# Single Letter Words **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 16, 2006, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/single-letter-words/361002 "2006-06-16T22:38:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![RadioWave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/91b2a8/32.png) [@RadioWave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RadioWave)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2006, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/single-letter-words/361002/1 "2006-06-16T22:38:21Z")
It seems to me that most languages have some level of efficiency built into them wherein common words are fairly short and easy to write (e.g. “a”, “the”, and “I”). Contrarily, words which are used only intermittently are longer (like “contrarily” and “intermittently”). In addition to “I”, “a”, “e” (Italian) and “y” (French), are there any languages where “o”, “u” or any of the consonants are used as complete words? Contractions like “ **L** ’etat” don’t count. Just curious. Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2006, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/single-letter-words/361002/2 "2006-06-16T23:00:08Z")
O is an interjection in English. It’s also a definite article in Portuguese. ---
**Author:** ![Opus1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/858c86/32.png) [@Opus1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Opus1)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2006, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/single-letter-words/361002/3 "2006-06-16T23:00:37Z")
> [@RadioWave](#): > > It seems to me that most languages have some level of efficiency built into them wherein common words are fairly short and easy to write (e.g. “a”, “the”, and “I”). Contrarily, words which are used only intermittently are longer (like “contrarily” and “intermittently”). In addition to “I”, “a”, “e” (Italian) and “y” (French), are there any languages where “o”, “u” or any of the consonants are used as complete words? Contractions like “ **L** ’etat” don’t count. Just curious. > > Thanks. O and u are both words in Spanish, both meaning “or.” U is used in front of words beginning with an o sound to clarify pronunciation, similar to the English use of “an” instead of “a” for words beginning with a vowel. Y and e are both Spanish words as well, both meaning and, with e serving a similar role as u for “i” words. Of course, the spanish word for “we” is “nosotros” so I’m not sure how much merit there is to your theory. ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2006, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/single-letter-words/361002/4 "2006-06-16T23:20:01Z")
In Myanmar (formerly Burma) U is a respectful title, like mister. Remember U Thant? And the rest is silliness. The L you say! L M N O puppies. O S M R puppies; C M P N? Toys R Us® ---
**Author:** ![Cerowyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/82dd89/32.png) [@Cerowyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cerowyn)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2006, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/single-letter-words/361002/5 "2006-06-16T23:47:06Z")
Are you sticking to Latin character languages? Because even if you exclude the logographs\* in Japanese, numerous hiragana characters can be words on their own: o, ni, no, wa, ga (for example, all of which are written with a single character). - Including kanji, or Chinese characters, seems pretty contrary to the spirit of the OP, since most of them are words on their own. ---
**Author:** ![RadioWave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/91b2a8/32.png) [@RadioWave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RadioWave)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2006, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/single-letter-words/361002/6 "2006-06-17T00:10:08Z")
> [@Cerowyn](#): > > Are you sticking to Latin character languages? Because even if you exclude the logographs\* in Japanese, numerous hiragana characters can be words on their own: o, ni, no, wa, ga (for example, all of which are written with a single character). > > - Including kanji, or Chinese characters, seems pretty contrary to the spirit of the OP, since most of them are words on their own. Right, I was thinking of character languages. I suppose the equivalent for kanji would be if the most common words were the simplest to create or were composed of the fewest strokes. ---
**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2006, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/single-letter-words/361002/7 "2006-06-17T00:19:53Z")
“U” is often used informally as “you” in English. And as much as we may hate it, I’d bet good money that it’ll be standard and accepted in 100 years (if only I could figure out how to collect). ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2006, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/single-letter-words/361002/8 "2006-06-17T00:37:20Z")
“o” is also a word meaning “or” in Italian. ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2006, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/single-letter-words/361002/9 "2006-06-17T00:39:08Z")
And in Italian, “è” is the third person singular of “to be”, i.e. “è” = “is”. ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2006, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/single-letter-words/361002/10 "2006-06-17T00:40:23Z")
(last post, I promise) and finally, in Italian, “e” means “and”. ---
**Author:** ![Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/96bed5/32.png) [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patty_O_Furniture)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2006, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/single-letter-words/361002/11 "2006-06-17T01:15:58Z")
Ô means umbrella and Ý means Italy in Vietnamese. What was the question again? ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2006, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/single-letter-words/361002/12 "2006-06-17T01:19:41Z")
“a” in French is a form of the verb “to have” equivalent to the English “has” (Il a une plume.) “There is” in French is “Il y a” If you count accents, “à” is the French all-purpose preposition, meaning “to,” “at,” and other things according to content. The accent is only there to differentiate it from the verb form; it doesn’t affect pronunciation. ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2006, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/single-letter-words/361002/13 "2006-06-17T03:34:28Z")
Quite true RealityChuck. Example: Il y a un if à Ys. There is a yew (tree) in (the [mythical] city of) Ys. OK, who can come up with the longest sentence with at most two-letter words? ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2006, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/single-letter-words/361002/14 "2006-06-17T03:39:36Z")
> [@Arnold Winkelried](#): > > OK, who can come up with the longest sentence with at most two-letter words? “Oh no, me no do it. If so, it do me in.”–Cecil ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2006, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/single-letter-words/361002/15 "2006-06-17T05:50:24Z")
One of my Latin teachers told us that the real reason the Roman empire fell was their word for “help”. If you’re falling off a cliff or something, you don’t want to have to yell “Auxillium!” ---
**Author:** ![grimpixie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ecb155/32.png) [@grimpixie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grimpixie)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2006, 10:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/single-letter-words/361002/16 "2006-06-17T10:53:37Z")
> [@AskNott](#): > > In Myanmar (formerly Burma) U is a respectful title, like mister. Remember U Thant? Interesting - in Afrikaans, _U_ is the respectful version of _jou_ meaning “you”, to be used when addressing someone in authority (teachers, police officers, boss, etc) over you or someone older than you, although this is falling out of common usage. Grim ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2006, 11:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/single-letter-words/361002/17 "2006-06-17T11:23:04Z")
O, 4 u I 8 a b, 2. U c? (O, for you I ate a bee, too. You see?) ---
**Author:** ![Myglaren](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f1d935/32.png) [@Myglaren](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Myglaren)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2006, 11:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/single-letter-words/361002/18 "2006-06-17T11:51:34Z")
In Swedish, _å_ is a stream or river, _ö_ is an island, \*i \*is in. ön i ån. (The Island in the stream) ---
**Author:** ![chowder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/977dab/32.png) [@chowder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chowder)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2006, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/single-letter-words/361002/19 "2006-06-17T13:14:13Z")
t 4 2 & 2 4 t, t 4 me & t 4 u. (Tea for two and two for tea, tea for me and tea for you) ---
**Author:** ![mani](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b4bc9f/32.png) [@mani](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mani)\ **Post date:** [June 17, 2006, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/single-letter-words/361002/20 "2006-06-17T21:35:22Z")
> [@Myglaren](#): > > In Swedish, _å_ is a stream or river, _ö_ is an island, \*i \*is in. > > ön i ån. (The Island in the stream) And the poet Gustav Fröding produced the following all-vowel sentence in Värmländska, a dialect of Swedish: _I åa ä e ö._ (There’s an island in the creek.) (It would be _“I ån är en ö.”_ in standard Swedish, but it’s totally understandable for any Swede in the dialectal form too.) (Do the special characters show up for you Angloamericans?) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/single-letter-words/361002.md?page=2)