The ogham alphabet is built from twenty letters, called fews or feda, each made of simple strokes crossing a central line. This guide explains every letter, its name, the sound it stands for, and how it is written, along with the five later letters known as the forfeda. It focuses on how the alphabet works as a script. For the meanings and associations attached to each letter, see the ogham symbols and their meanings page, and for the wider background, the full ogham alphabet guide.
How the letters are built
Every ogham letter is one to five strokes or notches set against a central line, the stemline. What tells the letters apart is not just how many strokes there are, but where they sit relative to that line.
The twenty primary letters fall into four groups of five, called aicmí. Each group uses the same idea, strokes counted from one to five, but in a different position: to one side of the line, to the other, crossing it, or as notches on the line itself. That simple system is what makes ogham so quick to carve and so easy to read once you know it.
The first aicme (b group)
Strokes to one side of the stemline, one through five.
| Few | Name | Letter |
|---|---|---|
| ᚁ | Beith | B |
| ᚂ | Luis | L |
| ᚃ | Fearn | F |
| ᚄ | Sail | S |
| ᚅ | Nion | N |
The second aicme (h group)
Strokes to the opposite side of the line, one through five.
| Few | Name | Letter |
|---|---|---|
| ᚆ | Úath | H |
| ᚇ | Dair | D |
| ᚈ | Tinne | T |
| ᚉ | Coll | C |
| ᚊ | Ceirt | Q |
The third aicme (m group)
Strokes crossing the stemline at an angle, one through five.
| Few | Name | Letter |
|---|---|---|
| ᚋ | Muin | M |
| ᚌ | Gort | G |
| ᚍ | nGéadal | NG |
| ᚎ | Straif | Z or St |
| ᚏ | Ruis | R |
The fourth aicme (vowels)
Notches cut on the stemline itself, one through five.
| Few | Name | Letter |
|---|---|---|
| ᚐ | Ailm | A |
| ᚑ | Onn | O |
| ᚒ | Úr | U |
| ᚓ | Eadhadh | E |
| ᚔ | Iodhadh | I |
The forfeda (the five extra letters)
Beyond the twenty, there is a fifth set called the forfeda, meaning the additional letters. They were created later, in the Old Irish period, several centuries after ogham’s main use on stone, to write sounds the original alphabet did not cover, such as certain vowel combinations and the letter P.
| Few | Name | Value |
|---|---|---|
| ᚕ | Éabhadh | EA |
| ᚖ | Ór | OI |
| ᚗ | Uilleann | UI |
| ᚘ | Ifín | IA, later P |
| ᚙ | Eamhancholl | AE |
Be honest about how rare these are. On the ancient stones only the first, Éabhadh, appears with any regularity. The next three show up only a handful of times, and the last, Eamhancholl, does not appear on the inscriptions at all. The forfeda belong mostly to manuscript ogham, where medieval scholars wrote about the script, rather than to the standing stones.
Reading and writing the letters
On the old stones the stemline is the natural edge of the pillar, and the text is read from the bottom upward, sometimes continuing across the top and down the far side. In modern writing the stemline is usually drawn as a horizontal line and read left to right.
Because each letter is just a count of strokes in a position, spacing matters. Letters that are crowded or unevenly spaced become hard to tell apart, which is one reason careful layout is important if you are writing ogham by hand. To turn a name or word into ogham quickly, the ogham translator does the letter-by-letter conversion for you.
Do the letters have meanings?
Each few has a name, and those names gathered associations over time, so the letters are often read as meanings as well as sounds. Those meanings are mostly a modern layer rather than ancient lore, and they are covered in full on the ogham symbols and their meanings page. On this page the focus stays on the letters as a writing system: their names, their sounds, and how they are formed.
FAQ
How many letters are in the ogham alphabet?
The ogham alphabet has twenty primary letters, called feda or fews, arranged in four groups of five. There are also five later letters, the forfeda, which brings the full total to twenty-five. The twenty core letters are the ones found on the ancient stones, while the forfeda were added afterward and are much rarer.
What are the fews in ogham?
Few, or fid in the singular, is simply the word for an ogham letter. It comes from the Irish for wood, since the letters were linked to trees and often carved on wood as well as stone. Each few is one to five strokes or notches set against a central stemline, and there are twenty of them in the main alphabet.
What are the ogham forfeda?
The forfeda are five extra letters added to ogham in the Old Irish period, after its main use on stone. Their name means the additional letters. They were created to write sounds the original twenty did not cover, such as certain vowel combinations and the letter P. They are rare on inscriptions and belong mostly to manuscript ogham.
What order do the ogham letters go in?
Ogham has its own fixed order, not the order of the Latin alphabet. It begins with the first aicme, B L F S N, then the second, H D T C Q, then the third, M G NG Z R, and finally the vowels, A O U E I. Any forfeda follow at the end. This sequence is how the letters are traditionally listed.
Do ogham letters have sounds or meanings?
Both, in a sense. Each letter has a clear sound value, which is what made ogham a working alphabet for writing Irish. Each also has a name that later gathered symbolic associations, though those meanings are largely a modern development. For the sounds and structure, this page is the reference; for the associations, see the ogham symbols guide.