give you access to free printable letter worksheets!

Please note: All my printables are for personal and classroom use only. Commercial use or resale is not permitted. If you find these helpful and would like to support my work, please consider buying me a coffee. Thank you!

What is an Alphabet?

An alphabet is a system of symbols (called letters) used to represent the basic sounds (called phonemes) in a spoken language. Each letter stands for one or more sounds, and when these letters are combined, they form the words we use every day.

The word “alphabet” itself comes from the first two letters of the Greek alphabet: alpha and beta.

👉 Download the poster here or check out our other alphabet posters.

How Many Letters Are in the English Alphabet?

The modern English alphabet consists of 26 letters:

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

Each letter has two forms:

• Uppercase (capital): A, B, C, etc.
• Lowercase (small): a, b, c, etc.

Out of these 26 letters:

• 5 are vowels: A, E, I, O, U
• 21 are consonants: All the rest

Vowels vs. Consonants

• Vowels are speech sounds produced without blocking airflow. They’re the building blocks of syllables.
• Consonants are sounds made by partially or completely blocking airflow using the lips, tongue, or throat.

Some letters like W and Y can act as either vowels or consonants, depending on how they’re used. For example:

• Y is a consonant in yes, but a vowel in myth.
• W is a consonant in water, but a vowel in cwm.

👉 Read more about vowels and consonants here.

Letter Number	Uppercase Letter	Lowercase Letter	Word
1	A	a	apple
2	B	b	bear
3	C	c	cat
4	D	d	duck
5	E	e	elephant
6	F	f	frog
7	G	g	girl
8	H	h	hat
9	I	i	ice-cream
10	J	j	jug
11	K	k	kite
12	L	l	lion
13	M	m	monkey
14	N	n	nurse
15	O	o	octopus
16	P	p	penguin
17	Q	q	queen
18	R	r	rabbit
19	S	s	sun
20	T	t	turtle
21	U	u	umbrella
22	V	v	vase
23	W	w	window
24	X	x	xylophone
25	Y	y	yo-yo
26	Z	z	zebra

Interested in a printable copy of the above table? Here it is!

A Brief History of the English Alphabet

The English alphabet we use today is based on the Latin alphabet, brought to Britain by Christian missionaries in the 7th century. Over time, the Latin letters replaced the earlier Anglo-Saxon writing system.

Before modern English, Old English used up to 29 letters, including some we no longer use like:

• Þ (thorn) for the “th” sound (both voiced and unvoiced)
• Ð and ð (eth) for another “th” sound (both voiced and unvoiced)
• Æ and æ (ash) for a sound like the “a” in cat and bat.

Interestingly, the ampersand (&) used to be considered the 27th letter of the English alphabet, commonly placed after “Z” in the 1800s. It was pronounced as et in Latin and pronounced in English as and.

The alphabet looked like this: 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.

Over time, some letters were added, and others were removed:

• J and U were added in the sixteenth century.
• W was considered an independent letter from that point forward.

Eventually, the extra letters such as &, ⁊, Ƿ, Þ, Ð, Æ were phased out.

Fun Alphabet Facts

• A pangram is a sentence that contains all 26 letters of the alphabet. Example: The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
• A digraph is a pair of letters that together make one sound, like sh, ch, or ph.
• An abjad is a writing system (like Arabic or Hebrew) that doesn’t use vowels. More on that later!
• The largest alphabet belongs to Khmer (Cambodian), which includes 74 letters.
• Japanese has three writing systems: hiragana, katakana, and kanji.

What Are Silent Letters?

Many English words include silent letters—letters that appear in the spelling but aren’t pronounced. For example:

• K in knife
• B in thumb
• L in half
• W in write

These silent letters often come from the word’s origins in other languages like Greek, Latin, or French.

Helping Children Learn the ABCs

Learning the alphabet is a big milestone for children. It’s not just about memorizing the letter order—it’s about connecting letters to their sounds and shapes and, eventually, forming words.

Letter tracing worksheets and alphabet printables are great tools to help children:

• Build fine motor skills
• Develop hand-eye coordination
• Learn letter shapes and sounds
• Start early spelling and reading

Free Alphabet Printables

We’ve created a collection of high-resolution printable alphabet letters. These are perfect for classrooms, bulletin boards, art projects, or at-home learning.

