# Ve (В в) (Cyrillic)
**Ve** (В в; italics: *В в*) is a letter of the [Cyrillic script](https://www.edgepedia.org/cyrillic-script), the third letter of the Cyrillic alphabet, representing the voiced labiodental fricative /v/, the sound of English "v" in "voice"[1](https://www.unicodecharacter.org/u%2B0412). Its uppercase form is visually identical to the Latin capital letter B, though the two letters represent different sounds, a mismatch that makes Ve one of the best-known examples of cross-script look-alike characters[1](https://www.unicodecharacter.org/u%2B0412).
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Sound | Voiced labiodental fricative /v/, as in English "voice"[1](https://www.unicodecharacter.org/u%2B0412) |
| Position | Third letter of the Cyrillic script[1](https://www.unicodecharacter.org/u%2B0412) |
| Origin | Derived from the Greek letter Beta (β)[2](https://www.unicodecharacter.org/u%2B0432) |
| Unicode | U+0412 В (capital) and U+0432 в (small), Cyrillic block, added in Unicode version 1.1 in 1993[3](https://codepoints.net/U%2B0412?lang=en) • [2](https://www.unicodecharacter.org/u%2B0432) |
| UTF-8 | Encoded as the bytes 0xD0 0x92 (capital)[1](https://www.unicodecharacter.org/u%2B0412) |
| Languages | Used in Russian, Bulgarian, Serbian, Ukrainian, and Belarusian, among other Cyrillic alphabets[1](https://www.unicodecharacter.org/u%2B0412) • [2](https://www.unicodecharacter.org/u%2B0432) |
## Sound and name
Ve stands for /v/, a voiced labiodental fricative[1](https://www.unicodecharacter.org/u%2B0412). The letter appears in the basic [Russian alphabet](https://www.edgepedia.org/russian-alphabet) section of the Unicode Cyrillic block, between Б (CYRILLIC CAPITAL LETTER BE) and Г (CYRILLIC CAPITAL LETTER GHE)[4](https://unicode.org/Public/18.0.0/charts/nameslist/0400/).
## Origin: why В says "v"
Ve descends from the Greek letter [Beta](https://www.edgepedia.org/beta)[2](https://www.unicodecharacter.org/u%2B0432). The Cyrillic alphabet was developed in the ninth century and is based on Greek[5](https://unicode.org/versions/Unicode16.0.0/core-spec/chapter-7/), and Eastern Greek uncial script underlies the general look of the script and many of its characters[6](https://typejournal.ru/en/articles/Cyrillic-Letterforms-Development).
The sound value Ve carries reflects the state of Greek at the time of borrowing. In modern Greek, Beta (Β β) sounds like "v", and Cyrillic В also sounds like "v", so the two letters agree; the misleading reading comes from the Latin line of descent, since Latin borrowed the Greek letter earlier, when it still meant "b"[7](https://cyrilica.com/articles/cyrillic-vs-greek). This history explains the false-friend effect that English speakers experience: the Cyrillic В looks like the Latin B because both descend from Greek Beta, but the Latin letter preserved the ancient /b/ value while the Cyrillic letter took the Greek /v/ value[7](https://cyrilica.com/articles/cyrillic-vs-greek).
## Place in the alphabet
Ve is the third letter of the Cyrillic script, following А (a) and Б (be)[1](https://www.unicodecharacter.org/u%2B0412). The letter is used across the Cyrillic-using languages, including Russian, Bulgarian, Serbian, Ukrainian, and Belarusian[1](https://www.unicodecharacter.org/u%2B0412) • [2](https://www.unicodecharacter.org/u%2B0432). With the accession of Bulgaria to the European Union on January 1, 2007, Cyrillic became the third official script of the European Union, following the Latin and Greek scripts[8](https://www.ijors.net/issue2_2_2013/articles/iliev.html).
