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As a learner I am having problem answering the question:

How to make English capital Q ?

in words.

Answer: First, draw a circle then...

I am not able to describe the small line that points outward .

Please help me describe it.

By the way, can I use the verb curl to describe the letter S?

Thanks in advance.

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We call this small line the tail of the Q. Here is an example from the "Q" Wikipedia page:

Depending on the typeface used to typeset the letter Q, the letter's tail may either bisect its bowl as in Helvetica, meet the bowl as in Univers, or lie completely outside the bowl as in PT Sans.

When you are drawing a Q by hand, the tail of the Q usually crosses from the inside of the circle to the outside. Like this:

capital letter Q with bisecting tail

If you want to describe how to draw the tail, you could say something like this:

First, draw a circle. Then, in the bottom-right, draw a short line across the border of the circle.

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  • What about "S"?
    – user100323
    Commented Feb 27, 2020 at 10:17
  • @user100323 That is technically a separate question... you could say that the top part of the S and the bottom part of the S curl in opposite directions. (This is curl used as a verb, rather than as a noun: "To assume a spiral or curved shape.") But I am not sure if that works as a full description of the letter's shape.
    – MJ713
    Commented Feb 27, 2020 at 18:17
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    @user100323 Usually, we take the shape of the letter S for granted, and use it to describe the shape of other objects. (merriam-webster.com/dictionary/S-shaped) Describing the shape of the S itself is surprisingly difficult, partly because we're not accustomed to doing it. More generally, I think open-ended curves are harder to describe in words than circles or straight lines.
    – MJ713
    Commented Mar 7, 2020 at 6:41

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