D (letter)

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D, d is a letter of the Latin alphabet. It is the fourth letter of most variants, being placed after C and before E, as is the case for instance in the English alphabet. Its English name is pronounced [ˈdiː], like that of the River Dee.

D is also the Roman numeral representing the number 500.

Use in English[edit]

d is like t but voiced (compare dén and tén): the tongue touches the upper teeth: dóg, héad, dím, blòod, woòden, dàrling, dâinty, mádder, dûe, dāft, admîre, nâdir, hëard, bïrd, wörd, sád, bád, mád, gód, cód, said (*séd).

• The accents show stress and pronunciation (see English spellings): A: sát, mâde, pàrk, cāst (cást/càst), åll, ãir; E: ére, êar, vèin, fërn; I: sít, mîne, skì, bïrd; O: sóng, môde, lòve, wörd, ŏr; OO: moôn, foòt; U: sún, mûse, fùll, pürr; W: neŵ, ẁant; Y: gým, mŷ, keỳ, mÿrrh.

In the past forms of verbs d sounds like t if the preceding consonant is also unvoiced: loòked (*loòkt), híssed (*híst) - except in the case of t, after which it is necessary to sound the e as í: ẁanted (*wóntíd). Similarly in the name Alasdair (also spelt Álastair, Álistair).

d is often found before g to make it clear that the g will have the soft j sound, although here it is really redundant, as the g is usually followed by a front vowel, e, i or y: bádge, lédge, bádger, lédger, rídge, brídge, dódge, dódgy, púdgy, édge, édgy, lódger, lódging, Hódges, cúdgel, wédge. But in júdgement and acknówledgement the e is optionally omitted after dg, without changing the pronunciation: júdgment, acknówledgment. And in Édgar, the d and (hard) g are clearly separate sounds, *Éd-gə(r).

d is often doubled, to emphasise the preceding short vowel: míddle, sádder, ádd, múddle, gíddy, ódd, pádding, wédded. There can be an accidental sustained double d in gránddad – or it can be simply grándad.

In eistéddfod, the double d is pronounced as dh (-dhvod).

d begins consonant clusters: Édgbaston, adhêre, crâdle, admít, kídney, dréss, Édsel, advîse, ádze.

And flòod and blòod rhyme with múd (cf. moôd, broôd, foôd; hoòd, woòd, goòd).

Scientific uses[edit]

D is the symbol for the isotope deuterium.