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by Stranger in a Strange Land on November 21st, 2009
The word you cite is French, adopted into English. +4
by engineer is Terminator on November 21st, 2009
Those are symbolic letters,brother.They are used for pronunciation and mostly in foreign languages.
Let's have a spanish bite
¿Cómo está usted amigo?
Here 'á' differs from a and is basically a pronouncing symbol rather than a letter.
by PrivateGomerSpooner on November 21st, 2009
It's a French letter (ha, there's a joke for ya) that was taken up by the English a few hundred years ago, there are many more including ones from German. They are used to indicate that certain letters have a different pronunciation.
by Brian I on November 21st, 2009
Perhaps it has 28 letters, how about the é in café?
There are 28 letters in the Spanish alphabet because of the addition of ñ and ll.
by scubaduba on November 21st, 2009
It isn't an English word. It has been borrowed from French.
by Beany on November 21st, 2009
The word is adopted from French
by RC loves ice cream on November 21st, 2009
Most people spell it "facade".
If I had to point out additional letters in the English alphabet I'd make the argument that "sh", "ch", "th" and similar combinations are digraphs - letters containing more than one symbol, like æ.
by Takei-Shihan on November 21st, 2009
It is just an aid for pronunciation and not a separate letter, so we know it is "fassade" and not "fakkade" ... this is a French accent and although some English people accept and use it in English writing, especially here in Canada, the formal British English leaves the accent mark out, claiming it is French and NOT English.
In French, these three words are completely different and make a proper sentence, "La là lá." meaning 'that thing there', but they still consider them as a single letter 'a' with added accents for a slight difference in pronunciation.
by Sharona Life is a Tale Told by an Idiot on November 21st, 2009
Many letters have different sounds in each letter not just that one.
by mrbuddhafreak on November 21st, 2009
The goofy tail at the bottom of the c is a diacritical mark. That is to say, that it isn't part of the letter, just a guide to the letter's pronunciation. As an example, you may see the word "sake", referring to the Japanese rice wine, written with a diacritical mark above the letter "e" to show that the letter is to be pronounced, making the word "saw-kee" and not "sayk"
by Sandman on November 21st, 2009
The cedilla doesn’t make the letter any less a C, any more than the accent makes / é/ any less an E.
We spell Señor with a tilde, but it's still an N.
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In my childhood, we used an umlaut O /ö/ to spell coöperate; but the letter was still an O.
Over the past millennium, the ash, the eth, the thorn, the wen, and the yogh have all been dropped from the English alphabet, and Z, J K, U, and W have been added.
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This is connjecture, but I suspect that we need 26 for the magic value of the number itself. It's twice 13 and half of 52, the number of weeks in a year.
by RosieGHM Jetpacker on November 21st, 2009
You are using a pronunciation symbol for something that is French. The "c" in facade is no different than the "C" in face, is it? You are confusing the issue or raising a confusing issue which is, well, confusing. What is your intention here Mensan?
by dea_ex_machina on November 21st, 2009
that is not a letter, it is a cedilla under the c. If you are referring to the letter c having two sounds (k or s) then why not reduce the number of letters to 25 given that the sounds made by the letter c are already covered by other letters?
Is toll free hyphenated?
by Answerbag Staff on July 18th, 2010
| 1 person likes this
When is National Spelling Bee month?
by Answerbag Staff on June 20th, 2010
| 1 person likes this
Can you give me a word that starts with a "N"?
by calicorey on December 21st, 2011
| 6 people like this
Is CFN an acronym?
by Answerbag Staff on May 30th, 2010
| 1 person likes this
Can you give me a word that starts with an "E"?
by calicorey on December 24th, 2011
| 8 people like this
You're reading Are there actually 27 letters of the English alphabet, rather than 26? If not, then how do you explain the "ç" in the word, "façade?"
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Comments
But it still uses the "c with a hook," as I was taught.
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Please note that in the Spanish language, the "n" and the "ñ" are considered to be two separate letters.
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+6 for your response, with my thanks.
by Anonymous on November 21st, 2009
But you are referring to the Spanish alphabet in your example of "n" and "ñ" (not the English alphabet).
According to the Meriam-Webster dictionary, the word "facade" is the English transliteration of the French word "façade". "Façade" is then treated (in the English dictionary) as a variant of the word "facade", and not given it's own entry.
by Matrixbarf on November 21st, 2009