Big and small letters
English Alphabet | Writing | EnglishClub
An alphabet is a set of letters or symbols that we use to represent the basic speech sounds of a language in writing.
This page looks at writing the English alphabet. You can read about pronouncing the English alphabet here.
The English word "alphabet" comes from the Latin word "alphabetum". The Latin word "alphabetum" came from the first two letters of the Greek alphabet, "alpha" and "beta".
Letters of the English Alphabet
The English alphabet has 26 letters, starting with a and ending with z. Below you see the whole alphabet.
a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z
The letters above are "small letters". But they can also be written as "large letters" - see below.The letters of the alphabet are also sometimes called "characters".
Small and Large Letters
We can write each letter of the English alphabet as a "small letter" (abc) or as a "large letter" (ABC). Large letters are also called "capital letters" or "capitals".
Below you see the whole alphabet with small letters on the left and capitals on the right:
a A b B c C d D e E f F g G h H i I j J k K l L m M n N o O p P q Q r R s S t T u U v V w W x X y Y z Z
In informal English, we sometimes call capitals just "caps".
Small letters are sometimes called "lower case" and large letters "upper case". This is because in the old days of printing, before computers, the metal blocks for setting type were kept in two different boxes or "cases": small letters in the bottom or lower case, large letters in the top or upper case.
Font Styles
Printed letters of the alphabet come in different styles or designs. Each style is called a "font". This page shows all 26 characters, as small and large letters, in 5 different styles. Each column displays a different font style, in this order:
- Serif: with serifs, or little projections, at the end of most strokes
- Fixed-width: like old typewriter lettering - each letter is about the same width, so "i" takes up the same space as "w"
- Sans-serif: with no serifs
- Cursive: like handwriting
- Fantasy: fancy, artistic
Alphabetical Order
The English alphabet starts with the letter a and finishes with the letter z. We always write the alphabet in the same order:
a-b-c-d-e-f-g-h-i-j-k-l-m-n-o-p-q-r-s-t-u-v-w-x-y-z
A-B-C-D-E-F-G-H-I-J-K-L-M-N-O-P-Q-R-S-T-U-V-W-X-Y-Z
This order is called "alphabetical order". We often write lists in alphabetical order. For example, to write a list of countries in alphabetical order, we start with countries that begin with the letter A, then with countries that begin with B, and so on. For example:
- Australia
- Brazil
- Canada
If more than one word begins with the letter A, we put them in order based on the second letter, and then the third letter, and so on:
- Algeria
- Argentina
- Belgium
- Benin
- Bermuda
We use alphabetical order for many things, for example:
- dictionaries
- indexes of books
- telephone directories
When you write any list, it is a good idea to use alphabetical order. This makes it easy for your reader to find a particular item in the list.
Small caps font generator, ᴛɪɴʏ capital letters
How to type small capital letters
Use the input field above to type in your message. Font generator will convert your text letters using symbol font. Click a copy button. Paste it as plain text. It's going to work pretty much anywhere online on Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter, messengers, Instagram - bio, posts, Instagram stories, name, comments, etc. Except for handle (username). Smallcaps generator replaces lowercase letters with small caps - uppercase-like, yet tiny, small capital letters. With this generator you can also combine small caps with some other styles, like underlining. Other fonts with ᵗⁱⁿʸ tiny letters are also available with this small text generator.
How small caps generator works
Font changer can convert text letters and symbols of your message into alternative text symbols. It can also add special characters like it this: u̲n̲d̲e̲r̲l̲i̲n̲e̲. No HTML involved. Big text fonts (ones that span multiple lines) aside, text in generated fonts is likely to get accepted in many forums and text messaging apps like WhatsApp, Telegram, Snapchat, Skype, Instagram, Twitter and all the rest, games like PubG, Dota, Free Fire, Agario even as a nickname or a name. And it will definitely get accepted in posts, bio and messages anywhere online - from Facebook to almost all the online games. You can even get around a cuss word ban in online games using a this text font changer, as the message won't algorithmically match the banned words, because the letters are changed into symbols. Which scores a point for freedom of speech.
Another cool thing about using only symbols and special text letters is that when your post or message styled with this small caps generator gets copied by someone else it retains the same original text font style that you've generated. So unlike with html styling, using small caps generator guarantees you that the correct emphasis is going to be preserved.
