How many letters are in the alphabet?

[Jamash]

Ha ha, it's just like Barack Obama saying that there are 57 States in America, because he visited a few of them twice.

Apparently you can get quite far with idiot-logic nowadays.

 

[Fronken]

8 letters in the word 'alphabet'

You just made my day

 

[Cliff_m85]

The Alphabet

T
H
E
A
L
P
B


So 7.

 

[hypothetical fact]

Tell your teacher to sing his version of the alphabet Sesame Street style.

 

[Hazy]

Your Teacher:

Probably doesen't have one of these..

 

[AlyCooper]

Since your teacher said how many letters (not symbols) are in the alphabet you're correct. Your teacher is such a douchebag

 

[shwnbob]

Jeez schools are getting dumb teachers

 

[Bat Vader]

I said 26 and I was marked wrong as the teacher said "Capitals and small letters, there are actually 52 letters in the alphabet." I argued that were fundamentally the same and he said they are totally different symbols used in different situations than each other.

Who's right?

Based on technicalities both of you could be seen as having the right answer. Your answer would be right in the sense that an upper cased A and a lower cased a are essentially both an A and cannot be counted twice.

Your teacher could be right because even though they are the same they are different versions of the other and deserve to be counted.

 

[Coldsnap]

This topic confuses me. If you're having tests on how many letters are in the alphabet, you must be pretty young. If you're teaching kids on the alphabet you're not going to get into some random philosophical discussion on the difference between capital and lowercase letters and whether they constitute wholly new letters.

This sounds like a question and discussion used in a philosophy class to try challenge a concept.

I think you're more right than the teacher, however in proper grammar, you wouldn't use the capital and lowercase forms interchangeably. So the teacher has a small point, but I wouldn't consider lowercase and capital forms of a letter different letters.

 

[The_Echo]

In the English alphabet there are 52 characters, but only 26 letters.

 

[LewsTherin]

In modern day English, there are 26 letters. Other languages have more/less/different.

 

[AbsoluteVirtue18]

You.

Must... resist... oh screw it!

[/thread]

I won't be so hesitate.

[/thread]

 

[Flap Jack452]

8 letters in the word 'alphabet'

har har

Nobody counts capital letters separately.

I do
What are you implying?

oh, you were serious. You guys speak a variant of English, it is known not as "American" but as "English (U.S.)" get it right.

Were not all like that, I promise.

 

[TheOnceandFutureKing]

your teacher needs to be added to the World Depopulation List.

 

[Skeleon]

What are you implying?

That you are Odysseus, obviously.