Learn Alphabets in 80 Languages

Swahili is written in the Latin alphabet, taught as 24 letters including Ch (Q and X are not used). It is spoken across East Africa, including Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda.

Hausa is written in a Latin alphabet called Boko, which adds special hooked letters such as Ɓ, Ɗ and Ƙ. It is spoken across northern Nigeria, Niger and other parts of West Africa.

Amharic is written left to right in the Ge'ez script (fidel), where each base letter has seven forms for different vowel sounds. It is the working language of Ethiopia.

The Yoruba alphabet has 25 letters, including Ẹ, Ọ, Ṣ and Gb, and tone marks show how each syllable is pitched. It is spoken mainly in south-western Nigeria, Benin and Togo.

The Igbo (Ọnụ) alphabet has 36 letters, including the dotted vowels Ị, Ọ, Ụ and pairs such as Ch, Kp and Nw. Igbo is spoken mainly in south-eastern Nigeria.

Zulu is written in the Latin alphabet; the letters C, Q and X stand for click sounds. It is the most widely spoken home language in South Africa.

Xhosa is written in the Latin alphabet; the letters C, Q and X stand for click sounds. It is spoken mainly in the Eastern Cape and Western Cape of South Africa.

Somali has used a Latin alphabet since 1972, with 21 consonants and 5 vowels; C, X and Q stand for special Somali sounds. It is spoken in Somalia, Djibouti, Ethiopia and Kenya.

The Afrikaans alphabet has 26 letters and is written left to right. Afrikaans is spoken mainly in South Africa and Namibia.

Chinese is written with characters (汉字) rather than an alphabet; each character is one syllable and usually has a meaning. Children start with simple characters like 一, 人 and 山, and use pinyin to learn pronunciation.

Indonesian uses the 26-letter Latin alphabet, written left to right. It is the national language of Indonesia.

Japanese uses three scripts: hiragana, katakana and kanji. Children first learn the 46 basic hiragana, each of which stands for one syllable.

The Vietnamese alphabet has 29 letters based on the Latin script, including Ă, Â, Đ, Ê, Ô, Ơ and Ư. Accent marks show the six tones of the language.

Hangul has 14 basic consonants and 10 basic vowels, which are combined into syllable blocks. It was created in the 15th century and is used in South and North Korea.

Thai is written left to right with 44 consonants plus vowel signs and tone marks. Children learn each consonant together with a word, like ก ไก่ (chicken).

Burmese is written left to right in a rounded script with 33 basic consonants plus vowel signs. It is the official language of Myanmar.

Malay is written from left to right with the 26 letters of the Latin alphabet, called Rumi. It is spoken in Malaysia, Brunei, Singapore and parts of Indonesia.

The modern Filipino alphabet has 28 letters: the 26 English letters plus Ñ and NG. Filipino, based on Tagalog, is the national language of the Philippines.

The Azerbaijani Latin alphabet has 32 letters, including Ç, Ə, Ğ, I, Ö, Ş and Ü, and is written from left to right. Azerbaijani is the official language of Azerbaijan and is also spoken in northwestern Iran.

The Uzbek Latin alphabet has 29 letters, including Oʻ, Gʻ, Sh, Ch and Ng, plus the ʼ sign, and is written from left to right. Uzbek is the official language of Uzbekistan.

The Kazakh Cyrillic alphabet has 42 letters, including Ә, Ғ, Қ, Ң, Ө, Ұ, Ү, Һ and І, and is written from left to right. Kazakh is the state language of Kazakhstan, which is gradually moving to a Latin alphabet.

Khmer is written left to right with 33 consonants plus vowel signs. It is the official language of Cambodia.

The Armenian alphabet was created by Mesrop Mashtots around 405 AD. Children in Armenia learn 39 letters, written from left to right.

The modern Georgian alphabet (Mkhedruli) has 33 letters and no capital letters in everyday writing. It is written from left to right and spoken in Georgia.

The Mongolian Cyrillic alphabet has 35 letters, including Ө and Ү, and is written from left to right. Mongolian is the official language of Mongolia, where the traditional vertical Mongolian script is also taught.

Lao is written left to right with 27 consonants plus vowel signs and tone marks. It is the official language of Laos.

The English alphabet has 26 letters, from A to Z. It is used by more than a billion people around the world.

