Welcome to the starting point of your English journey. The English alphabet is the foundation for reading, writing, and speaking. It has 26 letters, and each one has an uppercase (big) and a lowercase (small) form.

You'll see uppercase letters, like A, B, and C, at the beginning of sentences and for names. Lowercase letters, like a, b, and c, are used for everything else. For example, in the sentence "My name is David," "My" starts with an uppercase 'M' because it's the start of the sentence, and "David" starts with an uppercase 'D' because it's a name.

Every letter has a name and makes at least one sound. The name is what you say when you spell a word out loud. The sound is what you hear when that letter is part of a word. For instance, the letter 'B' has the name "bee," but in the word "ball," it makes a "buh" sound.

Distinguishing between names and sounds is a key step. When you learn to read, you blend the sounds together, not the names. Let's look at the name and the most common sound for each letter.

Below is a guide to the alphabet. It shows each letter, how to say its name, and an example word that uses its most common sound. Practice saying the letter names and the example words out loud.

Some letters can make more than one sound, but don't worry about that for now. Focusing on these common sounds gives you a strong base to start building words and reading sentences.

Great work. Mastering the alphabet is the first big step. Keep practicing the names and sounds, and you'll be reading in no time.