Script guide › Latin
How to recognize Estonian
Estonian is one of 35 languages in Grafle's Latin group. Here's what it looks like, where you'll see it on signs, and how to tell it apart from its lookalikes.
Spot it fast
- Looks Finnish, but õ (tilde-o) is the Estonian tell — Finnish never uses it.
What Estonian looks like
Kõik inimesed sünnivad vabadena ja võrdsetena.
Tere hommikust! Kõik on hästi, aitäh.
Kes teeb, see jõuab.
Latin scripts: The alphabet you're reading now. Each language gives itself away by its own special letters and accent marks.
Where you'll see it on signs
- Estonia
Easy to confuse with
- Finnish — Estonian's õ (tilde-o) is the tell — Finnish never uses it. Finnish words run longer with more doubled letters.
- Latvian — Latvian has macrons (ā, ī, ē); Estonian has õ/ä/ü and never a macron.