F (letter)
F, f is a letter of the Latin alphabet. It is the sixth letter of most variants, being placed after E and before G, as is the case for instance in the English alphabet. Its English name is pronounced [ˈef], that is eff.
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 |
f is a labiodental fricative, air being pushed through the upper teeth and lower lip: fún, féather, férry, fîght, forty, fífty, fílth, fíckle, fád, flóp, frét, físt, óff, óften (*offen), fát, fïrst, déaf, friénd. It is an unvoiced v: feŵ and vieŵ are a minimal pair.
- The accents show stress and pronunciation (see English spellings): A: sát, mâde, pàrk, cāst (cást/càst), åll, ãir; E: ére, êar, vèin, fërn; I: sít, mîne, skì, bïrd; O: sóng, môde, lòve, wörd, ŏr; OO: moôn, foòt; U: sún, mûse, fùll, pürr; W: neŵ, ẁant; Y: gým, mŷ, keỳ, mÿrrh.
It is often doubled at the end of words, after a single vowel letter: óff, stúff, clíff, whíff, múff, though not always: íf, óf (*ov), déaf (two vowel letters). And also in the middle of words: ráffle, óffer, íffy, báffle, éffort, Clífford, múffle, stúffing, stúffed.
f begins consonant clusters: Áfghan, aflôat, frîght, shíft.
The f sound, however, is spelt ph in many words from Greek: epíphany, Dáphne, grāph, élephant (though Stêphen is pronounced the same as Stêven).
In some words the f sound is written gh: enoúgh, tróugh, cóugh.
In óf and Welsh words such as eistéddfod (-édhvod) and Aberfán, f is pronounced as v.
Scientific uses
- F: farad, the unit of electric capacitance
- F: force
- f: generic function