# T

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Twentieth letter of the Latin alphabet

This article is about the letter of the Latin alphabet. For the same [letterform](/source/Letterform) in the Cyrillic and Greek alphabets, see [Te (Cyrillic)](/source/Te_(Cyrillic)) and [Tau](/source/Tau). For other uses, see [T (disambiguation)](/source/T_(disambiguation)).

Not to be confused with [ㅜ](/source/%E3%85%9C), [Tea](/source/Tea), [Tee](/source/Tee), or various [box-drawing characters](/source/Box-drawing_character).

T T t Usage Writing system Latin script Type Alphabetic and logographic Language of origin Latin language Sound values [t] [ʈ] [tʰ] [tʼ] [d] [ð] [t̪] [t͡ʃ] [ɾ] [ʔ] In Unicode U+0054, U+0074 Alphabetical position 20 History Development 𐤕 Ττ 𐌕 T t Time period c. 700 BCE to present Descendants Th (digraph) ™ ₮ ₸ Ŧ Ť Ţ Ʇ Sisters 𐍄 Т Ҭ Ћ Ҵ ת ت ܬ ة ࠕ 𐎚 𐎙 ተ ፐ Տ տ Ց ց त ट ત ટ ⶊ Other Associated graphs t(x), th, tzsch Writing direction Left-to-right This article contains phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. For the distinction between [ ], / / and ⟨ ⟩, see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters.

**This article contains uncommon [Unicode](/source/Unicode) characters.** Without proper [rendering support](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Multilingual_support), you may see [question marks, boxes, or other symbols](/source/Specials_(Unicode_block)#Replacement_character) instead of the intended characters.

ISO basic Latin alphabet AaBbCcDdEeFfGgHhIiJjKkLlMmNnOoPpQqRrSsTtUuVvWwXxYyZz v t e

**T** ([minuscule](/source/Letter_case): **t**) is the twentieth [letter](/source/Letter_(alphabet)) of the [Latin alphabet](/source/Latin_alphabet), used in the [modern English alphabet](/source/English_alphabet), the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is [*tee*](/source/English_alphabet#Letter_names) (pronounced [/ˈtiː/](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA/English) [ⓘ](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:LL-Q1860_(eng)-Flame,_not_lame-T.wav)), plural *tees*.[1]

It is derived from the Semitic [Taw](/source/Taw) 𐤕 of the [Phoenician](/source/Phoenician_alphabet) and [Paleo-Hebrew](/source/Paleo-Hebrew) script ([Aramaic](/source/Aramaic_alphabet) and [Hebrew](/source/Hebrew_alphabet) Taw ת/𐡕/, [Syriac](/source/Syriac_alphabet) Taw ܬ, and [Arabic](/source/Arabic_script) ت [Tāʼ](/source/T%C4%81%CA%BC)) via the Greek letter [τ](/source/Tau) ([tau](/source/Tau)). In English, it is most commonly used to represent the [voiceless alveolar plosive](/source/Voiceless_alveolar_plosive), a sound it also denotes in the [International Phonetic Alphabet](/source/International_Phonetic_Alphabet). It is the most commonly used [consonant](/source/Consonant) and the second-most commonly used letter in English-language texts.[2]

## History

Phoenician Taw Western Greek Tau Etruscan T Latin T

*[Taw](/source/Taw)* was the last letter of the Western [Semitic](/source/Semitic_alphabets) and [Hebrew alphabets](/source/Hebrew_alphabet). The sound value of Semitic *Taw*, the [Greek alphabet](/source/Greek_alphabet) Tαυ (*Tau*), [Old Italic](/source/Old_Italic_alphabet) and Latin T has remained fairly constant, representing [[t](/source/Voiceless_alveolar_plosive)] in each of these, and it has also kept its original basic shape in most of these alphabets.

## Use in writing systems

Pronunciation of ⟨t⟩ by language Orthography Phonemes Catalan /t/ Standard Chinese (Pinyin) /tʰ/ English /t/, silent French /t/, silent German /t/ Icelandic /tʰ/ Indonesian /t/ Portuguese /t/ [t͡ʃ], allophone of /t/ before /i/, /ĩ/ and /j/ in some Brazilian dialects Spanish /t/ Turkish /t/

### English

In English, ⟨t⟩ usually denotes the [voiceless alveolar plosive](/source/Voiceless_alveolar_plosive) ([International Phonetic Alphabet](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA): /[t](/source/Voiceless_alveolar_plosive)/), as in *tart*, *tee*, or *ties*, often with [aspiration](/source/Aspirated_consonant) at the beginnings of words or before [stressed](/source/Stress_(linguistics)) vowels. The letter ⟨t⟩ corresponds to the affricate /t͡ʃ/ in some words as a result of [yod-coalescence](/source/Phonological_history_of_English_consonant_clusters#Yod-coalescence) (for example, in words ending in -"ture", such as *future*).

