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Italian is written with the same alphabet as English. Its own alphabet has only twenty-one letters; the other five, j, k, w, x and y, are found almost only in loanwords and in a few proper names. Its spelling is far more regular than English spelling: once the value of each letter and letter group is known, almost any word can be read aloud, and only the place of the stress, the open or closed sound of e and o and the value of s and z are not always shown in writing. The difficulties for an English speaker lie elsewhere: the vowels, which are pure and never glide into another sound as in English “day” or “go”; c and g, which change their sound before e and i; the groups ch, gh, gli, gn and sc; the letter z; the double consonants, which are said long; the rolled r; the final vowels, which are always said; and the stress, with the written accent on a final vowel.
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The Italian alphabet
The Italian alphabet follows the English order, and the letters j, k, w, x and y keep their usual place. The vowels are named after their sound. Many consonants are named with a final “ee”: b is said bee, d dee, p pee, t tee; others with an opening “e” as in “bed” and a final e that is said: f EF-feh, l EL-leh, m EM-meh, n EN-neh, r ER-reh, s ES-seh. The names that catch out an English speaker when spelling are those of a (ah), e (eh), i (ee), c (chee), g (jee), h (AK-ka), q (koo), u (oo), v (voo) and z (DZEH-ta).
A letter’s name is what you say when you spell a word aloud, for example your name or address on the phone.
| Letter | Name | Sounds | Examples | Tip |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A a | a /a/ | /a/ | mare | like “a” in “father” (mare); never “ay” as in “name” said ah, like “a” in “father”; never “ay” |
| B b | bi /bi/ | /b/ | bene | said bee |
| C c | ci /tʃi/ | /k/ · /tʃ/ | casa cena | “k” before a, o, u and before a consonant (casa); “ch” as in “church” before e and i (cena); never “s” as in “city” said chee, like “chee” in “cheese”; never “see” |
| D d | di /di/ | /d/ | due | said dee |
| E e | e /e/ | /e/ · /ɛ/ | sera bello pane | stressed, closed, between “e” in “bed” and “ay” in “day” with no glide (sera), or open, like “e” in “bed” (bello); unstressed, closed and always said, even at the end of a word (pane); never silent, never “ee”, never gliding into “ee” as in “day” said eh, a pure “e” between “e” in “bed” and “ay” in “day”, with no glide into “ee”; never “ee” |
| F f | effe /ˈɛffe/ | /f/ | fare | said EF-feh, with the final e said |
| G g | gi /dʒi/ | /ɡ/ · /dʒ/ | gatto gelato | hard, as in “go”, before a, o, u and before a consonant (gatto); “j” as in “jet” before e and i (gelato); never the “zh” of “measure” said jee, like “gee” in “jeep” |
| H h | acca /ˈakka/ | said AK-ka, stressed on the first a, with a long k | ||
| I i | i /i/ | /i/ · /j/ | vino piede | like “ee” in “see”, but short (vino); before another vowel, like “y” in “yes” (piede); never “eye” or the “i” of “bit” said ee, like “ee” in “see”; never “eye” |
| J j | i lunga /i ˈlunɡa/ | said ee LOON-ga, that is “long i”; a letter of loanwords and of a few proper names | ||
| K k | cappa /ˈkappa/ | said KAP-pa, a letter of loanwords | ||
| L l | elle /ˈɛlle/ | /l/ | luna | said EL-leh, with the final e said |
| M m | emme /ˈɛmme/ | /m/ | mare | said EM-meh, with the final e said |
| N n | enne /ˈɛnne/ | /n/ | nono | always said, as in English said EN-neh, with the final e said |
| O o | o /ɔ/ | /o/ · /ɔ/ | sole nove | stressed, closed, a pure “oh” with no glide into “oo” (sole), or open, like “o” in British “hot” but longer (nove); unstressed, closed; never “oh” gliding into “oo” as in “go” an open o, like “o” in British “hot” but longer; never “oh” gliding into “oo” as in “go” |
| P p | pi /pi/ | /p/ | pane | said pee |
| Q q | cu /ku/ | /k/ | quattro | always followed by u; qu is said “kw”, as in “quick” (quattro) said koo; never “cue” |
| R r | erre /ˈɛrre/ | /r/ | rosso | rolled with the tip of the tongue (rosso), and said wherever it stands, also before a consonant and at the end of a syllable; never the English r said ER-reh, with a rolled r |
| S s | esse /ˈɛsse/ | /s/ · /z/ | sole rosa | like “s” in “sun” (sole); between two vowels, “z” as in “zoo” in the North and in many words of standard pronunciation (rosa), “s” in the Centre and the South; both are correct said ES-seh, with the final e said |
| T t | ti /ti/ | /t/ | tre | said tee |
| U u | u /u/ | /u/ · /w/ | luna uovo | like “oo” in “food” (luna); before another vowel, like “w” in “wet” (uovo); never “you” or the “u” of “but” said oo, like “oo” in “food”; never “you” |
| V v | vu /vu/ | /v/ | vino | said voo; never “vee” |
| W w | doppia vu /ˈdoppja vu/ | said DOP-pya voo, that is “double v”; never “double u” | ||
| X x | ics /iks/ | /ks/ | taxi | “ks”, in loanwords (taxi) said eeks |
| Y y | ipsilon /ˈipsilon/ | said EEP-see-lon, stressed on the first syllable; never “why” | ||
| Z z | zeta /ˈdzɛta/ | /ts/ · /dz/ | grazie zero | “ts” as in “cats” (grazie) or “dz” as in “adze” (zero), depending on the word; never the “z” of “zoo” said DZEH-ta; never “zed” or “zee” |
Spelling aloud. A word is spelt aloud with the name of each letter: to the question Come si scrive? (“How do you spell it?”), the answer is, for example, M-A-R-C-O, EM-meh – ah – ER-reh – chee – oh. A double letter is announced with doppia: nonno is spelt EN-neh – oh – doppia EN-neh – oh. On the phone, a letter is often made clear with the name of a town: A come Ancona, B come Bologna, C come Como, D come Domodossola.
