Random Letter Generator
Press Generate to draw random letters. Choose how many, vowels or consonants only, no repeats, letters to leave out and even the Spanish, German, Greek or Russian alphabet.
History
How to use the Random Letter Generator
- Set the number of letters with the slider or type a number from 1 to 100.
- Choose All, Vowels or Consonants and the case: ABC, abc or mixed.
- Optionally exclude letters and tick No repeats so each letter appears only once.
- Pick an alphabet: English, Spanish, German, Greek or Russian.
- Press Generate (or the space bar) and use Copy letters or the history to reuse a result.
Alphabets and letter counts
| Alphabet | Letters | Vowels | Consonants | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| English | 26 | 5 (A E I O U) | 21 | Y is treated as a consonant |
| Spanish | 27 | 5 | 22 | Adds Ñ after N; CH and LL are no longer separate letters (since 2010) |
| German | 30 | 8 (incl. Ä Ö Ü) | 22 | ß (Eszett) appears as ẞ in uppercase mode |
| Greek | 24 | 7 (Α Ε Η Ι Ο Υ Ω) | 17 | Lowercase sigma is shown as σ |
| Russian Cyrillic | 33 | 10 | 21 | Plus the hard and soft signs Ъ and Ь |
The odds behind random letters
With all 26 English letters allowed, each letter has a 1 in 26 chance (about 3.85%) on every pick. Picks without the No repeats option are independent, so getting the same letter twice in a row has the same 1 in 26 chance as any other pair.
- Vowel or consonant: a single English letter is a vowel 5 times out of 26, or about 19% of the time.
- At least one repeat: draw 6 letters with repeats allowed and the chance that two of them match is about 46%; with 8 letters it is about 70%. This is the alphabet version of the birthday paradox.
- Unique draws: there are 26 × 25 × 24 = 15,600 ordered ways to draw 3 different letters, and 26! (about 4 × 1026) ways to shuffle the whole alphabet.
Game and classroom ideas
- Categories / Scattergories: exclude hard letters such as Q, X, Y and Z and generate one letter per round.
- Word building: draw 7 letters with at least two vowels (generate 2 vowels and 5 consonants separately) and see who can make the longest word.
- Phonics practice: use lowercase vowels only to drill short vowel sounds, or consonants for initial sounds.
- Alphabet order: generate 10 unique letters and ask students to sort them A–Z as fast as possible.
- Learning a new script: switch to Greek or Russian and name each letter as it appears.
Need a letter that is fair for a word game? Remember that letters are not equally useful: in English, E, T, A, O and I are the most common letters in text, while J, Q, X and Z are the rarest. The generator picks every allowed letter with equal probability, so exclude the hard ones if you want easier rounds.
Frequently asked questions
Is the random letter generator really random?
Yes. Every letter is chosen with crypto.getRandomValues, the browser's cryptographically secure random number generator, and rejection sampling removes the small bias a simple remainder calculation would add. Every allowed letter has exactly the same chance each time.
How does the No repeats option work?
With No repeats on, letters are drawn like tiles from a bag: once a letter is used it cannot come up again in the same draw. If you ask for more letters than are available (for example 30 English letters), you get all of them in random order and a note explains why.
Is Y a vowel here?
For the English alphabet the vowels are A, E, I, O and U, and Y counts as a consonant. If you want Y included with the vowels, use All letters and exclude the other consonants, or simply add Y yourself.
What can I use random letters for?
Word games such as Scattergories, Categories or Stop (pick the starting letter), Boggle-style puzzles, spelling practice and phonics drills for kids, choosing initials for characters, drawing prompts, classroom activities and test data.
Which vowels are used for the other alphabets?
Spanish: A E I O U. German: A E I O U plus Ä Ö Ü. Greek: Α Ε Η Ι Ο Υ Ω. Russian: А Е Ё И О У Ы Э Ю Я. The Russian hard and soft signs (Ъ, Ь) are neither vowels nor consonants, so they only appear when All is selected.
Is anything sent to a server?
No. Letters are generated in your browser. Your settings and the last 20 results are stored only on this device.