Script guide › Latin
Italian vs Spanish
Italian and Spanish sit in the same corner of the writing-system map — Grafle's Latin group — and players mix them up constantly. Here's the fastest way to tell them apart.
The tell
Italian doubles consonants (tutti, mezzo) and ends nearly every word in a vowel; Spanish has ñ and ¿ ¡.
Side by side
Italian
Tutti gli esseri umani nascono liberi ed eguali in dignità.
Ciao, come stai oggi?
Tra il dire e il fare c'è di mezzo il mare.
Italian's own tells
- Nearly every word ends in a vowel; double consonants (zz, tt, ss) everywhere.
- Accents only fall on final vowels: città, è, però.
On signs in:
- Italy
- Switzerland
- San Marino
Spanish
Todos los seres humanos nacen libres e iguales, ¿no es cierto?
¿Cómo estás? Mañana será otro día.
¡Año nuevo, vida nueva!
Spanish's own tells
- Look for ñ and the inverted opening marks ¿ ¡ — no other language uses them.
- Common little words: el, la, los, y, es.
On signs in:
- Spain
- Mexico
- Colombia
- Argentina
- Peru
- Venezuela
- Chile
- Ecuador
- Guatemala
- Cuba
- Bolivia
- Dominican Republic
- Honduras
- Paraguay
- El Salvador
- Nicaragua
- Costa Rica
- Panama
- Uruguay
- Equatorial Guinea
- Puerto Rico