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F (letter)

From Halbeeg, the open encyclopedia · Af-Soomaali

155 languages
F ace
F af
F als
F am
F an
F ang
F ar
F arc
F ast
F az
F azb
F ban
F bat-smg
F bcl
F bew
F bg
F bn
F bs
F ca
F cdo
F ckb
F co
F crh
F cs
F csb
F cv
F cy
F da
F de
F diq
F ee
F el
F eml
F en
F eo
F es
F et
F eu
F fa
F fi
F fj
F fo
F fur
F fy
F ga
F gan
F gd
F gl
F gn
F gor
F gv
F ha
F hak
F he
F hi
F hr
F hsb
F ht
F hu
F id
F ig
F ilo
F io
F is
F it
F ja
F jv
F ka
F kge
F ko
F ks
F kv
F kw
F la
F lb
F lg
F lmo
F lt
F lv
F mg
F mk
F mr
F ms
F mzn
F nah
F nap
F nn
F no
F nrm
F oc
F om
F pag
F pl
F pt
F qu
F ro
F ru
F scn
F sco
F se
F sh
F si
F simple
F sk
F sl
F smn
F srn
F stq
F su
F sv
F sw
F ta
F tdd
F te
F th
F tk
F tl
F tn
F tr
F tt
F tyv
F ur
F vec
F vep
F vi
F vo
F war
F wuu
F xmf
F yi
F yo
F zh
F zh-min-nan
F zh-yue
F (xaraf)
San-serif shown in Neue Helvetica 48 pt.. Serifs shown in Bodoni 48 pt..Eirik1231 · Public domain · Commons

F is the sixth letter of the standard Latin alphabet. It is written in two forms: the uppercase F and the lowercase f. It is used in many languages worldwide, including Somali, which is written in the Latin alphabet.

The most common sound represented by this letter is a voiceless labiodental fricative—in phonetic notation, /f/. This sound is made by bringing the lower lip and upper teeth together and passing air between them.

History of the letter form

The origin of the letter is traced to early Semitic writing, where a sign called waw represented a sound close to /w/. The Greeks adopted a sign called digamma, which originally had the value /w/ but later fell out of use in standard Greek. The Latin form developed this shape further, eventually becoming the letter F as it is known today.

Use in languages

Many languages use F to represent only the sound /f/, such as Italian, Spanish, and Somali. Some languages employ letter combinations; for example, English ph also produces /f/, and German v sometimes sounds like /f/. The letter f doubled (ff) appears in English and Welsh words, though in Welsh ff and f have different values.

As a symbol

F is used as a symbol in many contexts. In music, it represents a note in the scale, and also stands for the dynamic marking forte, meaning 'loud'. In physics, F represents force and also the unit farad for electrical capacitance. In some educational grading systems, particularly in the United States, F indicates that a student has failed an examination.

UncertaintyThe detailed history of the letter form and the precise timeline of its changes are matters on which scholars hold differing views; this article presents only a general summary.
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