The Letter b

And now we have the letter b. As you can see, the letter b is actually a variation of the letter v, which makes sense if you think about it, because it's b, v. And these two phonemes, as they are called, are both voiced in English, but they are made differently: for the v, the top teeth rest on the bottom lip, and for the b, the lips close. We call the b a plosive, because it makes a little explosion sound when you make it.

Anyway, this is the b, and it's formed of the l and the v. So we start off as though we are making an l, and you've done that a few times now. It's done exactly the same way as when you were making an h. So we go up straight, we curve it, and we come down. But unlike the h, when we come straight down, this has got a slight curve to it, because we're curving into the bottom of the v. And we curve into the bottom, we hit the bottom line, and then we come up and we make our tick forwards. We don't close the letter, it's open, because it's a special kind of v: it's a v with an l attached to it. And that's the letter b.

Worksheet 30