## Encoding
In the Unicode Standard, capital Ve is U+0412 CYRILLIC CAPITAL LETTER VE and small Ve is U+0432 CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER VE, both in the Cyrillic block (U+0400–U+04FF)[3](https://codepoints.net/U%2B0412?lang=en) • [2](https://www.unicodecharacter.org/u%2B0432) • [4](https://unicode.org/Public/18.0.0/charts/nameslist/0400/). Both characters were added in Unicode version 1.1 in 1993[3](https://codepoints.net/U%2B0412?lang=en). In UTF-8, the capital encodes as the two bytes 0xD0 0x92[1](https://www.unicodecharacter.org/u%2B0412), and the character can also be written in HTML as the numeric reference В or the named entity В[1](https://www.unicodecharacter.org/u%2B0412).
The layout of the Cyrillic block reflects older standards rather than a fresh design: the Unicode Standard laid out the Cyrillic alphabet to match legacy standards, and the Cyrillic block is based on [ISO/IEC 8859](https://www.edgepedia.org/iso-iec-8859)-5[9](https://www.unicode.org/versions/Unicode16.0.0/UnicodeStandard-16.0.pdf) • [10](https://www.unicode.org/faq/latin_cyrillic.html).
## Look-alikes and security
The identity in appearance between Latin B and Cyrillic В (and Greek Β) is more than a curiosity for learners. Unicode has deliberately kept the Latin, Greek, and Cyrillic scripts separate rather than unifying same-looking letters, and one stated reason is casing: Latin B lowercases to b, while Cyrillic В lowercases to в (and Greek Β to β), forms that look entirely different. The standard's principle is to disunify characters that do not share the same case mappings, so that case conversion stays predictable[10](https://www.unicode.org/faq/latin_cyrillic.html).
In ordinary text the substitution of a look-alike rarely causes problems, because keyboards are language-specific and readers judge shapes in context. In security-relevant settings such as network identifiers, however, a Cyrillic В standing in for a Latin B can facilitate spoofing, the deliberate misspelling of a domain or user name to trick users. Mitigations include restricting identifiers to a single script, flagging unusual script use, and treating look-alike labels as equivalent; the confusables data of Unicode Technical Standard #39 includes a large number of mappings between Latin and Cyrillic text[10](https://www.unicode.org/faq/latin_cyrillic.html) • [11](https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2024/24192-uts39-29-update-pri492.pdf).
## References
1. [U+0412 "В" Cyrillic Capital Letter Ve Unicode Character](https://www.unicodecharacter.org/u%2B0412)
2. [U+0432 "в" Cyrillic Small Letter Ve Unicode Character](https://www.unicodecharacter.org/u%2B0432)
3. [U+0412 CYRILLIC CAPITAL LETTER VE: В – Codepoints](https://codepoints.net/U%2B0412?lang=en)
4. [Cyrillic – Unicode 18.0.0 NamesList, U+0400 block](https://unicode.org/Public/18.0.0/charts/nameslist/0400/)
5. [The Unicode Standard, Version 16.0.0, Chapter 7: Cyrillic](https://unicode.org/versions/Unicode16.0.0/core-spec/chapter-7/)
6. [On the appearance and development of Cyrillic letterforms, Type Journal](https://typejournal.ru/en/articles/Cyrillic-Letterforms-Development)
7. [Cyrillic vs Greek: How Two Alphabets Share a Common Ancestor, Cyrilica](https://cyrilica.com/articles/cyrillic-vs-greek)
8. [Short History of the Cyrillic Alphabet, Ivan G. Iliev, International Journal of Russian Studies](https://www.ijors.net/issue2_2_2013/articles/iliev.html)
9. [The Unicode Standard, Version 16.0 – Core Specification, Section 7.4.1 Cyrillic](https://www.unicode.org/versions/Unicode16.0.0/UnicodeStandard-16.0.pdf)
10. [FAQ – Latin and Cyrillic Scripts, Unicode Consortium](https://www.unicode.org/faq/latin_cyrillic.html)
11. [UTS #39 update PRI #492: confusables data between Latin and Cyrillic](https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2024/24192-uts39-29-update-pri492.pdf)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Society and history › Languages and linguistics › Writing and notation systems › Cyrillic script*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 18, 2026; Sep 30, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Sep 18, 2026; Sep 30, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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