Olympian
Senior Member
- Joined
- Aug 14, 2008
- Member Type
- Interested in Language
- Native Language
- Hindi
- Home Country
- India
- Current Location
- India
Hello,
Happy New Year to you all!
I understand that an alphabet is a collection of letters. It is fairly common in India for people to say 'alphabets' when they mean 'letters'.
In a situation where a website says that a search can be entered in an Indian language (script) or using "English alphabets", should this be "English letters"?
I saw the following definitions of 'alphabet' on the Freedictionary:
Thank you.
Happy New Year to you all!
I understand that an alphabet is a collection of letters. It is fairly common in India for people to say 'alphabets' when they mean 'letters'.
In a situation where a website says that a search can be entered in an Indian language (script) or using "English alphabets", should this be "English letters"?
I saw the following definitions of 'alphabet' on the Freedictionary:
alphabet [ˈælfəˌbɛt]n1. a set of letters or other signs used in a writing system, usually arranged in a fixed order, each letter or sign being used to represent one or sometimes more than one phoneme in the language being transcribed
2. any set of symbols or characters, esp one representing sounds of speech
3. basic principles or rudiments, as of a subject
Can it be said that to enter a query in 'English alphabet' is correct, taking into consideration #2 above? Or should it be 'English letters'?2. any set of symbols or characters, esp one representing sounds of speech
3. basic principles or rudiments, as of a subject
Thank you.