Each printable includes:

• Bold, easy-to-trace letterforms
• Kid-friendly designs
• Formats for both uppercase and lowercase letters

👉 Check these blog posts for our English alphabet printable coloring pages and tracing worksheets or browse our individual letters:

• Letter A
• Letter B
• Letter C
• Letter D
• Letter E
• Letter F
• Letter G
• Letter H
• Letter I
• Letter J
• Letter K
• Letter L
• Letter M
• Letter N
• Letter O
• Letter P
• Letter Q
• Letter R
• Letter S
• Letter T
• Letter U
• Letter V
• Letter W
• Letter X
• Letter Y
• Letter Z

Looking for more? Access my full ABC alphabet letter workbook!

How many letters are in the Arabic alphabet?

There are 28 letters in the Arabic Alphabet.

Additional letters are used when writing placenames or foreign words that don’t exist in standard Arabic, such as the /p/ and /g/. These are not part of the official alphabet but appear in regional adaptations (like Persian or Urdu, which use modified Arabic scripts).

The Arabic alphabet is the second most widely used writing system in the world (after the Latin alphabet), used across the Middle East, North Africa, and parts of Asia.

The letters are always cursive, meaning the characters are connected, both in print and handwriting. Each letter can have up to four different forms, depending on where it appears in a word: at the beginning, middle, end, or isolated.

Arabic does not have separate letters for vowel sounds like A, E, or O. Instead, it uses diacritical marks—small symbols placed above or below letters—to indicate short vowels. These marks are typically used in religious texts, children’s books, or language learning materials but are often omitted in everyday writing.

How many letters are in the Chinese alphabet?

Fun Fact! China doesn’t have an alphabet. Chinese uses logographic characters, where each character represents a word, concept, or syllable rather than a sound.

A literate person in China needs to recognize about 2,000–3,000 characters to read a newspaper. However, there are over 100,000 known characters in total.

How many letters are in the Spanish alphabet?

There are 27 letters in the Spanish alphabet. It was considered to have 29 letters up until 2010, when ch and ll were in use.

Real Academia Española (RAE) made the decision to classify these as diagraphs, not as specific letters. The combination “rr” is also considered a digraph.

How many letters are in the Italian alphabet?

There are just 21 letters in the Italian alphabet. They may also borrow letters such as j, k, w, x and z for foreign words.

How many letters are in the German alphabet?

The German alphabet has 26 letters, similar to the English alphabet. The German language is based on the standard Latin alphabet (also called the Roman alphabet).

It also includes additional characters such as ä, ö, ü (umlauted vowels), and ß (called “Eszett” or “sharp S”). These are not separate letters but modified forms used for pronunciation and spelling.

How many letters are in the Korean alphabet?

There are 24 characters in the Korean Alphabet.

It has 14 consonants and 10 vowels. The alphabet and writing system is known as Hangul (한글). Hangul is considered one of the most logical and easy-to-learn writing systems in the world.

How many letters are in the Russian alphabet?

The modern Russian alphabet has 33 letters. It’s based on the Cyrillic script, which was originally developed in the 9th century.

The 33 characters include 10 vowels, 21 consonants, and two signs: the hard sign (ъ) and the soft sign (ь)—neither of which represent sounds on their own, but they affect pronunciation.

How many letters are in the French alphabet?

There are 26 letters in the French alphabet.

The accent marks (è, é, or ç) have different pronunciations but are not considered different letters.

How many letters are in the Greek alphabet?

There are 24 letters in the Greek alphabet. It is one of the oldest scripts in use today. Greece is the official language of Greece and Cyprus.

How many letters are in the Hebrew alphabet?

There are 22 letters in the Hebrew alphabet. They are all consonants, but four of them (א, ה, ו, and י) represent vowel sounds in certain contexts.

Like in Arabic, short vowels are usually indicated by diacritical marks, mainly in texts for learners, poetry, or religious scripture.

Final Thoughts

The alphabet might seem simple at first glance, but it has a rich history and plays a huge role in language learning.

Whether you’re a teacher, parent, or language lover, understanding how the alphabet works—and how to teach it effectively—makes a big difference in how we communicate.

Caitriona MariaEducation writer at TPR Teaching | https://www.tprteaching.com

Caitriona Maria is an education writer and founder of TPR Teaching, crafting inspiring pieces that promote the importance of developing new skills. For 7 years, she has been committed to providing students with the best learning opportunities possible, both domestically and abroad. Dedicated to unlocking students' potential, Caitriona has taught English in several countries and continues to explore new cultures through her travels.