Italian 1.1. Alphabet & Pronunciation

Luckily, Italian uses the Latin letters used in English with only a few differences in pronunciation. Italian, unlike English, is a phonetic language. This means that you should be able to pronounce most written words without the need for a dictionary, with some exceptions with regard to syllable stress. Here, we will encounter the alphabet and pronunciation rules in Italian.

Start with the Italian alphabet table below. Use your Anki cards to anchor what you learned via spaced-repetition exercises.

There are only 21 letters (five vowels and 16 consonants) in the official Italian alphabet. This is compared to 26 in the English alphabet. Notice the absence of the letters “j,” “k,” “w,” “x,” and “y.”

Alphabet

Italian Letter		English Pronunciation1	Notes
A	a	ah	like “a” in “father”
B	b	bee	equivalent to English “b”
C	c	chee	sounds like English “k” and like “ch” in “cheese” only before “e” or “i”
D	d	dee	equivalent to English “d”
E	e	e	like “e” in “bet” but can sometimes be more closed
F	f	ef-fe	equivalent to English “f”
G	g	jee	sounds like “g” in “gab,” and like “j” in “job” only before “e” or “i.” In addition, “gn” sounds like “ny” in “canyon,” and “gli” sounds like “lli” in “million”
H	h	ak-ka	silent letter like “h” in “hour”
I	i	ee	like “ee” in “see” or “i” in “marine”
L	l	el-le	equivalent to English “l” but softer
M	m	em-me	equivalent to English “m”
N	n	en-ne	equivalent to English “n”
O	o	o	equivalent to English “o,” but sometimes more open
P	p	pee	equivalent to English “p”
Q	q	koo	always followed by “u” to form “qu” which sounds like “kw,” e.g., “quando” pronounced “kwan-do”
R	r	er-re	like English “r” but rolled with a single flap against the upper palate
S	s	es-se	can sound like English “s” or “z”
T	t	tee	like “t” in “table” but strongly pronounced
U	u	oo	like “oo” in “food”
V	v	voo/vee	equivalent to English “v”
Z	z	tse-ta	pronounced like “ts” (unvoiced) or “dz” (voiced)

Absence of “j,” “k,” “w,” “x,” & “y”

The letters “j,” “k,” “w,” “x,” and “y” can still be encountered in some loanwords and acronyms in Italian. Below are the Italian names of these letters with examples:

Letter		Name in Italian	English Pronunciation	Example
J	j	i lunga	ee loon-ga	“jacuzzi” pronounced “ja-koo-tsee”
K	k	kappa	kap-pa	“kiwi” pronounced “kee-wee”
W	w	vu doppia	voo dop-pia	“wafer” pronounced “wa-fer”
X	x	ics	eeks	“xeno” (xenon) pronounced “kse-no”
Y	y	ipsilon/ i greca	ee-psee-lon/ ee gre-ka	“yogurt” pronounced “yo-goort”

Consonants

Out of the 21 letters in Italian, 16 are consonants. Let us take a look how some consonants of the alphabet change their pronunciation in Italian.

“c”

The letter “c” in Italian is used to form the equivalents of the sounds “k” (hard “c”) and “ch” (soft “c”) in English. The way this is achieved is as follows:

1. If the letter “c” is followed by “e” or “i,” it is considered a soft “c” and is pronounced like “ch” in “cheese.”

2. Otherwise, the letter “c” is considered a hard “c” and is pronounced like “k” in “kit.”

The letter “h” is used to change the pronunciation of “c” from soft to hard if the “c” precedes an “e” or “i.”

For instance, “ci,” meaning “there,” is pronounced “chee” (soft “c”), whereas “chi,” meaning “who,” is pronounced “kee” (hard “c”).

From the perspective of an English speaker, this explains how to produce the “k” sound before an “e” or “i” in Italian despite the absence of the letter “k” from the Italian alphabet.

The letter “i” is used to change the pronunciation of “c” from hard to soft if the “c” precedes a letter that is not “e” or “i.”

For instance, “cane” (dog) is pronounced “ka-ne,” i.e., hard “c,” whereas “ciano” (cyan) is pronounced “cha-no,” i.e., soft “c.”

Remember that, in Italian, “ch” can only sound like “k” and never like “ch” in “cheese.” The equivalent “ch” sound in English is formed only when the “c” with is followed by an “i” or “e.”

To summarize:

c	+	“e” or “i”	soft “c”	“cena” (dinner) pronounced “che-na”
ci	+	“a,” “o,” or “u”	soft “c”	“ciao” (bye) pronounced “chaw”
c	+	any letter other than “e” or “i”	hard “c”	“cane” (dog) pronounced “ka-ne” “crudo” (raw) pronounced “kroo-do”
ch	+	“e” or “i”	hard “c”	“chi” (who) pronounced “kee”

“g”

The letter “g” can also have a hard sound like “g” in “gab” or a soft sound like “j” in “jam.” The two basic rules are:

1. If the letter “g” is followed by “e” or “i,” it is considered a soft “g” and is pronounced like “j” in “jam.” For example, “gelato” (ice cream) is pronounced “je-la-to.”

