E

E (minuscule: e) is the fifth letter and the second vowel letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is e (pronounced /ˈiː/ ).

It is the most commonly used letter in many languages, including Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, French, German, Hungarian, Latin, Latvian, Norwegian, Spanish, and Swedish. This makes it very important in writing and reading across many parts of the world.

Name

In English, the letter E is said with a "long E" sound, pronounced /ˈiː/. In many other languages, the name of the letter is similar to how it sounds when used in words that end with a vowel.

History

The Latin letter E looks very similar to the Greek letter epsilon, written as Ε. The Greek letter came from an even older Semitic letter called hê. This Semitic letter may have started as a picture of a person praying or celebrating. It was also based on an Egyptian hieroglyph that had a different sound.

In the Semitic language, this letter made the /h/ sound, but it was used for the /e/ sound in words from other places. Later, it became the epsilon in Greek, and was used for the /e/ sound. From there, it passed into the Old Italic script and finally into the Latin alphabet, where it is still used today.

Use in writing systems

English

In old English writing, the letter e was used to show a special sound. Over time, this sound changed in many words. Now, in words without stress, e often has a quiet or very short sound. Sometimes, at the end of words like queue, e does not make any sound at all.

Other languages

Many languages use e to show similar sounds, sometimes with marks added above or below the letter to give it different meanings. In some languages like French or German, e can also have a middle sound. Letters together with e, like ea or ei, can make different sounds depending on the language.

Other systems

The International Phonetic Alphabet also uses e to represent a certain vowel sound.

Frequency

The letter e is the most used letter in English and many other European languages. This fact is important in secret code writing and saving space when storing information.

Other uses

In the hexadecimal (base 16) numbering system, "E" stands for the number 14 in our usual decimal (base 10) counting. The lowercase "e" is also often used to represent Euler's number, an important mathematical constant.

Related characters

The letter E has many related forms and symbols. In the Latin alphabet, E can have special marks called diacritics, such as Ê or Ě, which change how it sounds. It is also related to other letters in different alphabets.

E comes from the Greek letter Epsilon and the Semitic letter He. It is related to letters in the Cyrillic, Coptic, and Gothic alphabets. Many symbols and signs are based on E, like the Euro sign (€) and the symbol for the elementary charge (e).

Other representations

Computing

Other

In British Sign Language (BSL), the letter 'e' is signed by extending the index finger of the right hand to touch the tip of the index finger on the left hand, with all fingers of the left hand open.