Script guide › Latin
How to recognize Spanish
Spanish 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
- Look for ñ and the inverted opening marks ¿ ¡ — no other language uses them.
- Common little words: el, la, los, y, es.
What Spanish looks like
Todos los seres humanos nacen libres e iguales, ¿no es cierto?
¿Cómo estás? Mañana será otro día.
¡Año nuevo, vida nueva!
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
- 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
Easy to confuse with
- Portuguese — Portuguese has the nasal ã and ç (razão, coração); Spanish has ñ and the inverted ¿ ¡. Portuguese also pairs lh/nh where Spanish writes ll/ñ.
- Italian — Italian doubles consonants (tutti, mezzo) and ends nearly every word in a vowel; Spanish has ñ and ¿ ¡.
- Romanian — Romanian's ă, ș, ț and î don't exist in Spanish; Spanish's ñ and ¿ ¡ don't exist in Romanian.