J (letter)
J, j is a letter of the Latin alphabet. It is the tenth letter of most variants, being placed after I and before K, as is the case for instance in the English alphabet. Its English name is pronounced [ˈdʒeɪ], like that of the bird jay.
Use in English
| 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 | |
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| Use in English | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Alphabetical word list | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Retroalphabetical list | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Common misspellings |
j combines the two sounds d (as in dóg) and zh (as in Brézhnev or like z in ázure or s in pléasure). Many languages, including French, German, Portuguese and Arabic, do not have this sound. (Russian and Spanish have the unvoiced version of it, 't' + 'sh', which is spelt ch in both English and Spanish, whence mácho.)
j likes to occur initially (the accents show stress and pronunciation: see English phonemes): jét, jázz, jíg, jést, jêep, jólly, jàr, jám, Jásper, Jóhn, Jêsus, Jeŵish, Jím, Jâmes, Jíll, Jáckson, Jéffrey (= Géoffrey) and after a prefix: disjŏinted, disjúnctive, injúnction, unjúst, injústice, outjúmp. Foreign learners, for example francophones, often mispronounce j as zh: its normal sound is dzh.
j is rarely found alone, between two vowels, inside a word: cajôle, ajàr, rejéct. The normal spelling for the j sound here is g or dg: pígeon, dúdgeon. So júdge is pronounced *júj.
j renders the d in ad- redundant: adjûdicate, ádjunct, ádjective, adjöurn, adjúst.
j is only used finally in words from Hindi: Ràj, Ámritràj. The normal spelling for the j sound finally is (d)ge: bádge, grúdge, plédge, dódge, gâuge, câge, pâge, wâge, sìêge, wâge, sâge, gàrbage, lúggage.
And g occurs more often than j before front vowels: Géoffrey, Gíllian (cf. Jíll), gîant, gigántic, Gërmany, géneral, George, géntle, and is much more common inside words: âgent, págeant, pígeon, rêgion.
j is one of the three letters, the others being q and v, that are never silent. It does not begin consonant clusters, and the only jj is in hàjj (which may also be spelt hádj).