Q (letter)

Q is the seventeenth th letter of the English alphabet. Its name is pronounced like the words cue and queue.

Use in English

Q has the same sound as k in kít and c in cát. It is almost always followed by a u, which is normally pronounced w. So qu = kw (kw itself is rare and accidental: åwkward): quêen, quîet, quîte, quínce, quít, quíck, quêer, quâil, quáck, qùad, quŏrum, êqual, équity, aquátic, përquisíte, réquisíte, líquid.

But q alone is used at the end of certain words from Arabic: Sádiq, Táriq, Iràq, and only in Arabic words can it be doubled or otherwise appear minus the u: Sadíqqi, Qátar, Irāqi, níqab, qát stimulant (= cát animal); and in the alternative spelling of Korān the u is a vowel: Quràn (ù; or Qur’an). The one non-Arabic exception is the keyboard-describing word qwërty.

Qu can have an odd effect on a, like that of w in ẁas, making a sound like ó: qùantity, qùarrel, qùality, eqùality. And, also like w, it can go even further as in quårtz (cf. wåltz).

But other vowels are not affected: quést, quêasy, quôte, inquîry or enquîry and neither is the a in quàrk, quáck.

The first u in queûe is redundant: queûe line = Keŵ Gardens = cûe prompt, billiards = the name of the letter q.

The ending -que sounds like -k, often with a French vowel sound preceding: BrE chéque money (= chéck verify = Czéch nationality), unìque, bezìque, oblìque, clìque, opâque, mósque, Bāsque; cf. -gue: lêague plâgue, also with silent -ue.

Other redundant u’s after q: líquor (*líkkə), píquèt (*pêekây), crôcquèt (*crôakây), Jácqueline (= Jácklin surname).

Q does not begin clusters.

• qq appears only in some Arabic names; its normal ‘double’ is cq as in: acquîre, acquiésce.

See also

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