Proofreading Service - Pain in the English
Proofreading Service - Pain in the English

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Proofreading Service - Pain in the English
Proofreading Service - Pain in the English

Your Pain Is Our Pleasure

24-Hour Proofreading Service—We proofread your Google Docs or Microsoft Word files. We hate grammatical errors with a passion. Learn More

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Why is w pronounced double u, but m is not pronounced double n?

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in older versions of english, there was no "W." instead the sound was made by putting two "U"s together. at one point they combined UU and made it W.

Daniel5 Oct-02-2005

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Why do they even call it Double-U if all it is is two V's put together?

DJjothic1 Oct-02-2005

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Quote: "Why do they even call it Double-U if all it is is two V's put together?

V was the symbol for U long ago. They got a lot of mileage out of it too, until V, U and W officially became three separate letters. If you look at some old monuments you'll see all sorts of V's where there would now be U's.

"E PLVRIBVS VNVM." Just kind of rolls off the tongue, don't it?

good Oct-08-2005

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M was never two N's. They were always different letters. But when "W" was still "UU" and looked more like "VV", one would write:

"VVE DID IT! VVE VVON THE VVAR!"

good Oct-08-2005

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But they didn't, of course.

Ben2 Sep-18-2007

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Interesting. So why do the French pronouce "W" as "doobleh-vay" - while pronouncing "U" as "oo" and "V" as "vay?"

Jason1 Sep-19-2007

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