V (letter)

For other uses of the letter "V", see V (disambiguation).

V is the twenty-second letter of the English alphabet. Its name is pronounced [vi:] vee. It is also the Roman numeral which repesents 5.

The phoneme /v/ occurs in many languages, but is absent in many others; many speakers may substitute some kind of [b] or [u]. For example, Japanese makes use of both: ウイルス uirusu 'virus' and ライブ raibu 'live'.

Use in English

Phonetically, [v] is a labiodental fricative, partially or completely voiced, made with air drawn from the lungs passing between the lower lip and upper front teeth as they touch. It differs from [f] only in that the vocal folds vibrate, which does not occur for [f] (compare vîle and fîle - the accents show stress and pronunciation: see English phonemes). This is in contrast to [w], where both lips are used without touching each other or any teeth: whîle. Examples: vúlgar, véry, vāst, háve, wâve, and in spív and Slàv. [v] involves more friction as air passes through the mouth; for [w] the articulators organs are further apart, making the sound more vowel-like.

Letter v

Letter v is rare at the end of a word, and it is most commonly found in that position pronounced f in Slavonic (i.e. Russian, Bulgarian, etc.) names: Rachmáninov, Prokófiev, Krùshchev (-chóff), Mólotov; it is also in Névsky (pronounced v) and Tchaikóvsky (usually f).

Being rare at the end, v hardly ever needs to be doubled, as it is in révved úp thê éngine. So flívver is irregular: it rhymes with ríver. v does not normally have to be doubled after a preceding short vowel (usually é): séven, cléver, héaven, éver, évery, séver, bévy, lòver, drível, cívil. But before final y: chívvy, sávvy.

The preceding vowel is long in: êven, fêver, hâver, fâvour, sâviour, ôver, clôver, drîver, dîver, wâver, hâven and Stêven (the more regular spelling of Stêphen, which does not have an f sound).

See also

• Spelling pronunciation
• Letter (alphabet)
• Alphabet
• Writing system
• Orthography
• Written language
• Writing