Language/Italian/Grammar/Italian-Alphabet

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Italian Grammar - Italian Alphabet

Italian's alphabet contains 21 letters (5 vowels and 16 consonants). The letters J, K, W, X, and Y are only used in foreign names, and in scientific or technical terms of foreign origin.

Once you've mastered this lesson, take a look at these related pages: Conditional Subjunctive & Definite Articles.

Italian Alphabet

The Italian alphabet includes the following 21 letters:

Italian	Name of the letter /IPA/	Pronunciation in words /IPA/	Comparison with other languages
A	/a/	/a/	like in Castellano "pAdre"; the English 'a' has many pronunciations according to what letters come before or after it: the closest sound to the Italian one could be the /ʌ/ sound in "cUp".
B	/bi/	/b/	like in English "Brave"
C	/tʃi/	/tʃ/ or /k/	like in English "CHurCH" (/tʃ/) before 'e' or 'i'; like in English "Car" (/k/) before 'a', 'o', 'u' or any other consonant. See letter 'h' and 'i' for more details
D	/di/	/d/	like in English "Dog"
E	/e/ or /ɛ/	/e/ or /ɛ/	like in English "red" (/ɛ/) or in Castellano "buEno" (/e/). In Italian pronouncing /e/ or /ɛ/ is not as import as in French: choosing one sound or the other does not compromise the communication. In fact every Italian uses them according to regional inflections: even if this letter may be pronounced in two ways by most Italians, it is always considered as a single vowel
F	/'ɛf:e/	/f/	like in English "Fish"
G	/dʒi/	/dʒ/ or /g/	like in English "Gem" (/dʒ/) before 'e' or 'i'; like in English "Gum" (/g/) before 'a', 'o', 'u' or any other consonant. See letter 'h' and 'i' for more details
H	/ˈak:a/	/-/ (silent)	is always silent like in Castellano In Italian it is used to maintain sounds /k/ and /g/ before soft vowels 'e' and 'i'. In fact: - CE -> read /tʃe/ -- CHE -> read /ke/ - CI -> read /tʃi/ -- CHI -> read /ki/ - GE -> read /dʒe/ -- GHE -> read /ge/ - GI -> read /dʒi/ -- GHI -> read /gi/ Letter 'h' is also used in front of some persons of the verb "to have" conjugated in present indicative to distinguish them from homophone words: - HO -> I have -- O -> or - HAI -> you have -- AI -> "to the" (preposition plus definitive article) - HA -> he/she/it has -- A -> "to" (preposition) - HANNO -> they have -- ANNO -> year
I	/i/	/i/, /j/, /-/ (silent)	like in English "mEEt". 'i' is also used to maintain sounds /tʃ/ and /dʒ/ before hard vowels 'a', 'o', 'u' as long as they are considered inside the same syllable. In these cases 'i' is silent. In fact: - CA -> read /ka/ -- CIA -> read //tʃa/ (it's pronounced /'tʃao/ and not /'tʃjao/) - CO -> read /ko/ -- CIO -> read //tʃo/ - CU -> read /ku/ -- CIU -> read //tʃu/ - GA -> read /ga/ -- GIA -> read /dʒa/ - GO -> read /go/ -- GIO -> read /dʒo/ - GU -> read gu/ -- GIU -> read /dʒu/ In Italian some words require a silent 'i' in syllables CIE, GIE or SCIE, even if vowel 'e' is already soft by itself. In fact you may find: - CIE -> read as CE - GIE -> read as GE - SCIE -> read as SCE (/ʃe/) When 'i' comes before another vowel and is inside tha same syllable (apart from the case mentioned above!) it is pronounced 'j' like in English "Yesterday"
J	/dʒej/ or /i 'luŋga/	/j/ or /dʒ/	only in foreign words, mostly pronounced as in the native language
K	/'kap:a/	/k/	only in foreign words, mostly pronounced as in the native language
L	/'ɛl:e/	/l/	like in English "Lion"
