⟨v⟩

⟨v⟩ is an English consonant monograph consisting of a single letter V.

This fairly reliably sounds a v phoneme /v/. This can sometimes be devoiced to an f phoneme /f/, e.g. in Russian surnames, e.g. Ivanov'.

⟨v⟩ occurs commonly in onset position in words like van, vesicle and voluminous.

By standard spelling rules, ⟨v⟩ cannot occur at the ends of words. Rather, ⟨ve⟩ must be used instead. ⟨v⟩ does, however, occur in some clippings or respellings. For example, perv, improv, satnav, maglev (clippings) or luv (respelling) or guv (both clipping and respelling of governor). It also ooccurs in some loan words such as leitmotiv, Molotov, and Slav.

⟨v⟩ is only rarely doubled to ⟨vv⟩.