The Spanish alphabet has 27 letters, including Ñ, and is written left to right. Spanish is spoken in Spain and most of Latin America.

The French alphabet has 26 letters and uses accents such as é, è and ç. French is spoken in France, Belgium, Switzerland, Canada and many African countries.

The Portuguese alphabet has 26 letters and also uses accents and ç. Portuguese is spoken in Portugal, Brazil, Angola, Mozambique and other countries.

The Russian alphabet has 33 Cyrillic letters and is written from left to right. Russian is spoken in Russia and many neighbouring countries.

German uses the 26 Latin letters plus Ä, Ö, Ü and ß. It is spoken in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

The Italian alphabet taught in school has 21 letters; J, K, W, X and Y appear only in foreign words. Italian is spoken in Italy, San Marino and parts of Switzerland.

The Polish alphabet has 32 letters, including Ą, Ć, Ę, Ł, Ń, Ó, Ś, Ź and Ż. It is written left to right and is the main language of Poland.

The Ukrainian alphabet has 33 Cyrillic letters, including Ґ, Є, І and Ї, and is written from left to right. Ukrainian is the official language of Ukraine.

The Dutch alphabet has 26 letters, and the pair IJ is often taught as a special sound. Dutch is spoken in the Netherlands, Belgium (Flanders) and Suriname.

The Romanian alphabet has 31 letters, including Ă, Â, Î, Ș and Ț, and is written left to right. Romanian is spoken in Romania and Moldova.

The Hungarian alphabet has 44 letters, including long vowels such as Á and Ő and double letters such as Cs, Gy and Sz; Q, W, X and Y appear mainly in names and foreign words, so they are not shown here. Hungarian is written left to right and is spoken mainly in Hungary.

The Greek alphabet has 24 letters, from Alpha to Omega, and is written from left to right. Greek is spoken in Greece and Cyprus.

The Czech alphabet has 42 letters, including Ch and letters with marks such as Č, Ř and Ů; Q, W and X appear only in foreign words, so they are not shown here. Czech is written left to right and is spoken in the Czech Republic.

The Swedish alphabet has 29 letters: the 26 Latin letters plus Å, Ä and Ö. Swedish is spoken mainly in Sweden and in parts of Finland.

The Serbian Cyrillic alphabet has 30 letters, one for each sound, and is written from left to right. Serbian is spoken in Serbia and neighbouring countries and is also written in Latin letters.

The Bulgarian alphabet has 30 Cyrillic letters and is written from left to right. Bulgarian is the official language of Bulgaria.

The Slovak alphabet has 46 letters, including Ä, Ô and the double letters Dz, Dž and Ch; Q, W and X appear only in foreign words, so they are not shown here. Slovak is written left to right and is spoken in Slovakia.

The Danish alphabet has 29 letters: the 26 Latin letters plus Æ, Ø and Å. Danish is spoken mainly in Denmark.

The Finnish alphabet has 29 letters, including Ä and Ö. C, Q, W, X, Z and Å are used only in foreign words and names, so they are not shown here. Finnish is spoken mainly in Finland.

The Norwegian alphabet has 29 letters: the 26 Latin letters plus Æ, Ø and Å. Bokmål is the most widely used written form of Norwegian in Norway.

The Croatian alphabet has 30 letters, including Č, Ć, Đ, Š, Ž and the double letters Dž, Lj and Nj. It is written left to right and is the official language of Croatia.

The Albanian alphabet has 36 letters, including Ç, Ë and nine double letters such as Dh, Gj and Sh. It is written left to right and is spoken mainly in Albania and Kosovo.

The Lithuanian alphabet has 32 letters, including Ą, Č, Ę, Ė, Į, Š, Ų, Ū and Ž. It is written left to right and is spoken mainly in Lithuania.

The Latvian alphabet has 33 letters, including long vowels marked with a line (Ā, Ē, Ī, Ū) and soft consonants such as Ķ, Ļ and Ņ. It is written left to right and is spoken mainly in Latvia.

The Slovenian alphabet has 25 letters, including Č, Š and Ž. It is written left to right and is the official language of Slovenia.

The Macedonian alphabet has 31 Cyrillic letters, including Ѓ, Ѕ, Ј, Љ, Њ, Ќ and Џ, and is written from left to right. Macedonian is the official language of North Macedonia.