M	/'ɛm:e/	/m/	like 'in English "Mouse"
N	/'ɛn:e/	/n/, /ŋ/ or /ɱ/	like in English "Nice"; it changes to /ŋ/ before sounds /k/ or /g/ and to /ɱ/ before sounds /f/ or /v/. These should natural allophones of sound /n/ for most languages.
O	/ɔ/ or /o/	/ɔ/ or /o/	like in English "mOre" /o/ or in English /lOt/ /ɔ/ In Italian pronouncing /o/ or /ɔ/ is not as import as in other monosyllabic languages: choosing one sound or the other does not compromise the communication. In fact every Italian uses them according to regional inflections: even if this letter may be pronounced in two ways by most Italians, it is always considered as a single vowel
P	/pi/	/p/	like in English "Pen"
Q	/ku/	/k/	like in English "Quit" /k/. It is only used when followed by U+VOWEL (-QUA- /kwa/, -QUE /kwe/-, -QUI /kwi//-, -QUO- /kwo/) inside the same syllable. Letter 'q' is quite tricky in Italian: in fact it has the same sound as letter 'c' when found in the same position inside a word. Notice how the syllables with letter 'q' or 'c' in the following words have the same pronunciation but different spelling: - QUALE -> read /'kwale -- VACUA -> read /'vakwa/ - QUESTO -> read /'kwesto/ -- INNOCUE -> read /i'n:ɔkwe/ - QUINDI -> read /'kwindi/ -- TACCUINO -Z read /ta'k:wino/ - QUOTA -> read /'kwɔta/ -- CUORE -> read /'kwɔre
R	/'ɛr:e/	/r/ or /ɾ/	like in Castellano "Rosa". Italian 'r' is pronounced with a rolling sound made by rapidly flipping the end of the tongue up and down against the roof of the mouth); It may be softer like /ɾ/ between vowels or at the beginning of a word (like Americans usually pronounce 't' between vowels, for example in "iT is" /ɪɾɪz/)
S	/'ɛs:e/	/s/ or /z/	like in English "Sun" /s/ or in English "boyS" /z/. Unlike Castellano, Italian 's' has two pronunciations. - /s/ before dull consonant sounds (/sk/, /sp/, /st/, /sf/ or at the beginning of a word when followed by a vowel (exactly like in English "Silence") - /z/ before vibrant consontant sounds (/zg/,/zb/, /zd/, /zv/, /zl/, /zm/, /zn/) or between two vowels (/aza/, /uzo/, /ezu/ etc.) These are just general rules: according to regional inflections you may hear different ways Italians pronunce this letter, but choosing one sound or the other does not compromise the communication
T	/ti/	/t/	like in Castellano "Tener"; the English 't' is usually followed by an expiration at the beginnig of a word when followed by a vowel (like in the word "time") which does not exist in Italian
U	/u/	/u/ or /w/	like in English "cOOl"; letter 'u' can be found as a half consonant or half vowel sound when followed by another vowel inside the same syllable, in which case it is pronounced /w/ like in English "What"
V	/vi/ or /vu/	/v/	like in English "Very"
W	/vu 'dop:ja/	/w/ or /v/	only in foreign words, mostly pronounced as in the native language
X	/iks/	/ks/	only in foreign words, mostly pronounced as in the native language
Y	/'ipsilon/	/j/ or /i/	only in foreign words, mostly pronounced as in the native language
Z	/dzɛta/	/dz/ or /ts/	like in English "geTS" or like a fast pronounciation of the English "reD Zone"; The Italian 'z' is quite tricky: the correct pronunciation should be learnt by heart since there is no rule at all that could teach you when to say /ts/ and when to say /dz/. In fact every Italian, according to their regional inflection choose to use one sound or the other for each word: this does not compromise our communication anyway.

