A guide on how to master the Italian alphabet & pronunciation.
The Italian alphabet (alfabeto italiano) is the foundation of the Italian language, it is usually the first thing you learn when you begin taking Italian classes.
The Italian language is derived from Latin and it is a phonetic language. This means that all words are pronounced the way they are written. The sounds (phonemes) and letters (graphemes) in this phonetic language are almost completely matched.
Understanding the pronunciation of an Italian word becomes very easy and logical after learning the alphabet and its sounds, even if you don’t know the meaning. In contrast to English, where the correlation between sounds and letters is very weak, you may be able to pronounce Italian words correctly on the first try.
There are twenty-six letters in the Italian alphabet, but some letters, depending on their position in a word, can have two or more different ways of pronunciation. Hence if we take those into account, we will realize that the number of sounds, or “phonemes” in the Italian language is thirty.
The basics of the Italian alphabet
The Italian alphabet is a Latin-based alphabet and it consists of:
· 5 vowels A – E – I – O – U
· 16 Italian consonants B – C – D – F – G – H – L – M – N – P – Q – R – S – T – V – Z
· 5 foreign consonants J – K – W – X – Y
All these letters are shared by the English alphabet, but their Italian pronunciation is not the same!
Try to read all the Italian letters’ pronunciation out loud, it’s excellent practice for your mouth to get used to the new sounds.
The Italian alphabet and phonetic pronunciation
| Letter | Letter name | Phonetic transcription | Letter | Letter name | Phonetic transcription |
| A | a | aah | N | enne | ehn-neh |
| B | bi | bee | O | o | oh |
| C | ci | chee | P | pi | pee |
| D | di | dee | Q | qu | koo |
| E | e | eh | R | erre | ehr-reh |
| F | effe | ehf-feh | S | esse | Ehs-seh |
| G | gi | gee | T | ti | tee |
| H | acca | ahk-kah | U | u | ooh |
| I | i | ee | V | vi / vu | vee / voo |
| L | elle | ehl-leh | Z | zeta | dze-tah |
| M | emme | ehm-meh |
Foreign consonants
As we mentioned earlier, the official Italian alphabet does not include J, K, W, X, and Y, but they still appear in foreign words acquired by the Italian language.
| Letter | Italian letter name | Phonetic transcription |
| J-j | i lunga | ee loon-gah |
| K-k | kappa | kah-ppa |
| W-w | vu doppia | voo dohp-piah |
| X-x | ics | eeks |
| Y-y | ipsilon / i greca | ee-psee-lon |
Vowels and accents
There are five vowels in the Italian alphabet: A, E, I, O, U. Unlike in English, vowels always have the same pronunciation.
In general, Italian vowels are longer than English ones, and are always pronounced clearly whether they’re at the beginning, in the middle, or at the end of a word.
Vowels in Italian are very important. As you probably have noticed, Italian words have many vowels, and they almost always end in a vowel.
Practice by reading the following words
| Letter | IPA | Sounds like in English | Example words |
| A | a | ah (like the “a” sound in “father”) | amare, ascoltare, antica, antipatica |
| E (open) | ε | eh (like the “e” in “bet”) | bene, leggi, testa, zero |
| E (closed) | e | eh (like the “ai” in “hair”) | menta, rete, sera, vela |
| I | i | ee (like the “ee” in “steep”) | Italia, amici, isola, intero |
| O (open) | ɔ | o / aw (like the “o” in “hot”) | poco, cosa, storia, brodo |
| O (closed) | o | oh (similar to the “o” in “go”) | sono, sopra, forno, sconto |
| U | u | oo (like the “oo” in “stoop”, or the “u” in “dude”) | uno, unico, punto, urlare |
Italian Alphabet Chart
| Lexicon | English approx | Example | |
| A | a | car | aria |
| B | bi | black | bello |
| C | ci | sketch | ciao |
| customer | chiaro | ||
| D | di | dogge | radio |
| E | e | traine | erba |
| F | effe | fig | fortua |
| G | gi | judge | giardino |
| gag | grillo | ||
| H* | acca | hotel | bicchiere |
| I | i | cred | isola |
| L | elle | long | lino |
| M | emme | mother | mare |
| N | enne | nurse | nonno |
| O | o | horse | ora |
| P | pi | prist | palla |
| Q | cu | steak | quadro |
| R | erre | not present | re |
| S | esse | song | serenata |
| T | ti | train | tetto |
| U | u | blue | uccello |
| V | vu | vacation | vista |
| Z | zeta | cats | zaffiro |
| J | i lunga | jazz | jazz |
| K | kappa | crisis | kilo |
| W | doppia vu | wealth | webcam |
| X | ics | exaggerate | xilofono |
| Y | ipsilon | yell | yogurt |
Pronunciation rules
Accents can only be placed on vowels in Italian, not on consonants. Accents can be tonic or graphic in nature. Accents with tonic tones are not written. You can hear them by paying attention to which parts of a word are stressed.
For example, the na in “nation” has a tonic accent. Graphic accents are written clearly. There are two types, acute and grave, and they affect how the vowel is pronounced:
· Acute accent: close sound, right-leaning accent mark [‘]
· Grave accent: open sound, left-leaning accent mark [‘]
Be cautious: Pronouncing the same word with different accents may cause its meaning to change!
Here are some basic pronunciation rules that will help you get your Italian flow just right.
C and G
The consonants C and G can have two pronunciations: one hard and one soft. What does this mean?
C and G are pronounced like a hard /k/ sound (as in “car”) and /g/ sound (as in “golf”) when they are followed by the vowels A, O, and U, and by consonants (cassa – till, credere – to believe, gatti – cats, grammo – gram).
Otherwise, C and G are pronounced softly: a /ch/ sound for “C” and a /j/ sound for “G” when they are followed by the vowels I and E (ceci – chickpeas, gente – people).
Does this mean that we can never have a hard sound with the vowels I and E? Of course we can! We just need to put an H in between! So, CHI (pronounced as /ki/), CHE (/ke/), GHI (/gui/), GHE (/gue/) have a hard sound.
H – Acca
Our friend “acca” is silent. This means it is never pronounced when it is at the beginning of a word. You can start the pronunciation with the next letter!
· Hotel (hotel): oh-tell
· Hanno (they have): ahn-no
As we just discovered, though, it is very useful in combination with C and G!
S – Esse & Z – Zeta
Just like “C” and “G,” “S” and “Z” are also interesting consonants.
In most words, “S” is pronounced like a hard /s/ sound, as in the English word “song.”
· Semplice (simple) – sehm-plee-cheh
· Sasso (stone) – sahs-soh
However, it’s pronounced like a /z/ sound, as in the English word “zebra,” when placed between two vowels.
· Casa (house/home): cah-zah
· Chiesa (church): kee-eh-zah
· Cosa (thing): coh-zah
Last but not least, “Z” is always pronounced like a /ts/ sound in the middle of words and when doubled, as in pizza (peeh-tsah), or situazione (see-too-ah-tsyo-neh).
However, at the beginning of words, “Z” is pronounced like a /dz/ sound, as in the Italian word zio (uncle).
