Italian alphabet and pronunciation

Good news before we start: Italian is one of the easiest languages to read. Words are written the way they sound, so once you learn a few rules from this lesson, you will be able to read any Italian text out loud. Compare that with English, where “though”, “through” and “tough” all look similar and sound completely different.

The Italian alphabet

The Italian alphabet has only 21 letters:

A a like “a” in “father”
B b like “b” in “book”
C c like “k” or like “ch” (see the rules below)
D d like “d” in “dog”
E e like “e” in “bed”
F f like “f” in “fun”
G g like “g” in “go” or like “j” (see the rules below)
H h always silent
I i like “ee” in “see”
L l like “l” in “lamp”
M m like “m” in “mother”
N n like “n” in “nose”
O o like “o” in “sport”
P p like “p” in “pen”
Q q always with “u”: qu = “kw”, like in “question”
R r rolled “r”, like in Spanish or Russian
S s like “s” in “sun”, between vowels often like “z” in “rose”
T t like “t” in “table”
U u like “oo” in “moon”
V v like “v” in “voice”
Z z like “ts” in “cats” or “ds” in “kids”

The letters J, K, W, X and Y appear only in foreign words like jeans, weekend, taxi. Italians read them the same way you do.

The letters C and G

These two letters are the only real “rules to memorize” in Italian reading. Everything depends on the letter that comes after them.

C and G are hard before A, O, U:

casa [kaza] – house

colore [kolore] – color

gatto [gatto] – cat

gonna [gonna] – skirt

C and G are soft before E and I. C sounds like “ch” in “cheese”, G sounds like “j” in “juice”:

cena [chena] – dinner

città [chitta] – city

gelato [jelato] – ice cream

giorno [jorno] – day

The letter H makes them hard again. If you see CHE, CHI, GHE, GHI, read them as [ke], [ki], [ge], [gi]:

che [ke] – what

chi [ki] – who

chiesa [kieza] – church

spaghetti [spagetti] – yes, that one

funghi [fungi] – mushrooms

And the letter I makes them soft before A, O, U. In CIA, CIO, CIU, GIA, GIO, GIU the “i” is usually not pronounced by itself, it only softens the consonant:

ciao [chao] – hi / bye

cioccolato [chokkolato] – chocolate

giacca [jakka] – jacket

giusto [justo] – right, correct

Special combinations

GN sounds like “ny” in “canyon”:

signore [sinyore] – mister, sir

lasagna [lazanya] – lasagna

GLI sounds like “lli” in “million”:

famiglia [familya] – family

figlio [filyo] – son

SC before E and I sounds like “sh” in “she”:

pesce [peshe] – fish

uscita [ushita] – exit

Before A, O, U it is just [sk]: scuola [skuola] – school.

Double consonants

Italians pronounce double consonants longer than single ones, and it can change the meaning of a word:

pala – shovel, palla – ball

nono – ninth, nonno – grandfather

capello – a hair, cappello – hat

Don’t worry if you can’t hear the difference at first. Hold the consonant a tiny bit longer, like a small pause in the middle of the word.

Stress and accents

Most Italian words are stressed on the second syllable from the end: ra-GAZ-zo, pa-RO-la, gior-NA-le.

When the stress falls on the last vowel, Italians write it with an accent mark: città – city, caffè – coffee, però – but, università – university. The accent mark is part of the spelling, so write it every time.

Exercise

Read these words out loud. The answers show the approximate English reading.

  1. cinema
  2. chitarra (guitar)
  3. giraffa (giraffe)
  4. ghiaccio (ice)
  5. bagno (bathroom)
  6. bottiglia (bottle)
  7. sciarpa (scarf)
  8. zucchero (sugar)
  9. cucina (kitchen)
  10. maglietta (T-shirt)

Answers:

1: [chinema]; 2: [kitarra]; 3: [jiraffa]; 4: [giachcho]; 5: [banyo]; 6: [bottilya]; 7: [sharpa]; 8: [tsukkero]; 9: [kuchina]; 10: [malyetta]