Purpose

By the end of this lesson, you will be able to recite the 26 letters of the English alphabet in order, identify which letters are vowels and which are consonants, and correctly distinguish uppercase from lowercase letter forms.

Lesson Explanation

The English alphabet has 26 letters, always written in this fixed order:

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

Every letter has two forms: an uppercase (capital) form and a lowercase (small) form:

Uppercase: 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
Lowercase: 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

Uppercase letters are used at the start of a sentence, for names of people and places, and for the word “I.” Lowercase letters are used everywhere else in normal writing.

Of the 26 letters, exactly 5 are vowels: A, E, I, O, U. The remaining 21 letters are consonants: B, C, D, F, G, H, J, K, L, M, N, P, Q, R, S, T, V, W, X, Y, Z.

The letter Y is a special case: it usually acts as a consonant (as in “yes” or “yellow”), but it sometimes acts as a vowel when it makes a vowel sound, such as in the word “my” or “sky,” where no other vowel letter is present.

Letters are grouped in this specific order for a practical reason: this fixed order is what makes alphabetical sorting possible — in a dictionary, a phone book, or a filing system, “Apple” comes before “Banana” specifically because A comes before B in this fixed sequence.

Practice Questions