Feedback about small caps generator
Small Caps font generator is being developed with lots of love and care for your time and experience. If something seems off and displeases you, if you have an 🤔💡 improvement idea, or if you actually like it a lot and would like to send your regards 😊, email me at [email protected], I'm eager to hear from you!
Alternative text font generator
You'll probably like an MS Word-like editor version of the online small caps font generator - tell. wtf font generator. On Android phones it can even be installed as a progressive web app. Tell.wtf symbol font changer is a bit more complicated than this generator, but it's got plenty of different fonts and cool additional features like finding symbols and emoji by drawing them, or typing their names. Personally, I use it most of the time. Actually, the small caps generator on this page is a fork of tell.wtf generator's code.
The Case of Small and Large Letters
Dropbox's John Saito wrote about how a small difference in letters can make a big difference.
Can you spot the difference in the two messages above? More capital letters on the left, fewer on the right. Big O, little O. Who cares, right?
Well, if you make apps or websites, then you should pay attention to this. Little subtle things, like letter case, can have a big impact on everything. Case affects readability, comprehension, and usability. Even how people perceive your brand.
We'll get into the interesting stuff next, but first let's dive into the letters themselves.
Uppercase vs lowercase letters
Most products and websites now have two methods for highlighting words.
- Capital Letters: Each Word is Capitalized.
- Lower case: Only the first word is capitalized.
If you are an Apple user, you may notice a lot of capital letters in the company's products. This is because Apple's guidelines recommend using capital letters for most UI elements, including alert titles, menus, and buttons.
If you are a user of Google products, you will see more small letters. And that's because Google's guidelines recommend lowercase letters for just about everything.
Whether you're on the Apple team or the Google team, the iPhone team or the Android team, it's interesting to figure out what gives you the use of one or the other. Let's take a closer look at each option.
What's good about capital letters?
First, let's see what capital letters give you.
More symmetry
Some people think that a capitalized sentence looks better because of symmetry. If your sentence is short, capital letters give a beautiful visual rhythm to your words:
Their beauty lies in their symmetry, and sometimes that's enough reason for a designer or writer to choose this option.
Greater visual impact
"Visual impact" is just a fun way of saying that capital letters stand out more. Large letters act like hands up, giving your headline or phrase more meaning. They are especially useful if you can't find the right font. They help separate your headline from text.
Look - the title on the left stands out more than on the right. The more it stands out, the more likely it is that someone will read it.
More meaningful
Like the word "meaningful" itself, capital letters give your words a sense of formality and importance. Websites like The New York Times and USA.gov mostly use capital letters. It's Professional. Seriously. Thoroughly.
Using capital letters is like dressing up your words. Some brands want their words to be business-like. If you're doing security, for example, capital letters give you a greater sense of professionalism and reliability than small letters.
Imagine that you are the head of a company. Which version do you think is more professional?
What's good about lower case letters?
Now let's look at why you might need capitalization in your product or website.
Easier to read
The main reason for using lower case letters is that they are easier to read, especially in long texts. Can you imagine how difficult it is to read text typed in uppercase letters?
That's why screenshots like this one from Apple's manual confuse me (if you're wondering, it's the same picture I used earlier).
Easier to identify
According to Google's first UX writer Sue Factor, one of the reasons Google used lowercase letters is that they are easier to explain to designers and engineers. It's not always clear in the interface what counts as a "header". Is it the name of the tab? Name of the checkbox? Or a confirmation message?
In addition, there are many ways to capitalize a title. Will you highlight prepositions like "from" or "through"? What about articles like "the"? Depending on which guides you follow, the rules may vary. Below are Apple's heading rules:
Ok, the million dollar question. Do I need to capitalize the word "about"?
If you have multiple people writing for your product or site, it's easy to forget all the rules about writing headlines. You can avoid this confusion by using lowercase letters everywhere. There is only one way to write a headline in lowercase, so it's harder to get it wrong.
Friendlier
Just as capital letters look more formal and serious, lowercase letters look more casual and friendly. I'm a writer at Dropbox, and we intentionally write sentences in lowercase because we want our brand to feel more natural and accessible. We believe that the voice of our product sets us apart from the competition and we use small letters as one of the ways to convey this voice.