A common [digraph](/source/Digraph_(orthography)) is ⟨th⟩, which usually represents a [dental fricative](/source/Dental_fricative), but occasionally represents /t/ (as in *Thomas* and *thyme*). The digraph ⟨ti⟩ often corresponds to the sound /ʃ/ (a [voiceless palato-alveolar sibilant](/source/Voiceless_palato-alveolar_sibilant)) word-medially when followed by a vowel, as in *nation*, *ratio*, *negotiation*, and *Croatia*.

In a few words of modern French origin, the letter T is silent at the end of a word; these include *croquet* and *debut*.

### Other languages

In the [orthographies](/source/Orthographies) of other languages, ⟨t⟩ is often used for /t/, the [voiceless dental plosive](/source/Voiceless_dental_plosive) /t̪/, or similar sounds.

### Other systems

In the [International Phonetic Alphabet](/source/International_Phonetic_Alphabet), ⟨t⟩ denotes the [voiceless alveolar plosive](/source/Voiceless_alveolar_plosive).

## Other uses

Main article: [T (disambiguation)](/source/T_(disambiguation))

- [Unit prefix](/source/Unit_prefix) T, meaning 1,000,000,000,000 times.

## Related characters

### Descendants and related characters in the Latin alphabet

A curly T pictured in the coat of arms of the former [Teisko](/source/Teisko) municipality, which was consolidated to [Tampere](/source/Tampere).

- T with [diacritics](/source/Diacritic): [Ť ť](/source/%C5%A4) [Ṫ ṫ](/source/Dot_(diacritic)) [ẗ](/source/T%CC%88) [Ţ ţ](/source/%C5%A2) [Ṭ ṭ](/source/%E1%B9%AC) [Ʈ ʈ](/source/%C6%AE) [Ț ț](/source/%C8%9A) [ƫ](/source/%C6%AB) [Ṱ ṱ](/source/Circumflex) [Ṯ ṯ](/source/Macron_below) [Ŧ ŧ](/source/%C5%A6) [Ⱦ ⱦ](/source/%C8%BE) [Ƭ ƭ](/source/%C6%AC) [ᵵ](/source/%E1%B5%B5)[3] [ᶵ](/source/%E1%B6%B5)[4]

- Ꞇ ꞇ : [Insular](/source/Insular_script) T,[a] also used by [William Pryce](/source/William_Pryce) to designate the [voiceless dental fricative](/source/Voiceless_dental_fricative) [θ][5]

- ᫎ : Combining small insular t was used in the [Ormulum](/source/Ormulum)[6]

- [ʇ](/source/Tenuis_dental_click) : Turned small t is used in the [International Phonetic Alphabet](/source/International_Phonetic_Alphabet) (IPA)

- 𐞯 : Modifier letter small t with retroflex hook is a [superscript IPA letter](/source/International_Phonetic_Alphabet#Superscript_IPA)[7]

- 𝼉 : Latin small letter t with hook and retroflex hook is a symbol for a [voiceless retroflex implosive](/source/Voiceless_retroflex_implosive)[8][9]

- 𝼍 : Latin small turned t with curl is a [click letter](/source/Click_letter)[10][9]

- [Uralic Phonetic Alphabet](/source/Uralic_Phonetic_Alphabet)-specific symbols related to T:[11] - U+1D1B ᴛ LATIN LETTER SMALL CAPITAL T - U+1D40 ᵀ MODIFIER LETTER CAPITAL T - U+1D57 ᵗ MODIFIER LETTER SMALL T - U+1E97 ẗ [LATIN SMALL LETTER T WITH DIAERESIS](/source/T-diaeresis)

- ₜ : Subscript small t was used in the [Uralic Phonetic Alphabet](/source/Uralic_Phonetic_Alphabet) prior to its formal standardization in 1902[12]

- [ȶ](/source/%C8%B6) : T with curl is used in Sino-Tibetanist linguistics[13]

- Ʇ ʇ : Turned capital T and turned small t were used in transcriptions of the [Dakota language](/source/Dakota_language) in publications of the American Board of Ethnology in the late 19th century.[14]

- 𝼪 : Small t with mid-height left hook was used by the [British and Foreign Bible Society](/source/British_and_Foreign_Bible_Society) in the early 20th century for [romanization](/source/Romanization) of the [Malayalam](/source/Malayalam) language.[15]

