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Pronunciation

The Italian alphabet has the same letters as the English alphabet, but native Italian words do not use j, k, w, x, or y; these letters are only used in foreign words, e.g. un whisky, il jazz.

Pronunciation is different from English. Voiceless consonants normally have very little aspiration, stressed vowels are not "automatically" diphthongized as in English boat or bait, and the distinction between long and short consonants, which is essential in Italian, does not exist in English.

The Italian r is quite different from English r. If single it is a tap; if double it is rolled. It can be formed by placing one's tongue on the roof of one's mouth just behind the teeth as if one is trying to pronounce a d.

The letter l is pronounced keeping the tongue against the upper teeth.

There are two consonantic phonemes absent in English. The letter pair gn represents a sound similar to Spanish ñ in señor. The letter pair gl, if followed by an i or an e, represents a sound similar to ll in million.

The letter h is not pronounced. Its prime purpose in writing is to distinguish some forms of the verb avere ("to have"), from other words with the same pronounciation, and to signal the pronounciation of c and g as "hard" when followed by i or e.

Double consonants are split between two syllables: fanno ("they do") is pronounced fan.no. If you say "ten nails" quickly (rather than "ten ales"), you'll replicate the sound rather closely.

There are nine vocalic phonemes corresponding to the letters a, e, i, o, and u.

All vowels are normally short, except for stressed vowels in an open syllable (i.e. a syllable that ends in the vowel). Both vowels in fatto are short, for example, whereas the /a/ of fato is a bit longer.

They are:

• a: like the a in "father".
• open e: like e in "bet".
• closed e: like a in "main".
• vocalic i: like e in "we".
• semiconsonantic i: like y in "yoga".
• open o: like o in "got" (in a British English accent) or the o in boii in a General American
• closed o: like o in "toe".
• vocalic u: like u in "June".
• semiconsonantic u: like u in "quake".

Usually y is pronounced like i.

Most confusingly, the letters c and g change sound when they're followed by the letter e or i. They become 'soft' before e and i, like the English ch and g, respectively - think of the words "China" and "gem" for an idea of the sound. Otherwise, they have a 'hard' sound, like the English k in "kite", and the English g in "gain". In order to make these hard sounds even when e or i follow, the letter h is added between the c or g and the i or e.

The Italian language is phonetically regular (that is, words are pronounced as they are spelt), however it has some quirks common to the Romance languages (changing C and G sounds, for example).

Italian has no letters, digraphs, or trigraphs that are especially hard to pronounce for speakers with experience in other Romance languages, nor does it have an exceptional number of phonemes. However, students whose native language is English should pay close attention to the vowels: there are no lax vowels in Italian.

Don't be afraid of trying to pronounce the words using the approximate English pronunciations below (or the IPA if you are familiar with it). The Italian plosives are not aspirated, i.e. you should not blow much air when you pronounce d, t, b, p, k, hard c, or hard g). The approximate English below indicates stressed syllables with capital letters. And now for all of this in more detail:

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Special considerations

When trying to pronounce the words below, try to remember the following:

• Certain words have double consonants. Unlike in English, those consonants have a property called geminated consonants. That means you must pronounce a double consonant with more energy, giving more length to the sound. As an alternative, try pronouncing them separately but with less pause between the two.

• "H" is silent (see below).
• "I" can also be silent (see below).
• Stress is on the penultimate (next-to-last) syllable in most cases.

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Single letters

In the following explanation "hard vowels" (vocali dure) refers to 'a', 'o' and 'u', and "soft vowels" (vocali morbide) refers to 'e' and 'i'. ; A : "A" is pronounced like in "father". ; B : "B" is pronounced like in "balloon", but without aspirating air. ; C : Before soft vowels (e and i), "C" is pronounced as "ch" in "church". Elsewhere, it is pronounced as in "car". ; D : "D" is pronounced as in "death". ; E : "E" can be pronounced either open as in "bet" or closed as "ay" in "pay", but shorter.

