L or l is the twelfth letter of the modern English alphabet and the basic Latin alphabet ISO. Its English name is el (pronounced / ˈɛl /), plural els.

Phonetic and phonemic transcription

In phonetic and phonemic transcription, the International Phonetic Alphabet uses ⟨l⟩ to represent the lateral alveolar approximant.

English

In English spelling, ⟨l⟩ is usually the phoneme / l /, which can have several sound values ​​depending on the speaker’s accent and whether it appears before or after a vowel. The alveolar lateral approximant (the sound represented in lowercase IPA) occurs before the vowel, as in the lip or blend, while the velarized alveolar lateral approximant (IPA) occurs in bell and milk. This velarization is not found in many European languages ​​that use ⟨l⟩; this is also a factor that makes it difficult to pronounce ⟨l⟩ for users in languages ​​that do not have ⟨l⟩ or have different values ​​for it, such as Japanese or some southern dialects of Chinese. A condition or speech impediment that limits the pronunciation of ⟨l⟩ is known as lambdacism.

In English spelling, ⟨l⟩ is often silenced with words such as walk or could (although its presence may change the sound of the previous vowel) and is usually silent with words such as palm and psalm; however, there is some regional variations.

The capital letter L is used as a currency symbol for the Albanian lek and the Honduran lempira. It was often used, especially in handwriting, as a currency symbol for the Italian lira. It is also rarely used as a substitute for the pound sign (£), which is based on it.

The Roman numeral L represents the number 50.

In recent years, the letters L and W have become an internet meme, respectively, claiming loss and win. L, in particular, is often used in popular culture, often referring to the definition of ownership. Take L, respectively, means to accept this special defeat.

Forms and variants

“ℓ” redirects here. For the azimuth quantum number, see The Azimuthal quantum number.

For some sans serif fonts (i.e., typefaces), the lowercase letter ell ⟨l⟩ may be difficult to distinguish from the uppercase eye “I” or the numeric letter “⟨1⟩”. To avoid such confusion, some newer fonts have a final shape, curve to the right at the bottom of the lowercase letter ell.

Another way to reduce such confusion, more and more common on European road signs and in advertisements, is using italics in lowercase handwriting. Sometimes a special letter-like symbol is used for this purpose in mathematics and elsewhere. In Unicode, this symbol is U + 2113 SCRIPT SMALL L with HTML digital reference character & # 8467; In Japan, for example, this is the symbol for a liter. However, the International System of Units recommends the use of Unicode symbols U + 006C l LOWER L or U + 004C L UPPERCASE L for the liter.

Another solution that is sometimes found in Web typography uses a serif font for the lowercase letter ell, such as ⟨l⟩, otherwise sans-serif text.

Download L Letter Silhouette PNG vector transparent background images