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E is the fifth letter in the Latin alphabet. Its name in English is spelled e (pronounced /iː/), plural es or ees (also written E's, Es, e's, etc.). The letter E is the most commonly used letter in the Czech,Danish,Dutch,English,French,German,Hungarian,Latin,Norwegian,Spanish, and Swedish languages.



E comes from the Greek letter epsilon which is much the same in appearance (Ε, ε) and function. In etymology, the Semitic probably first represented a praying or calling human figure (hillul jubilation), and was probably based on a similar Egyptian hieroglyph that was pronounced and used quite differently. In Semitic, the letter represented /h/ (and /e/ in foreign words), in Greek became Εψιλον (Epsilon) with the value /e/. Etruscans and Romans followed this usage. Arising from the Great Vowel Shift, English usage is rather different, namely /iː/ (derived from /eː/ in "me" or "bee") whereas other words like "bed" are closer to Latin and other languages in usage.