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The term four-letter word serves as a euphemism for words that are often considered profane or offensive.. The designation "four-letter" arises from the observation that many (though not all) popular or slang terms related to excretory functions, sexual activity, genitalia, blasphemies, and terms linked to Hell or damnation are incidentally four-character monosyllables.
Note that some words contain an ae which may not be written æ because the etymology is not from the Greek -αι-or Latin -ae-diphthongs. These include: In instances of aer (starting or within a word) when it makes the sound IPA [ɛə]/[eə] (air). Comes from the Latin āër, Greek ἀήρ. When ae makes the diphthong / eɪ / (lay) or / aɪ ...
This vocalic w generally represented /uː/, [3] [4] as in wss ("use"). [5] However at that time the form w was still sometimes used to represent a digraph uu (see W), not as a separate letter. In modern Welsh, "W" is simply a single letter which often represents a vowel sound. Thus words borrowed from Welsh may use w this way, such as:
QWERTY, one of the few native English words with Q not followed by U, is derived from the first six letters of a standard keyboard layout. In English, the letter Q is almost always followed immediately by the letter U, e.g. quiz, quarry, question, squirrel. However, there are some exceptions.
The letter u can take a diaeresis (ü), but only after the letter g; Some words frequently used: de, el, del, los, la(s), uno(s), una(s), y; No apostrophised contractions; No use of grave accent; Letters k and w are rare and only used in loanwords (e.g. walkman) Word beginnings: ll- (check not Welsh or Catalan) double L (ll)
Catalan makes a difference between "Spanish ll" or palatalized l, written ll as in llei (law), and "French ll" or geminated l, written l·l as in col·lega (colleague). [citation needed] The difference can be illustrated with the French digraph œu, which is composed of the ligature œ and the simplex letter u. [citation needed]
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The letters A, E, I, O, and U are considered vowel letters, since (except when silent) they represent vowels, although I and U represent consonants in words such as "onion" and "quail" respectively. The letter Y sometimes represents a consonant (as in "young") and sometimes a vowel (as in "myth").