List of Latin-script tetragraphs


This is a list of tetragraphs in the Latin script. These are most common in Irish orthography. For Cyrillic tetragraphs, see tetragraph#Cyrillic script.

Irish

Used between two velarized consonants:
Used between two palatalized consonants:
Used between a broad and a slender consonant:
Used between a slender and a broad consonant:

English

English does not have many tetragraphs. However, when one of the elements in a sequence of digraphs is silent, such as may be are found in word-initial position in Greek or Russian loanwords, such cases might be confused with tetragraphs:
is pronounced or in chthonian and related words. When not initial, as in autochthonous, it is always pronounced.
is pronounced or in such words as phthisis. When not initial, as in naphthol or diphthong, it is pronounced or with some people.
is used as the transcription of the Cyrillic letter Щ. It is usually read as a sequence of digraphs, or. However, when initial, as in shcherbakovite, the second element is silent: .
has ten pronunciations, in half of which the digraph gh is silent. Examples are drought, bought, though, and through.

French

is used to write the sound in a few words such as médaillier.
In addition, trigraphs are sometimes followed by silent letters, and these sequences may be confused with tetragraphs:
is found for in words such as "grecque" and "Mecque", where the trigraph cqu is followed by the feminine suffix e.
is found for when the silent plural suffix x is added to the trigraph eau.

Juǀʼhoansi

The apostrophe was used with three trigraphs for click consonants in the 1987 orthography of Juǀʼhoansi. The apostrophe is a diacritic rather than a letter in Juǀʼhoansi.
for
for
for
for

German

represents, which is a relatively uncommon phoneme in German but appears in some very common words like deutsch, Deutschland and tschüss.
represents in loanwords such as Dschungel.
is used for in a few German names such as Zschopau.

Hmong

There are several sequences of four letters in the Romanized Popular Alphabet that transcribe what may be single consonants, depending on the analysis. However, their pronunciations are predictable from their components. All begin with the of prenasalization, and end with the of aspiration. Between these is a digraph, one of , , , or , which may itself be predictable.
is.
is.
is.
is.

Arrernte

Tetragraphs in Arrernte transcribe single consonants, but are largely predictable from their components.
is
is
and are
is

Piedmontese

does not have tetragraphs. A hyphen may separate from or, when these would otherwise be read as single sounds.
and , to avoid confusion with the digraph for.
and are similarly used for the sequence.

Others

and are used in Dutch for the sounds and. alone stands for, so these sequences are not predictable.
is used in the practical orthography of the Taa language, where it represents the prevoiced affricate.
is used for in Swahili-based alphabets. However, the apostrophe is a diacritic in Swahili, not a letter, so this is not a true tetragraph.
is used in Yanyuwa to write a pre-velar nasal,.
is used in the Puter orthographic variety of the Romansh language for the sequence . It is not part of the orthography of Rumantsch Grischun, but is used in place names like S-chanf and in the Puter orthography used locally in schools again since 2011.
is used in Xhosa to write the sound. It is often replaced with the ambiguous trigraph.