Abịdịị Igbo

The Igbo alphabet: all 36 letters.

Igbo is written in Latin script, which makes it look more familiar to an English reader than it is. Eight of its letters are vowels, nine are written with two characters, and three carry a dot that changes the word entirely. Getting those three right is most of what separates correct Igbo spelling from an approximation.

Pronunciation guide Search the dictionary

THE FULL ALPHABET

All 36 letters, in order

This is the Ọnwụ orthography — the standard Igbo writing system recommended by the Ọnwụ Committee in 1961 and the one used in Nigerian schools and published material today.

A avowel

B b

CH chdigraph

D d

E evowel

F f

G g

GB gbdigraph

GH ghdigraph

GW gwdigraph

H h

I ivowel

Ị ịvowel

J j

K k

KP kpdigraph

KW kwdigraph

L l

M m

N n

Ṅ ṅ

NW nwdigraph

NY nydigraph

O ovowel

Ọ ọvowel

P p

R r

S s

SH shdigraph

T t

U uvowel

Ụ ụvowel

V v

W w

Y y

Z z

THE EIGHT VOWELS

A E I Ị O Ọ U Ụ — and why the dots matter

English has five written vowels; Igbo has eight. The three extra ones are written by putting a dot under an existing letter, and that dot is not an accent or a stress mark — it makes a different letter with a different sound.

I and Ị are different letters

They sit in separate positions in the alphabet and are not interchangeable. Writing igbo where Ịgbò is meant is a spelling mistake, not an informal variant.

O and Ọ are different letters

The same applies. Ụlọ (house) written as ulo is missing two letters, and a reader has to guess which word you meant from context.

U and Ụ are different letters

Dropping the dot is common online because keyboards make it awkward, but it is worth learning to type properly — see the FAQ below for how.

Ṅ carries a dot above, not below

Ṅ is its own letter, distinct from N. It is the one diacritic that sits above the letter rather than beneath it, and it is easy to miss when reading quickly.

THE NINE DIGRAPHS

Two characters, one sound, one letter.

CH, GB, GH, GW, KP, KW, NW, NY and SH each count as a single letter of the alphabet. Two of them are the reason Igbo sounds harder than it reads.

The nine Igbo digraphs and how to approach them
Digraph	How to approach it
CH	Close to English ch in “church”. The one digraph that gives English speakers no trouble.
GB	Not g-then-b. Both are formed at the same moment, as a single burst. English has no equivalent, so copy audio rather than reading it.
GH	A soft sound made at the back of the throat, closer to a voiced version of the Scottish ch in “loch” than to English gh.
GW	G with rounded lips, as though starting to say “gw” in “Gwen” — but as one sound.
KP	The counterpart of GB, and the other one to learn by ear. Simultaneous, not k-then-p.
KW	K with rounded lips, like the “qu” in “queen” treated as a single letter.
NW	An n-sound with rounded lips. Common at the start of words — nwa (child), nwoke (man).
NY	Close to the ny in “canyon”, or Spanish ñ.
SH	As in English “ship”.

COMPARED TO ENGLISH

What Igbo adds, and what it leaves out

No C, Q or X

Q and X do not appear in Igbo at all. C never stands alone — it exists only inside CH. A word spelled with a bare C is not Igbo.

Four extra single letters

Ị, Ọ, Ụ and Ṅ have no English equivalent and are full letters in their own right, each with its own position in the alphabet.

Nine two-character letters

English treats ch and sh as letter pairs. Igbo treats them, and seven more, as single letters of the alphabet.

TONE

The part the alphabet does not show you

Igbo is tonal: the same spelling can mean different things depending on pitch. Everyday writing generally leaves tone unmarked and relies on context, in the way English writers rarely mark stress. Dictionaries and teaching material do mark it, with accents above the vowel.

Treat unmarked text as incomplete

If you meet a new word written without tone marks, you have its spelling but not its pronunciation. Check the audio before you commit it to memory — relearning a word's tone later is harder than learning it right once.

Learn tone by ear, not by rule

Studying tone rules as theory helps less than imitating a speaker. The pronunciation guide covers what to listen for, and every dictionary entry carries native audio.

COMMON QUESTIONS

Questions about the Igbo alphabet

How many letters are in the Igbo alphabet?

Thirty-six. Eight of them are vowels and twenty-eight are consonants, and nine of those consonants are digraphs — two written characters that represent a single sound. The count comes from the Ọnwụ orthography, the standard writing system recommended by the Ọnwụ Committee in 1961.

Why do some Igbo letters have a dot underneath?

The dot marks a different vowel, not a decoration or an accent. Ị, Ọ and Ụ are separate letters from I, O and U, with their own sounds and their own place in the alphabet. Dropping the dot changes the word, so writing igbo for Igbo or ulo for ụlọ is a spelling error rather than a shortcut.

Does the Igbo alphabet have the letters C, Q and X?

No. Q and X do not appear at all, and C never appears on its own — it exists only inside the digraph CH. Igbo also adds letters English does not have: Ị, Ọ, Ụ, Ṅ, and the digraphs GB, GH, GW, KP, KW, NW, NY and SH.

What is a digraph in Igbo?

A digraph is two written letters that stand for one sound and count as a single letter of the alphabet. Igbo has nine: CH, GB, GH, GW, KP, KW, NW, NY and SH. GB and KP are the ones English speakers find hardest, because both parts are pronounced at the same moment rather than one after the other.

How is tone written in Igbo?

Igbo is a tonal language, but everyday writing usually leaves tone unmarked and lets context resolve it — much as English writers rarely mark stress. Teaching materials and dictionaries do mark it, using accents above the vowel. If you are learning, treat unmarked text as incomplete information and check the audio rather than guessing.

How do I type ị, ọ and ụ?

On iOS and Android, press and hold the base vowel and the dotted form appears in the pop-up. On a computer, adding a Nigerian or Igbo keyboard layout is the reliable route; copying the characters from a dictionary entry works in a pinch but does not scale.

WHAT TO DO NEXT

The alphabet is the easy part

Reading Igbo aloud correctly takes a few hours to get roughly right. What takes longer is tone, and the only way through it is listening.