Extended Latin
Alphabet · 44 letters
One letter per sound, vowels included, written in the line like consonants. This is the Latin system: the simplest to learn, and the quickest to pay off.
What pays off on the road
- The marks that name a country on their own: Ł is Polish, Ő Hungarian, Ș Romanian, Þ Icelandic, Ə Azerbaijani.
- The others only place you in company: Č is read in seven countries, but a Č beside an Ř is Czech. Look first for the rarest mark on the sign.
How it works
The twenty-six letters say nothing
A sign in the Latin alphabet can come from a hundred countries. The base letters place nothing: they serve everywhere, and being able to read them teaches nothing about where you are.
What places you are the marks. A stroke through the L, a hook under the A, a small v over the C, two dots on the O. Each narrows the map, and a few narrow it to a single country.
It is the best clue a sign can give, because it cannot be argued with: seeing a Ł is being in Poland. There is nothing to cross-check against the landscape, the vegetation or the pole.
One letter lies, the company decides
Half of these marks are shared. Č is read in Czechia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia, Latvia and Lithuania: on its own it only says "somewhere around there".
What decides is the company it keeps. A Č next to a Ř is Czech; next to a Ľ it is Slovak; next to a Ģ it is Latvian. Likewise German umlauts cover three vowels — ä, ö, ü — where Swedish has two and Turkish four, one of them a dotless ı.
So the reading rule is: find the rarest mark on the sign first, and use the others only to confirm.
Cheat sheet
The barred ones
A stroke across the letter. They are the ones you see from farthest away, and three of the four name their country alone.
| Ł ł | l barré | l | the w in "watt" |
| Ø ø | o barré | o | the u in "burn" |
| Đ đ | d barré | d | the j in "jam" |
| Ħ ħ | h barré | h | a strongly breathed h |
Hooks below the line
What hangs below the letter: the Polish tail, the Romanian comma, the cedilla. Three neighbouring marks that nothing else connects.
| Ą ą | a ogonek | a | a nasal "on" as in French "bon" |
| Ę ę | e ogonek | e | a nasal "in" as in French "fin" |
| Ė ė | e point | e | a long "ay" |
| Ș ș | s virgule | s | the sh in "ship" |
| Ț ț | t virgule | t | the ts in "cats" |
| Ļ ļ | l virgule | l | the lli in "million" |
| Ņ ņ | n virgule | n | the ny in "canyon" |
| Ç ç | c cédille | c | an s in French, a ch as in "church" in Turkish |
The carons
The little v above. Seven Slavic and Baltic countries share it, so it does not place you — except the three that belong to one country only.
| Č č | c hatchek | c | the ch in "church" |
| Š š | s hatchek | s | the sh in "ship" |
| Ž ž | z hatchek | z | the s in "measure" |
| Ě ě | e hatchek | e | the ye in "yes" |
| Ř ř | r hatchek | r | a rolled r and a "zh" at once |
| Ů ů | u rond | u | a long "oo" |
| Ľ ľ | l mouillé | l | the lli in "million" |
| Ŕ ŕ | r aigu | r | a long rolled r |
The acute accents
The rising stroke. Ordinary on vowels, decisive on consonants — and the Hungarian double acute exists nowhere else.
| Ś ś | s aigu | s | a soft sh, between "ship" and "see" |
| Ź ź | z aigu | z | a soft "zh" |
| Ż ż | z point | z | the s in "measure" |
| Ń ń | n aigu | n | the ny in "canyon" |
| Ő ő | o double aigu | o | a long "ur" |
| Ű ű | u double aigu | u | a long French "u" |
The umlauts
Two dots. The commonest mark in Europe and the least telling — what counts is which ones are missing.
| Ä ä | a tréma | a | the e in "bed" |
| Ö ö | o tréma | o | the u in "burn" |
| Ü ü | u tréma | u | the French "u" |
| Ë ë | e tréma | e | the a in "about" |
The Nordic ring
A small circle above the a. It caps one letter only, and it closes the map on four northern countries.
| Å å | a rond | a | the o in "more" |
Not Latin letters at all
Neither accent nor mark: separate signs, inherited from elsewhere. They are the surest of all, because they cannot be mistaken for an ordinary letter.
| ß | eszett | ss | the s in "sack" |
| Þ þ | thorn | th | the th in "thing" |
| Ð ð | eth | d | the th in "this" |
| Æ æ | ligature ae | ae | the a in "cat" |
| İ i | i point | i | the i in "machine" |
| I ı | i sans point | i | a dull "uh", between "the" and "oo" |
| Ə ə | schwa | e | the a in "cat" |
The tildes
The wave above. Three letters, two of which are read at opposite ends of Europe.
| Ñ ñ | n tilde | n | the ny in "canyon" |
| Ã ã | a tilde | a | a nasal "ang" |
| Õ õ | o tilde | o | in Estonian, a dull o with no English equivalent |
Breves and circumflexes
The half-circle and the roof. Two discreet marks that nonetheless separate Romania from Türkiye.
| Ă ă | a brève | a | the a in "about" |
| Î î | i circonflexe | i | a dull i, back of the throat |
| Ğ ğ | g brève | g | not pronounced: it lengthens the vowel before it |
Countries
Åland · Albania · American Samoa · Andorra · Argentina · Australia · Austria · Belgium · Bermuda · Bolivia · Bosnia and Herzegovina · Botswana · Brazil · Canada · Chile · Colombia · Costa Rica · Croatia · Curaçao · Czech Republic · Denmark · Dominican Republic · Ecuador · Estonia · Eswatini · Faroe Islands · Finland · France · Germany · Ghana · Gibraltar · Greenland · Guam · Guatemala · Guernsey · Hungary · Iceland · India · Indonesia · Ireland · Isle of Man · Italy · Jersey · Kazakhstan · Kenya · Kosovo · Latvia · Lesotho · Liechtenstein · Lithuania · Luxembourg · Macau · Madagascar · Malaysia · Malta · Mexico · Monaco · Montenegro · Namibia · Netherlands · New Zealand · Nigeria · North Macedonia · Northern Mariana Islands · Norway · Panama · Paraguay · Peru · Philippines · Poland · Portugal · Puerto Rico · Romania · Rwanda · Saint Pierre and Miquelon · San Marino · São Tomé and Príncipe · Senegal · Serbia · Singapore · Slovakia · Slovenia · South Africa · Spain · Sweden · Switzerland · Taiwan · Turkey · Uganda · United Kingdom · United States of America · United States Virgin Islands · Uruguay · Vietnam