About This Quiz
Do you write so illegibly that others have trouble reading your Christmas cards? You're not alone — the U.K. postal system once reported that they destroyed more than 5 million illegibly addressed Christmas cards and letters! By the way, when was the last time you wrote a letter? Exactly! People text more than they write today, so cursive letters are slowly becoming a thing of the past. But handwriting still influences our lives — every year, the United States government loses thousands of dollars for handwriting-related reasons. At least 1 in 10 patients suffers because of a physician's messy handwriting. And a 1965 NASA experiment failed for the same reason — an engineer had just misread instructions! If only somebody had better handwriting...
On the other hand, calligraphy and lettering are among the hottest trends nowadays. After all, beautiful handwriting has an unusual power to transform a plain piece of paper into a masterpiece, be it an inspirational quote or a birthday card. Writing anything down also makes us remember it better, while not writing important things down is just asking to forget. So dust off your pen, and the next time you need to remember something, just take notes instead of typing. We promise it will help!
Do you still remember all of these cursive letters from school? Brush up on your handwriting skills with this exciting quiz!
Did you know this letter was not distinct from /u/ until the 1300s? In the 1500s, /u/ as a vowel was finally formed, making /v/ the true consonant.
Located near the end of the alphabet sandwiched by /x/ and /z/, this letter is a phonetic chameleon. It is sometimes a consonant and other times a vowel.
Did you know that if you search "w facts" on the internet, you'll find results about former President George W. Bush? His middle initial must have made a mark!
Advertisement
Have you heard of the iPhone X? It has amazing new features, including face recognition as your password!
This is the 19th letter of the English alphabet, and is also the initials of a children's TV show where they teach letters, "Sesame Street."
The Phoenicians gave this letter a vowel sound, and in regards to the written form, it has remained about the same since its origin.
Advertisement
This letter was also used for both consonant and vowel sounds until the 1500s. However, it did not become popular in English for another hundred years.
The beloved candy M&Ms has made its mark on this letter. Did you know that it stands for the two last names of the chocolatiers who started the company? Mars and Murrie were their last names.
"B" is also used in the medical world to describe the virus called "Hepatitis B." Don't worry, it's only contagious through contact with blood or bodily fluids.
Advertisement
Z is an Etruscan letter. The Etruscan civilization was a powerful civilization in ancient Italy.
How many words can you think of that start with the letter /z/? Zebra, zipper, zombies and zoology are a few ideas for those of you playing Scrabble!
This letter has a correlation to dogs in ancient Latin, since it was thought of as a trill that made the same noise as a growling dog. Maybe that's why the canine name "Rover" is so popular!
Advertisement
Speaking of blood types, A negative is another rarity. About six percent of people also have this type of blood.
"U" is often used to abbreviate the name of a state university. Take "U of M" for University of Michigan, for example.
Where does the saying "OK" come from? Some think it's an abbreviation for "oll korrect," but it is more likely that it became a part of English lingo when a political party named the O.K. Club began. This was actually an abbreviation for the president's hometown.
Advertisement
In 3000 B.C., the letter /f/ began as a picture of a snake. Over thousands of years, it has slowly changed to be the letter it is today in the English alphabet.
"D" is the name of a programming language created by Walter Bright. It is a high-level language that was released in 2001.
It may seem phonetically strange to English speakers that this letter is known as "rho" in the Greek alphabet. It is the 16th letter of the Greek alphabet.
Advertisement
This letter's origin is Epsilon, a Greek letter. There are many companies today named after Epsilon.
This letter can be phonetically confusing due to similar sounds that the letters /k/ and /s/ make. It was originally used to transcribe a Phoenician sound, and has been kept since.
Greeks called this letter "mu," Phoenicians "mem." Either way, it is considered a sacred and powerful letter because it represents water.
Advertisement
This letter is growing very popular in the tech-data world. It is 15th in all data programming languages.
H is also the symbol for hydrogen, an element in the table of elements. It is the most common element in the universe.
Ford made its Model-T car for about 20 years in the early 1900s. It was known as an affordable car for the common man.
Advertisement
This is the 12th letter in the English alphabet and is often used in English spelling. In fact, it is one of the top 10 most commonly used letters.
If you are ever playing hangman or Wheel of Fortune, guess this letter! It is the most frequently used of all the English consonants.
Did you know that in the 1800s, it was common for people to not pronounce /h/ in words like hospital and herb without the beginning sound? In the U.S., people still pronounce herb without the /h/.
Advertisement
In some languages such as Arabic, the letter /n/ is called "nun." "Nun" also means fish in Arabic.
What is jade? Jade is a gemstone known for its green color and is often used in Asian art.
There are a lot of veggies that begin with this letter. And now, delicious latte drinks start with this letter too, thanks to the pumpkin latte!
Advertisement
E! is also a TV show and network that broadcasts news about the celebrity and entertainment world. If you want to know the latest Hollywood gossip, turn on this channel.
Although this letter was related to the /c/ in the Phoenician alphabet, the Greeks used it for the guttural /ga/ sound.
Sigma is the Greek letter and the original name for /s/. This is also a good letter to guess when playing guess-the-word games, as it is commonly used in English.
Advertisement
Have you ever read the words like Xander or xylophone and wondered what the point of the /x/ is? This letter is said to be like a phonetic chameleon since it doesn't always have a distinct sound.
Did you know that /j/ came to be as a variation of /i/? /I/ was used as both a vowel and consonant until the 1500s.
The Gothic alphabet shows the first /u/. It became its own letter, apart from the /v/, in the 1300s.
Advertisement
The capital version of this letter is easier to write in cursive than the lowercase, since it has fewer loops. This sound is frequently used in English and in Germanic languages.
Did you know the letter "a" is derived from an ox's head? Well, not the literal head, but a picture of the ox's head in ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs.
This letter is also Greek, and is known in the Greek alphabet as upsilon. In historic Latin, is was rarely used.
Advertisement
Perhaps you learned in elementary school that /q/ must be followed by a /u/. Have you ever wondered if there is a word with a /q/ but no /u/? There are a few, but most are derived from non-English words. "Qintar," for example, is the monetary unit of Albania.
This letter has maintained its position as the fourth letter of the alphabet for all of its existence. Although the shape of the written letter is a bit different than it has been historically, it has always held a rounded shape.
This letter also describes a type of blood. O negative blood is a rare blood type; only about six percent of people have it.
Advertisement
Did you know that the letter "B" is more than 3,000 years old? It used to be referred to as "beta," which is why people today sometimes use beta for something that is "in second."
There is a pop singer from South Korea named "V" who is in the boy band BTS. Check out their music videos today!
Have you ever considered that /q/ and /k/ make a similar sound in the back of the throat? This letter usually needs the letter /u/ after it.
Advertisement
Have you ever thought of transcribing this letter simply using two "u"s; /uu/? This is what people who wrote in Old German did.
What's one of the first things that pops up when you internet search "n"? Netflix! This internet movie rental system has changed the way our society finds entertainment, and probably put a few physical rental stores out of business.
The United States has had many presidents whose name began with this letter. From all the Georges to Gerald and Grover, this must be a presidential letter!
Advertisement