Easy to spot nouns
Finally, lowercase letters make proper noun sentences easier to read. You always highlight your own names in capital letters, for example, New York or Microsoft.
Many companies now give features and products descriptive names like Inbox or Calendar rather than fancy names like Spark or Fantastical. If you use capital letters in all your buttons, it becomes unclear whether a word is a title or not, which can affect usability.
Other options?
Uppercase and lowercase letters are two of the most common examples of stylization, but certainly not the only ones.
Here's an example - in Windows Phone 8, Microsoft used a lot of lowercase text, even for titles and buttons.
There is also GIPHY, one of my favorite sites. He uses uppercase throughout, which makes sense for him, since memes are usually capitalized.
Make your choice
Lowercase and uppercase letters have their own advantages. Whichever option you use, just make sure you're making an informed decision that's right for your brand. The worst thing you can do is not have any standard at all. As a result, this will lead to inconsistencies that are very painful and difficult to correct later.
And your users, seeing inconsistencies, will begin to lose confidence in your brand.
Case closed?
What about you? Are you a fan of uppercase or lowercase letters? Or are you a rebel who plays by his own rules?
Anyway, tell me what you think. Share your thoughts, exclamations, exclamations and questions in the comments.
If you find a typo, select it and press Ctrl + Enter! To contact us, you can use [email protected].
How to make small letters on the keyboard
When typing on a computer, the user may encounter the question: "How to switch between large and small letters on the keyboard?". In this article, we will consider keyboard shortcuts for changing the case of the entered text, as well as some tricks for working in the Word program.
- 1 Check if Caps Lock is enabled
- 2 Caps Lock + Shift and Shift + F3 combinations
- 3 Replacing uppercase letters with lowercase letters from the Word toolbar
- 4 How to disable automatic conversion of lowercase letters to uppercase in Word
Check if Caps Lock is enabled
All computer keyboards have a key Caps Lock , pressing which switches case when entering text in any programs. If you are typing text in the same Word and see that the set is in capital letters, then you most likely pressed the Caps Lock key. You can click it by accident and not notice it yourself.
In any case, you need to check if Caps Lock 9 is pressed0144 by pressing it and continuing to type text. Also, on many keyboard models, an indication is used to quickly determine the status of the Caps Lock and Num Lock keys: a lit indicator will indicate that the function is enabled.
When the Caps Lock key is inactive, holding down the Shift key switches typing from lowercase to uppercase letters.
Caps Lock + Shift and Shift + F3 combinations
In some cases, keyboard shortcuts can be used to control the register Caps Lock + Shift and Shift + F3 .
The first combination is global, it works in all applications and is used to convert uppercase letters to lowercase while pressing Caps Lock .
If you have enabled caps lock and are typing in capital letters, you need to hold down Shift to change the case of specific characters you type. Conversely, if you want to type in capital letters, not including Caps Lock , enter characters while holding Shift .
The combination Shift + F3 works in Word and serves to quickly change the case of already typed text. Let's say you have a block of text typed in capital letters. Select it with the mouse and press Shift + F3 . As a result, all characters will be converted to lower case, that is, they will become small.
Replace uppercase letters with lowercase letters from the Word 9 toolbar0013
Instead of Shift + F3 , you can use the " Case " tool options to change case in Microsoft Word. It is located on the “ Home ” tab in the “ Font ” section, outwardly it looks like large and small letters A (Aa) located next to each other. If you click on it with the mouse, a menu with five available options will open.
- As in sentences - used by default, when typing, the first letter of each new sentence is converted to uppercase.
- all lowercase - Makes all letters small.
- ALL CAPS - Makes all letters capitalized.
- Begin with Uppercase - every first letter of a word in a sentence is capitalized.
- CHANGE CASE - option inverts case.
To apply any of these modes to text, it must first be selected.
How to turn off automatic conversion of lowercase letters to uppercase in Word
Finally, you can turn off Word's automatic conversion of lowercase letters to uppercase. To do this, follow these steps:
- Click on the main menu " File ", and then select " Settings ";
- In the editor settings window, switch to the " Spelling " section and click the " AutoCorrect Options" button;
- In the window that opens, on the "AutoCorrect" tab, uncheck the checkbox " Capitalize first letters of sentences ".
