Spanish

Spanish is written using the Latin alphabet, adapted from classical Roman script and standardized over centuries to represent the phonetics of the Spanish language. Its modern form reflects developments from Medieval Latin through early Spanish orthographic reforms.

The Spanish writing system is an alphabet, meaning each letter generally corresponds to a specific consonant or vowel sound. Compared to English, Spanish orthography is highly phonemic, with more consistent sound-to-letter relationships.

The modern Spanish alphabet contains 27 letters, including the standard Latin set plus the additional letter ñ. Historically, digraphs such as ch and ll were treated as separate letters, though they are now considered letter combinations rather than independent alphabet entries.

Spanish is written from left to right and is used globally across Spain, Latin America, and many international communities in education, literature, government, media, and digital communication.

One of the most distinctive features of Spanish writing is its use of accent marks (tildes) to indicate stress and vowel quality. These diacritics help preserve pronunciation clarity and distinguish between otherwise identical words.

Visually, Spanish uses the familiar Latin letterforms but is distinguished by characters such as ñ and accented vowels like á, é, í, ó, and ú, giving the script a subtle but recognizable identity.

In summary, the Spanish alphabet is a Latin-based phonemic system that combines consistent pronunciation rules, diacritic marks, and a streamlined letter set to create a clear and efficient writing system.