The Estonian alphabet has 32 letters, including Õ, Ä, Ö and Ü. C, Q, W, X, Y, Z and Ž appear only in foreign words and names, so they are not shown here. Estonian is spoken mainly in Estonia.

The Catalan alphabet has 26 letters and also uses ç and accents. Catalan is spoken in Catalonia, Valencia, the Balearic Islands and Andorra.

Basque is written in the Latin alphabet; this set shows the 21 core letters, while C, Ñ, Q, V, W and Y are used mostly in names and borrowed words. Basque is spoken in the Basque Country of Spain and France.

The Icelandic alphabet has 32 letters, including Ð, Þ, Æ and Ö and accented vowels such as Á and Í. Icelandic is spoken in Iceland.

The traditional Irish alphabet has 18 letters; J, K, Q, V, W, X, Y and Z appear only in borrowed words. Vowels can carry a long mark (síneadh fada), as in á and é. Irish is spoken in Ireland.

The Welsh alphabet has 29 letters, including the double letters Ch, Dd, Ff, Ng, Ll, Ph, Rh and Th, which count as single letters. Welsh is spoken in Wales.

The Arabic alphabet has 28 letters and is written from right to left. Arabic is spoken across the Middle East and North Africa.

The Turkish alphabet has 29 Latin letters, including Ç, Ğ, I, İ, Ö, Ş and Ü. Turkish is spoken in Türkiye and Cyprus.

The Persian alphabet has 32 letters: the 28 Arabic letters plus پ, چ, ژ and گ. It is written from right to left and spoken in Iran, Afghanistan (Dari) and Tajikistan (Tajik).

The Hebrew alphabet has 22 letters and is written from right to left. Five letters have a special form at the end of a word. Hebrew is spoken in Israel.

The Māori alphabet has 15 letters: 5 vowels, 8 consonants and the digraphs Ng and Wh. A line over a vowel (macron), as in ā, shows it is said long. Māori is spoken in New Zealand.

Malayalam is spoken in Kerala, India. Its alphabet (Aksharamala) has vowels and consonants written in a rounded script.

Hindi is written in the Devanagari script, with vowels (swar) and consonants (vyanjan). It is one of the most spoken languages in the world.

The Bengali alphabet has 11 vowels and 39 consonants and is written from left to right. Bengali is spoken in Bangladesh and in West Bengal and other parts of India.

Urdu is written from right to left in a Perso-Arabic script with extra letters such as ٹ, ڈ and ڑ. It is the national language of Pakistan and is also spoken widely in India.

Punjabi in India is written in the Gurmukhi script from left to right. Its basic alphabet, the Painti, has 35 letters, plus extra letters with a dot (like ਸ਼ and ਜ਼).

Marathi is spoken in Maharashtra, India, and is written in the Devanagari script with vowels (swar) and consonants (vyanjan).

Telugu is spoken in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, India. Its letters (Aksharalu) include vowels (achchulu) and consonants (hallulu).

Tamil is one of the oldest living languages, spoken in Tamil Nadu, Sri Lanka and Singapore. It has 12 vowels (uyir) and 18 consonants (mei).

Gujarati is written from left to right in its own script, which looks like Devanagari without the top line. It is the main language of the state of Gujarat in western India.

Kannada is spoken in Karnataka, India. Its alphabet (Varnamale) has vowels (swaragalu) and consonants (vyanjanagalu).

Odia is written from left to right in the Odia script, known for its rounded letter shapes. It is the main language of the state of Odisha in eastern India.

Nepali is written from left to right in the Devanagari script. It is the national language of Nepal and is also spoken in parts of India and Bhutan.

Sinhala is written from left to right in its own rounded script. It is the language of the majority of people in Sri Lanka.

The Pashto alphabet is based on Arabic script, with extra letters such as ټ, ډ, ښ and ځ, and is written from right to left. Pashto is spoken in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Assamese is written from left to right in the Assamese script, which has its own letters ৰ (ro) and ৱ (wo). It is the main language of the state of Assam in northeast India.

Sanskrit is a classical language of India, usually written today from left to right in the Devanagari script. Its alphabet is arranged by where sounds are made in the mouth.