Everyone loves learning a new fact but we can assure you this latest one might just blow your mind… In a recent TikTok video, a poster revealed the “27th letter of the alphabet”
Learning the alphabet takes you back to the very beginning of primary school.
It goes A, B, C, D… You totally get where this is going… And the alphabet consists of 26 letters but now a new revelation on TikTok suggests it’s actually 27.
In a post shared by @zachdfilms3, who also revealed why motorway signs are sometimes green, he unveiled the 27th letter of the alphabet in a clip with his 84,200 followers. He said: “Ampersand is 27th letter.
“This is an ampersand and believe it or not it used to be the 27th letter in the alphabet, you see back in the day this symbol came after the letter Z and signified the word ‘and’.”
The clip continued: “But when reciting the alphabet, students weren’t allowed to just say ‘and’ after Z. Instead they were taught to differentiate the symbol by saying ‘per se’ before it, it sounded something like this Q R S T U V W X Y Z &. And ‘per se &’ ampersand.”
Surprised? Yeah we are too. And it turns out many people on TikTok were equally surprised as the video garnered 55,800 likes and plenty of comments. One said: “Okay the ampersand one is actually pretty cool.” While another added: “So what’s why we say y AND z? Wow.”
But not everyone was convinced as a third chimed in: “That is NOT an ampersand, this is an ‘and’ symbol.” And if you’re in denial about the news, the term ampersand first appeared in the English language in 1835.
It was first used as a letter in its own right where British students were taught it as the 27th letter of the alphabet. However this was only until 1835 as in modern day England, there are only 26 letters of the alphabet.