- Come si scrive?How do you spell it?
- M-A-R-C-OM, A, R, C, O
- doppia tdouble t
Remember
In Italian, a is called ah, e eh and i ee, as in most European languages; c is called chee, g jee, h AK-ka and z DZEH-ta. These are the letters most often mixed up when a name or an address is spelt aloud.
Most consonants are said much as in English: b, d, f, l, m, n, p, t and v, although p, t and k are said without the puff of air heard in English “pen” or “top”. Said differently are, above all, c and g, which change their sound with the vowel that follows, s, z, r and the vowels. The five vowels are all said, clearly and pure, wherever they stand in the word; a stressed e and a stressed o each have an open and a closed sound.
Difference from English
English vowels change with stress and often glide: “no” ends in “oo”, “day” in “ee”, and an unstressed vowel fades to the “a” of “about”. Italian vowels are pure: each is held steady from start to finish, stressed or not, so no is a short, clean “o” and pane ends in a clear “e”. Only a stressed e or o is open or closed, and this depends on the word: sera and sole have closed vowels, bello and nove open ones. Writing does not show it, except on an accented final vowel (caffè, perché), and usage varies from one region to another. A word said with an e or an o of the other kind is still understood.
- casa / cenahouse / dinner
- gatto / gelatocat / ice cream
- sera / belloevening / beautiful
- sole / novesun / nine
c and g before e and i
Before a, o, u and before a consonant, c is said “k” and g is hard, as in “go”. Before e and i, c is said like “ch” in “church” and g like “j” in “jet”. To keep the “k” sound or the hard g before e and i, ch and gh are written (anche); to keep the sound of “ch” or “j” before a, o, u, ci and gi are written, and their i is not said (ciao, giorno).
Common mistakes
[ˈsena]→ [ˈtʃena]cena begins with the “ch” of “church”: c is never said “s” as in “city”.[ʒeˈlato]→ [dʒeˈlato]In gelato, g is said like “j” in “jet”, never like the “s” of “measure”.[ˈljuna]→ [ˈluna]In luna, u is said like “oo” in “food”, never “you”.[ˈzɛro]→ [ˈdzɛro]zero begins with “dz”, never with the “z” of “zoo”.
Practise
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Letter groups
Several sounds are written with two or three letters. The groups ch and gh stand for “k” and the hard g of “go”, never for the “ch” of “church”, which is written ce or ci. The groups gn and gli stand for two sounds close to “ny” in “canyon” and “lli” in “million”. Two vowels that follow each other are each said: ei is never the “ee” of “receive”.
