Only Slate Plus members can gift Slate stories. Become a member to share 10 free articles a month. How many vowels does English have? Five, right? A, E, I, O, U. Oh, and sometimes Y. So, six? Actually ...

The focus of most of these columns has been primarily on that branch of grammar known as syntax – that is, the arrangement of words in phrases and sentences. But grammar is considered to have two ...

Consonants are the rest of the letters in the alphabet: b, c, d, f, g, h, j, k, l, m, n, p, q, r, s, t, v, w, x, y and z The letter 'y' is a bit different, because ...

The world’s ABCs can be traced back to a handy linguistic innovation by the Semites in ancient Egypt. The language you’re reading here is a latecomer, with a long but traceable heritage. The alphabet ...