Arthur Van Dyke, age 13, of Patterson, N.J., for his question:

WHAT LETTER IN THE ALPHABET IS MOST FREQUENTLY USED?

Fifth letter in our alphabet, E, is the most frequently used letter in newspapers, books and other printed material in the English language.

The letter E was also the fifth letter in the alphabet used by the Semites, who once lived in Syria and Palestine. The Semites named the letter "he," and adapted an Egyptian hieroglyphic, or picture symbol, of a man rejoicing, perhaps because the sound of "he," which resembles our H, began a shout of hallelujah.

The ancient Greeks later gave the symbol the sound of E. They called it epsilon. The Romans gave the capital E its present form. E as a small letter first appeared during the A.D. 300s as a rounded letter. By the 500s, the letter had developed its present shape.