Recognising Languages and Scripts

For Latin-alphabet countries, individual letter shapes and common road words are often better than trying to read whole sentences.

Practical Latin clues

• French: look for accents such as é, è, à, ç, and words like "rue". The ending "-ux" is a useful French-looking shape.
• Italian: many words end in vowels, double consonants are common, and "via" appears frequently on street signs.
• Dutch: letter clusters like "ij", "oe", and "ieuw" stand out. Dutch also pairs well with yellow plates in the Netherlands.
• German: ä, ö, ü, and ß are strong clues. Yellow town signs and black/dark sign backs help confirm Germany.
• Nordic languages: Swedish has å, ä, ö; Danish and Norwegian often use æ, ø, å. Danish street names commonly end in "vej".
• Turkish: ç, ğ, ı, İ, ö, ş, and ü are useful. Turkey drives right and uses long white plates with a blue strip.
• Romanian: ă, â, î, ș, and ț are helpful when you are comparing Balkan or Eastern European options.
• Albanian: "rruga" means street and appears often; Albania can also have distinctive licence plates with a red strip or blue strips on both sides.

One distinctive cluster plus one road clue is usually enough to make a strong beginner guess.