Lowercase fancy g

Don’t be so sure you know what a lowercase G looks like

Skip to main content

The Verge homepage

• Science/
• TL;DR

/

Were you aware there are two versions of a lowercase G?

By Angela Chen / @chengela

Apr 3, 2018, 3:44 PM UTC|

Share this story

Image: Johns Hopkins University

Can you pick out a lowercase G from a lineup? Researchers from Johns Hopkins University found that a surprising number of adults can’t. In fact, many of the adults they tested weren’t aware that there are two versions of a lowercase G at all and don’t know how to draw the less common one.

The study, published this week in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance, was small. But before we get into that, just take a look and test yourself. (Just pick one.)

Image: Johns Hopkins University

To be clear, there are two lowercase Gs. There’s the one that almost everyone writes by hand, which is a circle with a tail that points left. It’s like the G in the Arial font, and the researchers call this one “opentail.”

The other one, called “looptail,” is the kind you see in a font like Times New Roman: two circles, connected by a line on the left side. (So, the correct answer for the above test is 3.)

The Johns Hopkins study had three parts. First, the researchers asked 38 adults to list letters that have two lowercase versions. Of the 38 participants, only two people listed the letter G. Next, 16 new volunteers silently read a paragraph that had 14 of those tricky looptail Gs. They had to say each word with a “G” aloud, then write the G they just saw on a piece of paper. Half of them wrote the opentail type, even though the words had a looptail G, and those who tried to write the correct version failed. Only one person could do it. In the last part, 25 participants took the multiple-choice test above, where they were asked to pick the right lowercase G from the lineup. Only seven people picked the correct answer.

So why does this matter, besides being vaguely embarrassing? When we read, nobody has trouble recognizing the letter G no matter how it’s written. It’s not like we see something in Times New Roman and suddenly lose the ability to understand the word. But the study shows we don’t really know what the letter G looks like, and it may be because we’re writing by hand less as we use electronic devices more, the authors write. They wonder if picking up a pen less has had implications on how we pay attention to letters and learn how to read.

A similar phenomenon has been observed in China, where the written language consists of complex characters. There, people can develop character amnesia because they’re so used to typing on the computer. If you input the romanized spelling for “hao” (Chinese for “good”), the computer will show you a few different character options and you can pick the correct one (“好”). As a result, people can still recognize the character, but they don’t know the exact strokes anymore, especially if the character is more complicated.

It’s nothing new that we don’t pay super close attention to things we see every day. We recognize pennies, for example, but some of us don’t know off the top of our heads which side Lincoln faces (the right). But researchers are now trying to understand how switching to electronic devices is affecting our memory and our literacy. In the meantime, consider this a reminder that we don’t look at things as closely as we think.

Most Popular

1. Extremely Hardcore

   ---

2. Microsoft set to lay off thousands of employees tomorrow

   ---

3. Apple announces MacBook Pros with M2 Pro and M2 Max chips

   ---

4. No, you can’t get a 16TB SSD for a hundred bucks

   ---

5. New Pixel Fold leak lands in physical space

   ---

• ExxonMobil accurately predicted climate change while publicly dismissing it

• NASA’s James Webb telescope discovers its first Earth-sized exoplanet

• Rocket Lab sets new launch window for Electron rocket mission

• Russia plans to launch new Soyuz spacecraft to replace a leaky one docked at the ISS

G what? The elusive mystery of the letter g explained

Despite seeing it millions of times in pretty much every picture book, every novel, every newspaper, and every email message, people are essentially unaware of the more common version of the lowercase print letter "g," Johns Hopkins researchers have found in a study back in 2018.

“Most people don't even know that two forms of the letter -one usually handwritten, the other typeset- exist. And if they do, they can't write the typeset one we typically see. They can't even pick the correct version of it out of a lineup” note the authors. 

“What we think may be happening here is that we learn the shapes of most letters in part because we have to write them in school. 'Looptail g' is something we're never taught to write, so we may not learn its shape as well” said Johns Hopkins cognitive scientist Michael McCloskey, the study's senior author.

Unlike most letters, ‘g’ has two lowercase print versions. There's the opentail one that most everyone uses when writing by hand; it looks like a loop with a fishhook hanging from it. Then there's the looptail g, which is by far the more common, seen in everyday fonts like Times New Roman and Calibri and, hence, in most printed and typed material.

“To test people's awareness of the g they tend to write and the g they tend to read, the researchers conducted a three-part experiment. ”

G or g is the seventh letter of the ISO basic Latin alphabet. The letter 'G' was introduced in the Old Latin period as a variant of 'C' to distinguish voiced /ɡ/ from voiceless /k/.

