V v — uve baixa
«uve baixa» is a consonant of Valencian, the “the Valencian Latin alphabet” script, read as “a soft b, lips never pressed”. Sounds like b: the lips never press against the teeth, as in Spanish. For example, in the word “vi” — wine. The Valencian alphabet has 35 letters in total. As in Spanish: vi, wine, comes out "bee". It appears, for example, in the word “bona vesprada” — good afternoon.
In short
| Character | V v |
| Name | uve baixa |
| Sound | a soft b, lips never pressed |
| What it is | a consonant |
In our course the character comes 28th of 35: the order here is not alphabetical but from familiar to unfamiliar, its neighbours in the course are u and w, appears in 415 words of this site.
How it sounds
Sounds like b: the lips never press against the teeth, as in Spanish
The character in a word
A lone character is hard to remember: memory holds on to meaning, and a letter has none. The word it stands in provides that anchor.
- viwine
The character in the “letters that deceive” group
This is where Valencian parts ways with Spanish: j is a j as in "jam", s between vowels voices to z, and h is silent — yet hui and huit are not written without it.
- H hsilent, never pronouncedhac
- J ja voiced j, between "jam" and the s of "vision"jota
- G gg as in "go"; j before e and ige
- B bb as in "best"; p at the end of a wordbe alta
- C ck as in "kite"; s before e and ice
- Q qk, always with a silent ucu
- S ss as in "sun"; z between vowelsesse
- Ss sss as in "sun", always voicelessessa doble
- R ra tapped r — and final -r is pronouncederre
- Rr rra long trilled rerra doble
Words with this character
How to remember this character
A single letter is the hardest thing to remember: memory has nothing to hold on to — a character has no meaning. A three-step loop works: see the character, try to recall the sound (for «uve baixa» it is “a soft b, lips never pressed”, as in the word “vi”), see the right answer.
And come back to it the next day, not in an hour: a check a day or two later beats a check the same day. Nobody holds the whole alphabet — 35 letters — at once.
- It is better to test yourself the next day than at the end of the same session. That is why a word comes back to you tomorrow.checked many timesAdesope, Trevisan & Sundararajan, 2017, Review of Educational Research 87(3) · g = 0.82 when tested a day or two later, against 0.56 on the same day.
- Studying a little every day gets more into your head than spending the same total time in one sitting.checked many timesDonovan & Radosevich, 1999, Journal of Applied Psychology 84(5) · 63 studies compared, difference d = 0.46 — a sizeable figure for a learning effect.
Frequently asked
How does the Valencian character v read?
As “a soft b, lips never pressed” — it is a consonant of the “the Valencian Latin alphabet” script. Sounds like b: the lips never press against the teeth, as in Spanish. For example, in the word “vi” — wine.
What is the letter v called?
Uve baixa. A character's name and its sound are different things in the Valencian script: it is called “uve baixa” and reads as “a soft b, lips never pressed”. Learn the second one: the name only helps when the alphabet is recited aloud.
What can v be confused with?
As in Spanish: vi, wine, comes out "bee". Similar characters are best studied side by side and deliberately compared: learned on different days, they stay separate and get mixed up at their first meeting inside a word.