### Ancestors and siblings in other alphabets

- 𐤕 : [Semitic](/source/Phoenician_alphabet) letter [Taw](/source/Taw), from which the following symbols originally derive: - Τ τ : [Greek](/source/Greek_alphabet) letter [Tau](/source/Tau) - Ⲧ ⲧ : [Coptic](/source/Coptic_alphabet) letter Taw, which derives from Greek Tau - Т т : [Cyrillic](/source/Cyrillic) letter [Te](/source/Te_(Cyrillic)), also derived from Tau - 𐍄 : [Gothic](/source/Gothic_alphabet) letter tius, which derives from Greek Tau - 𐌕 : [Old Italic](/source/Old_Italic_script) T, which derives from Greek Tau, and is the ancestor of modern Latin T - ᛏ : [Runic](/source/Runes) letter [teiwaz](/source/Tiwaz_rune), which probably derives from old Italic T

- ፐ : One of the 26 consonantal letters of the [Ge'ez script](/source/Ge'ez_script). The Ge'ez [abugida](/source/Abugida) developed under the influence of Christian scripture by adding obligatory vocalic diacritics to the consonantal letters. Pesa ፐ is based on Tawe [ተ](/source/%E1%89%B0).

### Derived signs, symbols and abbreviations

- ™ : [Trademark symbol](/source/Trademark_symbol)

- ₮ : [Mongolian tögrög](/source/Mongolian_t%C3%B6gr%C3%B6g)

- ₸ : [Kazakhstani tenge](/source/Kazakhstani_tenge)

- ৳ : [Bangladeshi taka](/source/Bangladeshi_taka)

## Other representations

### Computing

**Unicode**:

- U+0054 T LATIN CAPITAL LETTER T

- U+0074 t LATIN SMALL LETTER T

- U+FF34 Ｔ [FULLWIDTH LATIN CAPITAL LETTER T](/source/Halfwidth_and_fullwidth_forms)

- U+FF54 ｔ FULLWIDTH LATIN SMALL LETTER T

[Codepoints](/source/Codepoint) 005416 (8410) and x007416 (11610) were used for encodings based on ASCII, including the DOS, Windows, ISO-8859 and Macintosh families of encodings.

### Other

NATO phonetic Morse code Tango ▄▄▄ ⓘ

Signal flag Flag semaphore American manual alphabet (ASL fingerspelling) British manual alphabet (BSL fingerspelling) Braille dots-2345 Unified English Braille

		- The letter T in [German Sign Language](/source/German_Sign_Language)

## Notes

1. **[^](#cite_ref-6)** Unicode treats representation of letters of the [Latin alphabet](/source/Latin_alphabet) written in [insular script](/source/Insular_script) as a typeface choice that needs no separate coding. U+A786 Ꞇ LATIN CAPITAL LETTER INSULAR T and U+A787 ꞇ LATIN SMALL LETTER INSULAR T are provided for use by phonetics specialists.[5]

## References

1. **[^](#cite_ref-1)** "T", *Oxford English Dictionary,* 2nd edition (1989); *Merriam-Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged* (1993); "tee", *op. cit*.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-2)** Lewand, Robert. ["Relative Frequencies of Letters in General English Plain text"](https://web.archive.org/web/20080708193159/http://pages.central.edu/emp/LintonT/classes/spring01/cryptography/letterfreq.html). *Cryptographical Mathematics*. [Central College](/source/Central_College_(Pella%2C_Iowa)). Archived from [the original](http://pages.central.edu/emp/LintonT/classes/spring01/cryptography/letterfreq.html) on July 8, 2008. Retrieved June 25, 2008.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-3)** Constable, Peter (September 30, 2003). ["L2/03-174R2: Proposal to Encode Phonetic Symbols with Middle Tilde in the UCS"](https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2003/03174r2-mid-tilde.pdf) (PDF). [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20171011013938/http://www.unicode.org/L2/L2003/03174r2-mid-tilde.pdf) (PDF) from the original on October 11, 2017. Retrieved March 24, 2018.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-4)** Constable, Peter (April 19, 2004). ["L2/04-132 Proposal to add additional phonetic characters to the UCS"](https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2004/04132-n2740-phonetic.pdf) (PDF). [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20171011014355/http://www.unicode.org/L2/L2004/04132-n2740-phonetic.pdf) (PDF) from the original on October 11, 2017. Retrieved March 24, 2018.