2. If the letter “g” is not followed by “e,” “i,” “n,” or “li,” it is considered a hard “g” and is pronounced like “g” in “gab.” For example, “gatto” (cat) is pronounced “gat-to.”

“gn” & “gli”

In addition to the two aforementioned rules, the letter “g” can precede “n” or “li” to form the following two distinctive sounds in Italian:

1. The letter “g” can precede the letter “n” to form “gn,” pronounced like “ny” in “canyon.” For example, “gnocchi” is pronounced as “nyok-kee.”

2. The letter “g” can precede “li” to form “gli,” pronounced like “lli” in “million.” [1] For example, “figlia,” meaning “daughter,” is pronounced as “fee-lya.”

[1] There are only few exceptions in which “gli” is pronounced with hard “g” as “glee,” and not with “ly” sound. Examples include: “anglicismo” (anglicism), “geroglifico” (hieroglyph), “glicerina” (glycerine), “negligere” (to neglect), “gliconio” (glyconium).

The letter “h” changes the pronunciation of “g” from soft to hard if the “g” precedes an “e” or “i.” For instance, “spaghetti” is pronounced “spa-get-tee” (hard “g”).

The letter “i” is used to change the pronunciation of “g” from hard to soft if the “g” precedes a letter that is not “e” or “i.”

For instance, “giorno” (day) is pronounced “jor-no,” i.e., soft “g.”

For English speaker, this explains how to produce the “j” sound before an “e” or “i” in Italian. This is despite the absence of the letter “j” from the Italian alphabet.

To summarize:

g	+	“e” or “i”	soft “g”	“gelato” pronounced “je-la-to”
gi	+	“a,” “o,” or “u”	soft “g”	“giorno” pronounced “jor-no”
g	+	any letter other than “e,” “i,” “n,” or “li”	hard “g”	“gatto” (cat) pronounced “gat-to”
gh	+	“e” or “i”	hard “g”	“spaghetti” pronounced “spa-get-tee”
gn			“ny” sound	“gnocchi” pronounced “nyok-kee”
gli			“ly” sound	“figlia” pronounced “fee-lya”

“sc”

The compound consonant “sc” is used to form the equivalents of the sounds “sh” and “sk” in English:

1. If “sc” is followed by “e” or “i,” it is pronounced like “sh” in “sheep.” For example, “scelta” (choice) is pronounced “shel-ta.”
2. Otherwise, “sc” is pronounced like “sk” in “sky,” e.g., “scarpe” (shoes) is pronounced “skar-pe.”

The letter “h” is used to change the pronunciation of “sc” from “sh” to “sk” if the “sc” precedes an “e” or “i.” For example, “schema” (scheme) is pronounced “ske-ma.”

To summarize:

sc	+	“e” or “i”	“sh” sound	“scelta” pronounced “shel-ta”
sc	+	“a,” “o,” or “u”	“sk” sound	“scarpe” pronounced “skar-pe”
sch	+	“e” or “i”	“sk” sound	“schema” pronounced “ske-ma”

“s”

The letter “s,” when not part of the compound consonant “sc,” can sound like English “s” or “z.” In most cases, the following rule applies:

If “s” is between two vowels or before a voiced consonant (“b,” “d,” “g,” “l,” “m,” “n,” or “v”), it is often pronounced like English “z.” For example, “rosa” (rose) is pronounced as “ro-za.”

In most other cases, it is pronounced like the English “s” in “start.”

“q”

The letter “q” is always followed by the letter “u” to form the sound “kw.” For example, “questo” (this) is pronounced as “kwes-to.”

“z”

The letter “z” is pronounced as “ts” (unvoiced) or “dz” (voiced). In general, the “ts” sound is used when the “z” is doubled or in the middle of a word. For example, “pizza” is pronounced “pee-tsa,” and “azione” (action) is pronounced “a-tsyo-ne.” On the other hand, the “dz” sound is often used at the beginning of a word. For example, “zio” (uncle) is pronounced “dzee-yo.”

Doubling Consonants in Italian

Of the 16 consonants in the original Italian alphabet, 14 consonants can be doubled, that is, all consonants except “q” and “h.” For example, “caffè” (coffee), “mamma” (mom), “nonna” (grandma), etc. These are represented by double letters throughout the book. They sound stressed with a short pause. Think of the “n” sound in “unnavigable,” or “one note” versus “one oat.”

To stress soft or hard sounds formed by adding an “i” or “h,” e.g., “ci,” “ch,” “gi,” “gh,” etc., only the first letter is doubled. For example, “messaggio” (message), “occhiali” (glasses), etc.

Silent Letters

Every letter is pronounced. There are no silent letters such as “b” in “lamb” or “l” in “walk.”

The only exception to this rule is the letter “h” at the beginning of a word. For example, “hanno” (they have) is pronounced “an-no.”

Notice that we did not consider letters that modify the pronunciation as silent. For example, “i” in “giorno” (pronounced “jor-no”) and “h” in “spaghetti” (pronounced “spa-get-tee”).

Next: Vowels

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