this post was submitted on 18 Aug 2023
20 points (95.5% liked)

English usage and grammar

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A community to discuss and ask questions about English usage and grammar.

If your post refers to a specific English variant, please indicate it within square brackets (for instance [Canadian]).

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(Icon: entry "English" in the Oxford English Dictionary, 1933. Banner: page from Chaucer's "The Wife of Bath's Tale".)

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago

It's because U and V used to be the same letter. Jan Misali made a great video about the history of W.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

It is called double V in French

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

And croatian

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Probably all romance languages

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Also in most Germanic languages.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

But not the Germanic language we all speak.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Not that particular Germanic language no. But in most others.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

W looks like uu in certain handwriting styles (like mine lol)

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Try writing a U in stone, makes more sense to have it shaped like a V

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Best answer 🀣