this post was submitted on 26 May 2025
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Why do people say double "U" when they mean a double "V"?
In Finnish and probably bunch of other languages it's "double v"
There was no distinction between V and U when W first started being used. They were considered the same letter, with V just being the style for writing it at the start of words (like that long S that looks like an f). So you would write "have" as haue and "upon" as vpon.
When it was representing a consonant in classical Latin, it sounded like a modern English W. So the famous veni vidi vici - I came, I saw, I conquered - was pronounced more like wenee weedee weekee.
Eventually the V sound started to emerge in some places where Latin and its descendants had used that W sound before, and people started treating the two forms as different letters. By this point the W was already in widespread use, though, so whatever people already called it had a good chance of sticking
The implications for Latin had escaped me until you pointed them out.
That's amazing, and I demand the public be aware of wenee weedee weekee.
I speak cursive.
In French (and no doubt countless other languages) it is 'double v'. So to answer your question: The English language is flawed and for most people, it's too jarring to correct it
W is not double anything in German.
French, not German