; F : "F" is pronounced like in "fair". ; G : Before soft vowels (e and i), "G" is pronounced like in "gem", otherwise like in "goal". ; H : "H" is completely silent everywhere. It can be used to

• distinguish homophones in written text

• Change the pronounciation of letters and digraphs that have two possible pronounciations (see below).

; I:

• Usually, it is pronounced like in "machine".

• if it is followed by a vowel and unstressed, it is pronounced like "y" in "year".

• it can change the pronunciation of letters and digraphs that have two possible pronunciations (see below).
• Sometimes it makes no difference in the word pronunciation.

; J : "J" does not exist in modern Italian spelling, except in loanwords. A few Italian words can still be spelt with an initial "J" as an alternative to "I". ; K : "K" does not exist in Italian, except in loanwords, and it is always pronunced like in English. ; L : "L" is pronounced like in "liquid", never the "dark L" sound as in "wool". ; M : "M" is pronounced like in "machine". ; N : "N" is usually pronounced like in "navy". ; O : "O" can be pronounced either open as the "a" in RP English "ball" or closed like "oa" in Canadian English "boat". ; P : "P" is pronounced like in "paste". ; Q : "Q" is a surplus letter with the same sound of hard c. ; R : "R" is always trilled (rolled), like "rr" in Spanish perro. ; S : "S" is pronounced like in "snake" except when it is between two vowels (in most cases) or before a voiced consonant, when it is pronounced like "Z" in "maze". ; T : "T" is always pronounced like in "treasure" and never like in "nation". ; U : "U" is always pronounced like in "tune", never laxed as in "but". ; V : "V" is pronounced like in "vision". ; W : "W" does not exist in Italian, except in loanwords. ; X : "X" does not exist in Italian, except in loanwords. ; Y : "Y" does not exist in Italian, except in loanwords. ; Z : "Z" can be pronounced voiced, producing the "dz" sound, or devoiced, producing the "ts" sound.
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Di/Trigraphs

Digraphs or trigraphs are not diphthongs, rather they are two letters representating a single sound. Italian has one digraph and two trigraphs with peculiar sounds to English speakers.

; GN : "GN" is pronounced as "ny" in "canyon" or like "ñ" in the Spanish word piñata. It is always long (geminated) between vowels, within a word or in connected speech. ; GL before I : "GL" before "I" is pronounced similarly to the "lli" in "million". It is always long (geminated). ; SC is pronunced as "sh" in "shoot" when it precedes an "i" or "e".
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I and h

H can be used between 'c', 'g', 'sc' and a soft vowel indicating that they must be pronounced as if they were followed by a hard vowel.
Example: ghetto (GEH-tto) "ghetto"

In the same way, "I" can be used between 'c', 'g', 'sc' and a hard vowel indicating that they must be pronounced as if they were followed by a soft vowel. Note that there are also words in which "i" is pronounced:
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Accents and stresses

Each word has one stressed syllable, usually the penultimate. An accent can be used to mark a stressed vowel. The accent is mandatory

• when the stress is on the last syllable

• on some one-syllable long words which have homophones.

When the stress is on a syllable other than the last, the accent isn't mandatory and it is never used, but it can be optionally employed to disambiguate homographs. Dictionaries may use the accent in order to show the pronunciation: the lack of accent means accent on the penultimate. A significant example of possible disambiguation is that of principi: prìncipi (PREEN-chee-pee) "princes" vs. princìpi (preen-CHEE-pee) "principles". However, this can also be done by writing princìpi as principî, though this spelling is becoming rare.

When the accent is present it also carries information about the pronunciation of "e" An acute accent over the "E" (i.e. é) indicates a closed "E", while a grave accent means that the "E" is open.

Examples: "E": perché (pair-KEH) "why" "because"; tè (TEH) "tea"

In handwriting, the difference between the two accents is not usually marked.