The modern lowercase 'g' has two typographic variants: the single-storey (sometimes opentail) 'g' and the double-storey (sometimes looptail) 'g'. The single-storey form derives from the majuscule (uppercase) form by raising the serif that distinguishes it from 'c' to the top of the loop, thus closing the loop, and extending the vertical stroke downward and to the left. The double-storey form (g) had developed similarly, except that some ornate forms then extended the tail back to the right, and to the left again, forming a closed bowl or loop. The initial extension to the left was absorbed into the upper closed bowl. The double-storey version became popular when printing switched to "Roman type" because the tail was effectively shorter, making it possible to put more lines on a page. In the double-storey version, a small top stroke in the upper-right, often terminating in an orb shape, is called an "ear".

Generally, the two forms are complementary, but occasionally the difference has been exploited to provide contrast.

The findings of the study demonstrate that “our knowledge of letters can suffer when we don't write them. And as we write less and become more dependent on electronic devices, the researchers wonder about the implications for reading.”

The study suggests the important role writing plays in learning letters, appeared in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance.

Read more here.

“protection” meaning: Tag latin small G emoji

TZD is the symbol for Emoji tag, its value is Tag latin lowercase G, it corresponds to the ASCII code g. The function of this tag character is to distinguish it from the corresponding ASCII code when used in text. Tag characters can form an emoji sequence with a specific meaning. For example, 🏴̠̠̠̠̠̠̠̠, 🏴̠̠̠̠̠̠̠̠̠̠̠֠́ᬠ̠ᬡᬡᎠ, 🏴̠̠̠̠̠̠̠̠̠̠ contain these tags. The Unicode Consortium will use tag characters in more places in the future. nine0006

💡Extended reading and non-fiction

Meaning of the emoji character - ─ Tag latin small G.

More tag can be found in topic: tag.

─Examples and usage

🔸 󠁧 󠁧 (E0067) => Asci: G (HEX: 67)
🔸 󠁧 󠁧 (E0067) TAG Latin lowercase G ⊂ 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 (1F3F4 E0067 E0065 E006E E0067 E007F) Flag: England
🔸 󠁧 (E0067) TAG Latin Return G ⊂ 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 (1f3f4 E0067 E0062 E0073 E0063 E0074 E007F) Flag: Scotland
🔸 󠁧 (E0067) TAG Latin Return G ⊂ 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 (1F3F4 E0067 E0062 E0077 E006C E0073 E007F) Flag: Wales

─ Basic information

👨‍💻Unicode Information

🎴flower card

🃏joker

🀄️mahjong

♟️pawn

🎲 Grand bone

🎳 Buling

🕹Joystik

󠁿 TEG

󠀸Digit eight tag

󠀵 Fifth tag

󠀴TAG DIGIT FUR

󠀹CIPHRA Nine

000 9000 󠀱TAGIT 󠀷 Togg number seven

󠀶tag digit Six

󠀳CIFRA three tags

󠀲tag digit two

󠀰tag digit zero

󠁢TAG Latin Return B

0006

󠁥TAG Latin lowercase E

󠁦TAG Latin Return F

󠁨TAG Latin Right Hy

󠁩TAG Latin Reternaya I

󠁪TAG Latin Return J

󠁫TAG Latin Return K

󠁬TAG Latin Oblast Little

-Tag Latin Small M

-Tag Latin Small N

-Tag Latin Small O

-Tag Latin Small P

-Tag Latin Small Q

-Tag Latin Small Q

-Tag Latin Small Q

0006

󠁳TAG Latin lowercase S

󠁴TAG Latin lowercase T

󠁵TAG Latin Reternaya U

󠁶TAG Latin Reternaya V

󠁷TAG Latin Return W

󠁸TAG Latin Return X

󠁹TAG Latin Orthodox Little One

─Tag Latin Small Z

-Tag Small Latin A

🇬🇧 United Kingdom

─Images across platforms

─Related knowledge

Lesson summary in grade 1 on the topic "lowercase letter f" | Lesson plan in the Russian language (grade 1) on the topic:

Lesson summary in grade 1 in the Russian language.

Subject: “Letter of lowercase f”.

Purpose: to introduce the writing of the lowercase letter f, improving the calligraphic skills of students.

Tasks:

• learning to write the lowercase letter f;
• development of students' speech based on their experience and knowledge; nine0292
• teaching children to love the subject.

UUD:

Personal UUD

Formation: motivation for learning and cognition; adequate self-esteem; readiness to openly express their position in the classroom, an adequate understanding of the reasons for success (failure) in the educational process.

Meta-subject:

1. Regulatory UUD

Formation: the ability to keep the goal of the activity until its result is obtained; the ability to see the error; the ability to evaluate the result of one’s activity, to argue one’s opinion and position, self-control of the process and results of activity. nine0006

2. Cognitive UUD

Formation: ability to explain the meaning of a word; match words that differ by one or more letters. Make up words from the studied letters; read syllables with a change in the letter of the vowel; explain the meaning of the word; distinguish the sound of words.