Accents and Diacritics

ACCENTS

Every language uses accents for different purposes: in French for example they are mostly used to show the correct pronunciation of a vowel, to distinguish homophone words that have different grammar roles, but they are not used to show the stress, since it is implicit that it always falls on the last syllable; in Castellano, on the other hand, it have the purpose to distinguish homophone words with different grammar roles, to show the right stress when needed, but it is hardly used to show the correct pronunciation of a vowel, since it is very regular already (the only exception could be the dieresis on Ü when the letter must be pronounced in syllables GÜE, GÜI, because it would be silent otherwise).

Nowadays the Italian language uses two accents which are placed only above vowels.

One is the acute accent which may be found only on É and Ó and the other one is the grave accent which may be found on any vowel À È Ì Ò Ù.

Their purposes are the following ones:

- distinguishing homophone words that have a different grammar role (like in Castellano or French); mandatory for correct spelling

• LA -> feminine singular article -- LÀ -> adverb "there"
• SI -> pronoun for "itself, himself, herself" -- SÌ -> "yes"
• NE -> pronoun that means "of this, that, these, those" -- NÉ -> "nor, neither"
• DA -> preposition "from" -- DÀ -> he/she/it gives (verb)

- marking the stress of a plurisyllabic word when it falls on the very last letter; mandatory for correct spelling

• VERITÀ -> stress on 'a'
• PERÒ -> stress on 'o'
• VIRTÙ -> stress on 'u'
• COMPÌ -> stress on 'i'

- marking the stress of a monosyllabic word when it contains I + VOWEL and the stress falls on this very last vowel: in these cases we knoe we must not pronounce the vowels as a hiatus; mandatory for correct spelling

• GIÀ -> the stress shows that the word is monosyllabic and that is pronounced /dʒa/ and not /dʒia/ with a hiatus
• PIÙ -> the stress shows that the word is monosyllaboc and that is pronounced /pju/ and not /piu/ with a hiatus
• GIÙ -> pronounced /dʒu/ and not /'dʒiu/

- distinguishing homograph words that olny differs for the stress; non mandatory for correct spelling

Acute Accent (L'accento Acuto)

The acute accent (´) shows that the vowel 'e' and 'o' are closed, thus pronounced respectively as /e/ and /o/. It must be written only when:

Grave Accent (L'accento Grave)

The grave accent (`) that in Italian is called l'accento grave, is used exclusively on the vowel "e" and "a". It specifies a different pronunciation, indicating that the stressed syllable is on the penultimate syllable, while without an accent in the same word with the stressed syllable on the final vowel. It is also used to distinguish homographic words.

Examples:

• né (nor) - stressed on 'e'
• ne' (short for 'nei' or 'nella', in the + female/male/feminine/masculine) - stressed on 'e'
• là (there) - stressed on 'a'
• la (the + feminine) - stressed on final 'a'

Circonflexe Accent (L'accento Circonflesso)

The circumflex accent (ˆ) that in Italian is called l'accento circonflesso, is only applied on the vowel "i" and "u". When applied on the vowel "i" it indicates that it is pronounced separately from the other vowels in the word.

Example:

• vergogna (shame) - pronounced as "ver-gò-gna"

While when on the vowel "u", an accent is placed to distinguish homophonic forms.

Examples:

• tuo (your + masculine) ~ to (so)
• su (on) ~ sù (up)

Diaresis (La dieresi)

The diaeresis (¨) that in Italian is called la dieresi, is placed on the vowel "i" and "u" to indicate that these vowels are to be pronounced separately.

Example:

• lingua (*language) - pronounced as "lin-gua" with separate "i"

Conclusion

Learning the Italian alphabet is an important and necessary first step in becoming proficient in Italian. The good news is that the Italian alphabet has a lot in common with English, which means that some letters are pronounced the same in both languages. While the accent marks and diacritics might seem challenging, once you understand their use and meaning, they will become second nature. In next lessons, we'll learn about nouns and articles, which will be the next step in communicating effectively in Italian. Have fun learning!

Sources

• The Italian alphabet
• Italian language - Wikipedia
• Italian Grammar lesson 1 - Alphabet

Having concluded this lesson, consider checking out these related pages: Accent mark to distinguish a word & Imperfect Tense.

Videos

Learn Italian Alphabets Pronunciation With Examples - YouTube

Table of Contents - Italian Course - 0 to A1

• Course Presentation

Introduction to Italian Language

• Italian Alphabet
• Nouns and Articles
• Present Tense of Regular Verbs
• Adjectives and Adverbs
• Present Tense of Irregular Verbs

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Daily Life Expressions

• Greetings and Introductions
• Foods and Drinks
• Transportation
• Numbers and Dates

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Italian Culture and Tradition

• Italian Regions and Cities
• Italian Cuisine and Wine
• Italian Art and Music
• Italian Festivals and Celebrations

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Past and Future Tenses

• Passato Prossimo
• Futuro Semplice
• Imperfect Tense
• Condizionale Presente

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Social and Work Life

• Family and Relationships
• Work and Employment
• Shopping and Services
• Tourism and Hospitality

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Italian Literature and Cinema

• Famous Italian Writers and Poets
• Italian Cinema Industry
• Italian Contemporary Art

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Subjunctive and Imperative Moods

• Present Subjunctive
• Imperative Form
• Simple Past Subjunctive
• Conditional Subjunctive

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Science and Technology

• Computer and Technology
• Science and Research
• Environment and Ecology

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Italian Politics and Society

• Contemporary Italian Politics
• Italian Society and Customs
• Religion and Believes

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Compound Tenses

• Trapassato Prossimo
• Trapassato Remoto
• Futuro Anteriore
• Congiuntivo Passato

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Arts and Design

• Fashion and Design
• Music and Performing Arts
• Visual Arts

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Italian Language and Dialects

• Italian Language Variations
• Italian Language in the World
• Italian Language as a Second Language

Next Lesson — Nouns and Articles ▶️