Writing System
Latin Alphabet
The alphabet used by English, French, Spanish, Latin and many more
The Latin alphabet began as the writing system of Latin and became one of the most widely used scripts in the world.
Many modern languages use versions of the Latin alphabet, sometimes with extra letters, accents, or special signs.
Overview
The Latin alphabet is familiar to learners of English, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, German, Dutch and many other languages.
Modern versions often have 26 basic letters, but different languages adapt them in different ways.
Classical Latin used fewer letters than modern English.
Classical Latin letters
In classical Latin, the alphabet had 23 letters.
The letters J, V and W were not used in the same way as in modern English.
This is why a Latin alphabet lesson may look slightly different depending on whether it teaches classical Latin or a modern Latin-based alphabet.
One script, many languages
The same basic letters can represent different sounds in different languages.
For example, C, G, J, R, U and Y may be pronounced differently depending on the language.
This makes the Latin alphabet easy to recognize, but pronunciation still needs practice.