Model the sound composition of a word: reflect the qualitative characteristics of sounds in the model using chips of different colors; set the number and sequence of sounds in words; to distinguish sounds: vowels and consonants, hard and soft consonants; analyze the element-wise composition of printed and written capital and lowercase letters. nine0006

Divide words into syllables; analyze the word: determine the place of stress in the word.

Distinguish between voiced and unvoiced consonants.

Listen to a literary work.

Recognize the meaning of the text when listening to it.

3. Communicative UUD

Formation: the ability to listen and hear the teacher, student; the ability to cooperate in a group in solving educational problems.

Equipment: writing, visual aid.

Lesson progress. nine0006

Stages of lesson	Teacher Activities	Activities
I. Organizational moment	-Helpers! Sit down! Check if you have everything on the tables.	- Hello!
II. Knowledge update	- Do you like to solve riddles? -Then listen carefully to the first riddle: Late in the evening, look, Brightly shine…. -What sound do you hear at the beginning of the word lanterns? - Describe this sound. - Listening to the second riddle: Big-eyed catcher Blind in the light, Lives in the forest, Hoots like a robber. Scary bird, But she herself is afraid of people. -What sound do you hear at the beginning of the word owl? - Describe this sound.	- Yes - Lanterns - [f] - consonant, solid, deaf, double. - Owl - [f '] - consonant, soft, deaf, paired.
III. Work on the topic of the lesson	-Now open the copybook on page 56 -Who will tell me what the topic of the lesson is today? - See how the letter F is spelled correctly - What elements does the letter F consist of? nine0006 Algorithm for writing the letter F: 1/3 from the top, go up to the left, go down the slope, hook to the middle, reach the “secret”, along the “secret” a long line down, tear off the handle, then again 1/3 top right, go right up, go down the slope, rocking chair to the left, hook to the middle.	- lower case f. - consists of two ovals and a long line.
Finger gymnastics	PO MUSHROOM Finger, finger, where have you been? (Fingers are clenched into a fist.) This finger went to the forest, (Bend off the little finger.) This finger found a mushroom, (Bend off the nameless one.) This finger began to clean, (Bend off the middle one.) This finger began to fry , (Bend off the index finger.) This finger ate everything, That's why he got fat. (Bend off the thumb.)
1. Work according to recipes	-Now the letter F is written at the bottom on the second line. Circle the letter F along the contour and write it to the end of the line. We write neatly, take our time, observe the slopes. -Look at the letter F, which is written in a frame and tell me which of these F is written correctly? -Now look at the syllables that are written at the bottom of the frame -Next to these syllables, we write this syllable independently along the contour, and also write the word lights, lanterns, fanfares along the contour. - Make up sentences with these words. nine0006 - What is the word below? - What is a traffic light? -What do each traffic light colors mean? - Now we circle the word traffic light along the contour, observing the slopes and all additional icons in the word. - Look at the words that are written on page 57. What are the words here? - On the next line, we rewrite these words in block letters, i.e. letter under letter. -What is form? -What is a background? - Who is an owl? nine0006 - What is a surname? - What do you think, what words are written here? - Write these words.	- the letter F is written along the contour, observing the slopes. -1st - along the contour they independently write the syllables fa, fl, also the words headlights, lanterns, fanfares. -Come up with suggestions. -Traffic light - light signaling device for traffic control on streets and roads. - red - stop, yellow - get ready, green - you can go. nine0006 - Write the word traffic light along the contour, observing slopes and additional icons. - Form, background, eagle owl, surnames. -Rewrite the words in capital letters on the next line. -Form is the external shape, appearance, contours of the object; clothes of the same color and cut. -Background is the base color or tone on which an image or text is placed; - The eagle owl is a scary night bird. - A surname is an inherited family name added to a personal name. nine0006 - Porcelain, pheasant, flamingo, flag.
Fizminutka	Stomp, stomp, bear Clap, clap, bear, Squat with me, brother, forward, and hands . Smile and sit down.
Work according to recipes	- We look at task 1. - We need to connect the order in which the letter F is written. - We look at task 2. -Make words from these letters and write them down.	- Connect in order - Compose words from letters and write down.
IV. Consolidation of the studied Entertaining materials	1). Clap your hands if you hear the sound [f] or [f'] in the word: jacket, vase, scarf, Vasya, screen, farm, wagon, pheasant, fork, asphalt , fantasy. 2). Guess the boy's name from the first sounds of the names. nine0006 The teacher demonstrates drawings: eagle owl, spruce, house, apple. 3). The teacher dictates the words. If in a word the sound [f] is hard - boys raise their hands, [f'] is soft - girls. Focus, ficus, driver, football, factory, traffic light, Fedya, owl, company, farm, window, poster, asphalt. Learn more Letter links for names free Vowels sounds words Simple reading for kindergarten Guided reading level look up Activities for social skills 1St grade kid Math help for first graders Books about bugs for preschoolers Timed reading for kids Learn how to write name Little red and the wolf