The Latvian Alphabet

Capital and Small Letters:

a ā b c č d e ē f g ģ h i ī j k ķ l ļ m n o p r s š t u ū v z ž

Pronunciation

In addition, each Latvian example word (in the right-most column) has a linked *pronunciation. Click on the Latvian example word, wait a few seconds (it takes a little while) and you will hear how the word is pronounced.

*Note: the pronunciations are stored as MP3 audio files

Letter	English	French	Spanish	Italian	Other lang.	Phonetic symbol	Latvian eg.
a	up		mal 'badly'			[ ʌ ]	aka 'well'
ā	art	âge 'age'	padre 'father'	casa 'house'		[ ɑ: ]	ātri 'quickly'
b	bad					[ b ]	balss 'voice'
c	mats			pizza 'pizza'	Russ. tsar 'czar'	[ t̪s̪ ]	cena 'price'
č	chin			ciao 'so long'		[ ʧ ]	lāči 'bears'
d	day			donna 'woman'		[ d̪ ]	diena 'day'
Even though the spelling does not distinguish between them, in Latvian the letter e has two pronunciations: as in English bet or English bat. For details on where the two pronunciations occur, see: Two Latvian e's. This also explains the two pronunciations of the Latvian long ē.
e	nest	tête 'head'	perro 'dog'	festa 'festivity'		[ ɛ ]	celt 'to lift'
e	cat					[ æ ]	desa 'sausage'
ē	air	été 'summer'	canté 'I sang'	me 'me'		[ e: ]	ēst 'to eat'
ē	add					[ æ: ]	ēdam 'we eat'
The letter f occurs exclusively in foreign words borrowed into Latvian: fakss 'fax', kafija 'coffee', fotogrāfija 'photograph', fizika 'physics', šifons 'chiffon', etc.
f	fun	feu 'fire'				[ f ]	filma 'movie'
g	get			gamba 'leg'		[ g ]	gulta 'bed'
The letter ģ stands for a very unusual consonant sound. To learn more about it see: Latvian Palatal Stops: ģ and ķ.
ģ					Hung. egy 'one'	[ ɟ ]	ģimene 'family'
h	tee-hee!				Germ. ich 'I'	[ ç ]	hirurgs 'surgeon'
h	aha!				Germ. ach 'oh!'	[ x ]	humors 'humor'
i	it				Germ. ist 'is'	[ ɪ ]	pile 'drop'
ī	ear	dix 'ten'	pide 'it requests'	libri 'books'		[ i: ]	pīle 'duck'
j	yet	voyage 'voyage'			Germ. ja 'yes'	[ j ]	jāt 'to ride'
k	scum			casa 'house'		[ k ]	kas 'who'
The letter ķ stands for a very unusual consonant sound. To learn more about it see: Latvian Palatal Stops: ģ and ķ.
ķ					Hung. tyúk 'hen'	[ c ]	kaķis 'cat'
l	lily	lune 'moon'	luna 'moon'	luna 'moon'		[ l̪ ]	lidot 'to fly'
ļ	million			figli 'sons'		[ ʎ ]	ļoti 'very'
m	met	flamme 'flame'	mano 'hand'	maglia 'mesh'		[ m ]	mati 'hair'
n	net	né 'born'	mano 'hand'			[ n̪ ]	nakts 'night'
ņ	canyon	agneau 'lamb'	año 'year'	bagno 'bath'		[ ɲ ]	ņemt 'to take'
The Latvian letter o can stand for three different pronunciations. For more detail on this, see: Latvian o.
o						[ ʊʌ̯ ]	ozols 'oak tree'
o	boy	bottes 'boots'	amor 'love'	posta 'mail'		[ ɔ ]	hotelis 'hotel'
o	oar	rôle 'role'	cantó 'it sang'	nome 'name'		[ o: ]	opera 'opera'
p	spin	père 'father'		pane 'bread'		[ p ]	pats 'self'
r	verra (Scot. 'very')		carro 'car'	tenore 'tenor'		[ r̪ ]	rags 'horn'
s	sing		paso 'step'	testa 'head'		[ s̪ ]	salds 'sweet'
š	shell	chaud 'warm'		tasche 'pockets'		[ ʃ ]	šeit 'here'
t	stand	tarte 'pie'	tomar 'to take'	testa 'head'		[ t̪ ]	tumšs 'dark'
u	book		culpa 'it blames'			[ ʊ ]	muša 'a fly'
ū	tourist	nous 'we'	puro 'pure'	luna 'moon'		[ u: ]	dūmi 'smoke'
The letter v has two different pronunciations. Normally it is pronounced [ v ] (like the first sound in English very). However, it can also be pronounced [ w ] (as in English went). It typically has this [ w ] pronunciation when it occurs at the end of a word (eg. Latvian tev (phonetically [ tɛw ]) 'to you'), or when a consonant sound follows it, as in Latvian tēvs (phonetically [ tæ:ws ]) 'father'.
v	van	voir 'to see'				[ v ]	vest 'to bring'
v	cow	oui 'yes'				[ w ]	tev 'to you'
z	zebra			rosa 'rose'		[ z̪ ]	ziedi 'blossoms'
ž	measure	manger 'to eat'				[ ʒ ]	žurka 'rat'

(Note: in most cases the closest equivalents to the Latvian pronunciations are to be found in Italian, Spanish, and French. Thus, the letters p t c ķ k stand for unaspirated voiceless consonants in Latvian (unlike English which primarily has aspirated voiceless consonants).

Likewise the letters t d c dz s z n l r stand for dental consonants (unlike English, in which such consonsnts are normally alveolar).

Finally, note that the letters which represent long vowels - ā ē ī ū (and some pronunciations of o) - stand for pure vowels, whereas long vowels in English are normally diphthongs.)

Consonant sequences

Letter combo	English	French	Spanish	Italian	Other lang.	Phonetic symbol	Latvian eg.
dz	ads					[ dz ]	dadzis 'a thorn'
dž	jet					[ ʤ ]	dadži 'thorns'

Vowel sequences

Letter combo	English	French	Spanish	Italian	Other lang.	Phonetic symbol	Latvian eg.
ai	pine	travail 'work'				[ ai̯ ]	aita 'sheep'
au	now					[ au ̯ ]	tauta 'people, folk, nationality'
ei	prey	soleil 'son'				[ ei̯ ]	meita 'daughter, girl'
ui					Germ. pfui 'bah!'	[ ʊi̯ ]	puika 'boy, lad'
The following is a rather unusual centering diphthong. For more information on this, see the discussion of diphthongs here. The ie diphthong appears in a large number of very common words in Latvian (eg. iela 'street', lieta 'thing', etc.)
ie	British R.P fear					[ ɪʌ̯ ]	iet 'to go'
Occasionally other diphthongs will occur in Latvian. I have illustrated a them in the table below. However, they are very rare and (almost always) occur in foreign words borrowed from other languages.
eu					Welsh tew 'thick, fat'	[ ɛu ̯ ]	pseudo 'pseudo'
ou	sew					[ ɔu̯ ]	sovhozs 'state farm'
oi	toy					[ ɔi̯ ]	boikots 'boycot'
iu						[ ɪu̯ ]	pliukšķēt 'to smack'