# Meet the Alphabet: 26 Letters

- Link: https://thecuriosi.com/lessons/meet-the-alphabet/
- Published: 2026-10-31T14:54:19+05:30
- Author: MAHENDRA MANCHIKALAPATI

1. [Courses](https://thecuriosi.com/courses/)
 2. [Alphabet Adventures: Letters and Sounds](https://thecuriosi.com/courses/alphabet-letters-and-sounds/)
 3.  Lesson 1 of 8

Hello, explorer! Today we start a big adventure. We are going to meet the **alphabet**.
The alphabet is a group of special shapes called **letters**. We use letters to 
write words, like your name, _cat_ and _sun_. Every book you see is made of letters!

## The English alphabet has 26 letters

The English alphabet has 26 letters. Here they are, in 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

That is a lot of letters! Do not worry. You do not have to learn them all today.
We will meet them a few at a time.

### Each letter has a name

Each letter has a **name**. The name of the first letter is “A”. The name of the
second letter is “B”. When you sing the ABC song, you are saying the letter names.

## Letters are everywhere

Look around you. Can you see any letters? You can find letters on:

 * cereal boxes and food packets
 * books and magazines
 * shop signs and street signs
 * your clothes and toys

### Example

Mia saw a big red sign that said STOP. She found four letters: S, T, O and P. Then
she found the letter O on her cereal box too!

## Letters build words

Letters are like building blocks. When we put letters together, we make **words**.

  |  Letters |  Word |  
   |  c + a + t |  cat |  
 |  d + o + g |  dog |  
 |  s + u + n |  sun |

Your name is a word too. The first letter of your name is very special. It is a **
capital letter**, a big letter. You will learn more about big letters in the next
lesson.

## Key takeaways

 * The English alphabet has 26 letters.
 * Each letter has a name, like A, B and C.
 * We can find letters all around us.
 * Letters join together to make words.

## Practice

Go on a **letter hunt**! Look around your home or classroom. Find three things with
letters on them. Point to one letter on each thing and say its name. Then ask a 
grown-up to help you write the first letter of your name.

Answer: there are many right answers. For example, a cereal box might show the letter
C, a book might show the letter T, and a sign might show the letter S.

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 [ Next lesson Big Letters and Small Letters ](https://thecuriosi.com/lessons/big-and-small-letters/)

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