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-Insular_5-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-Insular_5-1) Everson, Michael (August 6, 2006). ["L2/06-266: Proposal to add Latin letters and a Greek symbol to the UCS"](https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2006/06266-n3122-insular.pdf) (PDF). [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20130819182322/http://www.unicode.org/L2/L2006/06266-n3122-insular.pdf) (PDF) from the original on August 19, 2013. Retrieved March 24, 2018.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-L220268_7-0)** Everson, Michael; West, Andrew (October 5, 2020). ["L2/20-268: Revised proposal to add ten characters for Middle English to the UCS"](https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2020/20268-n5145-ormulum.pdf) (PDF). [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20201024033958/https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2020/20268-n5145-ormulum.pdf) (PDF) from the original on October 24, 2020. Retrieved October 13, 2022.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-L220252_8-0)** Miller, Kirk; Ashby, Michael (November 8, 2020). ["L2/20-252R: Unicode request for IPA modifier-letters (a), pulmonic"](https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2020/20252r-mod-ipa-a.pdf) (PDF). [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20210730010133/https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2020/20252r-mod-ipa-a.pdf) (PDF) from the original on July 30, 2021. Retrieved October 13, 2022.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-L220125_9-0)** Miller, Kirk (July 11, 2020). ["L2/20-125R: Unicode request for expected IPA retroflex letters and similar letters with hooks"](https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2020/20125r-ipa-retroflex.pdf) (PDF). [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20221008020733/http://www.unicode.org/L2/L2020/20125r-ipa-retroflex.pdf) (PDF) from the original on October 8, 2022. Retrieved October 13, 2022.

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-L221021_10-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-L221021_10-1) Anderson, Deborah (December 7, 2020). ["L2/21-021: Reference doc numbers for L2/20-266R "Consolidated code chart of proposed phonetic characters" and IPA etc. code point and name changes"](https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2021/21021-consolidated-ipa.pdf) (PDF). [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20210108092102/http://www.unicode.org/L2/L2021/21021-consolidated-ipa.pdf) (PDF) from the original on January 8, 2021. Retrieved October 13, 2022.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-L220115_11-0)** Miller, Kirk; Sands, Bonny (July 10, 2020). ["L2/20-115R: Unicode request for additional phonetic click letters"](https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2020/20115r-click-letters.pdf) (PDF). [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20221008020935/http://www.unicode.org/L2/L2020/20115r-click-letters.pdf) (PDF) from the original on October 8, 2022. Retrieved October 13, 2022.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-12)** [Everson, Michael](/source/Michael_Everson); et al. (March 20, 2002). ["L2/02-141: Uralic Phonetic Alphabet characters for the UCS"](https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2002/02141-n2419-uralic-phonetic.pdf) (PDF). [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20180219081033/http://www.unicode.org/L2/L2002/02141-n2419-uralic-phonetic.pdf) (PDF) from the original on February 19, 2018. Retrieved March 24, 2018.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-13)** Ruppel, Klaas; Aalto, Tero; Everson, Michael (January 27, 2009). ["L2/09-028: Proposal to encode additional characters for the Uralic Phonetic Alphabet"](https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2009/09028-n3571-upa-additions.pdf) (PDF). [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20171011014359/http://www.unicode.org/L2/L2009/09028-n3571-upa-additions.pdf) (PDF) from the original on October 11, 2017. Retrieved March 24, 2018.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-14)** Cook, Richard; Everson, Michael (September 20, 2001). ["L2/01-347: Proposal to add six phonetic characters to the UCS"](https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2001/01347-n2366r.pdf) (PDF). [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20171011014401/http://www.unicode.org/L2/L2001/01347-n2366r.pdf) (PDF) from the original on October 11, 2017. Retrieved March 24, 2018.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-15)** Everson, Michael; Jacquerye, Denis; [Lilley, Chris](/source/Chris_Lilley_(computer_scientist)) (July 26, 2012). ["L2/12-270: Proposal for the addition of ten Latin characters to the UCS"](https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2012/12270-n4297-beta-etc.pdf) (PDF). [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20190330042809/https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2012/12270-n4297-beta-etc.pdf) (PDF) from the original on March 30, 2019. Retrieved March 24, 2018.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-L221156_16-0)** Miller, Kirk; Rees, Neil (July 16, 2021). ["L2/21-156: Unicode request for legacy Malayalam"](https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2021/21156-legacy-malayalam.pdf) (PDF). [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20210907191404/https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2021/21156-legacy-malayalam.pdf) (PDF) from the original on September 7, 2021. Retrieved October 13, 2022.

## External links

- Media related to [T](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/T) at Wikimedia Commons

- The dictionary definition of [*T*](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/T) at Wiktionary

- The dictionary definition of [*t*](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/t) at Wiktionary

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