Q (letter)
Q is the seventeenth 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). Examples (the accents show stress and pronunciation: see English phonemes): quêen, quîet, quîte, quínce, quít, quíck, quêer, quâil, quáck, qùad, quŏrum, êqual, équity, aquátic, përquisíte, réquisíte, líquid.
q is also used in transliterations from other languages to represent sounds not present in English; most commonly, to represent the sound of qaf in Arabic, and similar sounds in other Semitic languages and various Iranian languages including Persian. Thus q alone is used at the end of certain words from Arabic: Sádiq, Táriq, Iràq, and only in non-English 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).
In the pinyin system of transliterating Chinese, "q" is pronounced like "ch", as in Qing Dynasty.
The one native-English 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.