English ABC for young children — every letter spoken in a clear American English voice

This page is for parents and teachers who are not native English speakers. BibyGames is a free game for children aged 3 to 7. Biby the fox says every English letter and number out loud. Your child does not need to read, and you do not need perfect English.

▶ Play now, it's free How to say A–Z

The whole game is free. There are no ads, no purchases and no sign-up. It runs in the browser at www.bibygames.com, and after the first load it also works offline.

How to say the English letter names, A to Z

Each line shows the capital letter, a simple way to say its American name, and the word Biby says with that letter in the game (“A is for apple”). The respelling is only a rough help for adults. The best way is to tap the letter in the game and listen.

• A – say “ay” – apple
• B – say “bee” – balloon
• C – say “see” – cat
• D – say “dee” – dog
• E – say “ee” – elephant
• F – say “ef” – fish
• G – say “jee” – gorilla
• H – say “aitch” – house
• I – say “eye” – igloo
• J – say “jay” – jellyfish
• K – say “kay” – key
• L – say “el” – lion
• M – say “em” – mouse
• N – say “en” – nose
• O – say “oh” – onion
• P – say “pee” – penguin
• Q – say “cue” – queen
• R – say “ar” – rocket
• S – say “ess” – sun
• T – say “tee” – tractor
• U – say “you” – umbrella
• V – say “vee” – violin
• W – say “double-you” – waffle
• X – say “ex” – xylophone
• Y – say “why” – yeti
• Z – say “zee” – zebra

“Zee” or “zed”?

American English says “zee.” British, Canadian and Australian English say “zed.” Both are correct. BibyGames uses American English, so Biby says “zee.”

Letter names are not letter sounds

The name of the letter B is “bee.” The sound of B in a word is a short “b.” BibyGames teaches the names of the 26 capital letters. It does not teach letter sounds (phonics), small letters or reading.

This is important if your child will go to school in the United Kingdom. Schools in England reportedly start with letter sounds and bring in letter names later (Oxford Owl: What is Letters and Sounds?). For those families the game is a friendly first meeting with the ABC, not school preparation.

A simple routine: 10 minutes a day

The game has no timer and no plan you must follow. Here is a simple routine you can try. Sit next to your child and play together.

1. Explore (about 3 minutes). Your child taps any letters on the wall. Biby says the name and the word. Repeat them out loud together.
2. Find (about 4 minutes). Biby says a letter and your child chooses it from three cards. Later there are four cards, and some letters look similar. After a mistake Biby encourages the child, and after the second mistake she gives a hint.
3. Trace (about 3 minutes). Your child traces the capital letter with a finger along the dots. A green dot shows where each stroke starts. It is not possible to fail.

Stop while it is still fun. The game remembers which letters your child does not know well yet and shows them more often, so you do not have to plan anything. More about tracing is on the page about the letter tracing game.

English numbers one to ten

Biby also says and counts the numbers from 1 to 10:

• 1 one · 2 two · 3 three · 4 four · 5 five
• 6 six · 7 seven · 8 eight · 9 nine · 10 ten

There are four number modes. In Explore your child sees the digit with exactly that many objects, and Biby counts them out loud. In Count the child taps the objects one by one, every tap is counted out loud, and then the child picks the right number. There are also Find and Trace, the same as for letters. Read more on the page about number games 1–10.

Who made it: a dad who is not a native speaker either

I'm Jan, a dad from the Czech Republic. I built BibyGames for my daughter, first in Czech. English is not my first language, so I know the feeling of not being sure how to say a letter. That is why the English version has its own American English voice and its own word for each letter.

The game still speaks Czech too. You choose the language on the start screen, and you can change it later at the bottom of the menu. Progress is shared between both languages. More about me is on the About page.

For teachers of young English learners

There is no login and there are no ads, so no ads appear on a shared screen. The game works with touch, and with a mouse on a computer or an interactive whiteboard. Because there is no text, children who cannot read yet can play alone. No data is collected about the children, and progress stays on the device. I only measure anonymous traffic (Google Analytics in cookieless mode). Setup tips are on the page For preschools.

Common questions

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