Latin uses the same alphabet as English. In fact, it’s called the Roman alphabet because the ancient Romans invented it, building on Etruscan and Greek. In Latin, the letter w is not used, and k only appears in a couple of obsolete words and proper names. The letters j and v are variants of i and u invented in the Renaissance; some editors use these letters in certain circumstances while others never do. The last two letters, y and z, are only used in words borrowed from Greek, not in native Latin words. Here are the letters with their Latin names and a guide to their sounds.
form name IPA sounds like a a¯ short: @, long: a: a in father b be¯ b b in big c ce¯ k k in maker, never like s or ch d de¯ d d in dare e e¯ short: e, long: e: e in pet f ef f f in father g ge¯ g g in goat, never as in gem h ha¯ h h in happy i ¯ı short: i, long: i: i in pit k ka¯ (ca)¯ k k in maker l el l l in lemon m em m m in mouse n en n n in nice o o¯ short: o, long: o: o in pot p pe¯ p p in spot q quu¯ (cu)¯ kw q in quick r er r r in read s es s s in sand, never like z t te¯ t t in kitten u u¯ short: u, long: u: u in put x ix ks x in axe y hy¯ short: y, long: y: u¨ in German ¨uber or u in French tu z zeta¯ z z in zebra
Later, y comes to be called ¯ıgraeca, since it is only used in Greek loanwords. The Romans used letters to denote numbers: I = 1, V = 5, X = 10, L = 50, C = 100, D = 500, M = 1000. (C stands for centum, the Latin word for 100, and M stands for mille, which means 1000.) To write other numbers we repeat symbols: II = 2, III = 3, IIII = 4; the Romans also wrote IV, “one from five,” for 4, and in the Renaissance this became an invariable rule. Either capital or lower-case letters may be used, and printed books frequently use small capitals, so 7 can be written as VII, vii, or VII. Thus:
1 I 30 XXX 2 II 40 XL 3 III 50 L 4 IV 60 LX 5 V 70 LXX 6 VI 80 LXXX 7 VII 90 XC 8 VIII 100 C 9 IX 110 CX 10 X 123 CXXIII 11 XI 299 CCXCIX 12 XII 547 DXLVII 13 XIII 876 DCCCLXXVI 14 XIV 900 CM 15 XV 950 CML 16 XVI 1000 M 17 XVII 1001 MI 18 XVIII 1200 MCC 19 XIX 1900 MCM 20 XX 2345 MMCCCXLV