| Spelling | Sounds | Examples | Tip |
|---|---|---|---|
| ce | /tʃ/ | cena | “che” as in “check” |
| ci | /tʃ/ | ciao | “chee” as in “cheese”; before another vowel, “ch” alone, the i not being said (ciao) |
| ch | /k/ | anche | “k”, before e and i; never the “ch” of “church” |
| ge | /dʒ/ | gelato | “je” as in “jet” |
| gi | /dʒ/ | giorno | “jee” as in “jeep”; before another vowel, “j” alone, the i not being said (giorno) |
| gh | /ɡ/ | ghiaccio | the hard g of “go”, before e and i |
| gn | /ɲ/ | bagno | like “ny” in “canyon”, a little longer; never “g” followed by “n” |
| gli | /ʎ/ | figlio | roughly like “lli” in “million”, with the tongue flat against the palate; before another vowel, the i is not said (figlio) |
| sce | /ʃ/ | pesce | “she” as in “shed” |
| sci | /ʃ/ | sci | “shee” as in “sheep” |
| sch | /sk/ | schermo | “sk”, before e and i; never “sh” |
| qu | /kw/ | quattro | “kw”, as in “quick” |
| gu | /ɡw/ | guanto | “gw” before a vowel, as in “Gwen” |
| nn | /nn/ | nonno | a long n, held for a moment |
| ll | /ll/ | bello | a long l, held for a moment |
| rr | /rr/ | carro | a long rolled r, with several taps |
| ss | /ss/ | rosso | a long “s”, always as in “sun”, never “z” |
| tt | /tt/ | gatto | a long t: the tongue stays for a moment against the teeth before letting go |
| cc | /kk/ · /ttʃ/ | ecco ghiaccio | a long “k” before a, o, u (ecco); a long “ch” before e and i (ghiaccio) |
| zz | /tts/ · /ddz/ | pizza mezzo | a long “ts” (pizza) or a long “dz” (mezzo), depending on the word |
| on | /on/ | con | “o” followed by a clearly said n, the o staying pure |
| st- | /st/ | strada | “s” then “t”, as in “stop” |
| sp- | /sp/ | spesa | “s” then “p”, as in “sport” |
| ei | /ɛi/ | sei | “e” then “i”, in the same syllable, close to “ay” in “day”; never “ee” or “eye” |
| ie | /jɛ/ | ieri | “ye” as in “yes”; never “ee” as in “piece” or “eye” as in “pie” |
- anchealso
- ciaohi
- giornoday
- bagnobathroom
- figlioson
- pescefish
- seisix
Remember
ch is said “k” and sc before e and i is said like “sh” in “ship”: anche is said AN-keh, pesce is said PESH-sheh. In Italian, it is ci and ce that give the “ch” of “church”.
Common mistakes
[ˈantʃe]→ [ˈanke]In anche, ch is said “k”, never like the “ch” of “church”.[ˈbaɡno]→ [ˈbaɲɲo]In bagno, gn stands for one sound, like “ny” in “canyon”.[ˈfiɡljo]→ [ˈfiʎʎo]In figlio, gli is not said “g” followed by “li”.[ˈpeske]→ [ˈpeʃʃe]In pesce, sc before e is said like “sh” in “ship”.[saɪ]→ [ˈsɛi]In sei, e and i are both said.
Practise
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Double consonants
In English, a double consonant is said like a single one: the t of “kitten” is no longer than that of “kite”. In Italian, a double consonant is said long: it is held for a moment, or a slight pause is made before releasing it, and the vowel before it is shorter. The difference tells words apart.
A double consonant is held longer
A consonant written double is said longer than the single consonant: nn in nonno, tt in gatto, ss in rosso. ss is always said like the “s” of “sun”. Between two vowels, gn, gli and sc before e and i are said long too, although they are written with a single consonant (bagno, figlio, pesce).
- nono / nonnoninth / grandfather
- caro / carrodear / cart
Difference from English
English has long consonants only across two words, as in “black cat”, “ten nights” or “bookcase”; Italian has them inside words, and they can be heard: nonno has a clearly longer n than nono. Reading gatto with a short t, as in English “gateau”, makes the word hard to recognise. Saying the double consonant as in “black cat” is a good way to practise it.
Common mistakes
[ˈnɔno]→ [ˈnɔnno]To say “grandfather”, the nn of nonno is held longer; nono means “ninth”.[ˈɡato]→ [ˈɡatto]In gatto, the tt is long: the tongue stays for a moment against the teeth.
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Stress and written accents
As in English, each Italian word has its stressed syllable, said louder and a little longer than the others, but the unstressed vowels keep their full sound. Most often the stress falls on the second-to-last syllable (casa, amico, giorno); in other words, on the third-to-last (tavolo, telefono, musica) or on the last (città). Writing marks the stress only on a final vowel: a word of more than one syllable stressed on its last vowel always has a written accent (città, caffè, perché, lunedì, però, più).
| Spelling | Sounds | Examples | Tip |
|---|---|---|---|
| à | /a/ | città | a stressed “ah” at the end of a word (città) |
| è | /ɛ/ | caffè | a stressed open “e”, as in “bed” (caffè); also the verb è (“is”) |
| é | /e/ | perché | a stressed closed “e”, between “e” in “bed” and “ay” in “day”, with no glide into “ee” (perché) |
| ì | /i/ | così | a stressed “ee” at the end of a word (così) |
| ò | /ɔ/ | però | a stressed open “o”, as in British “hot” (però) |
| ù | /u/ | più | a stressed “oo” at the end of a word (più) |
The written accent
The written accent is compulsory on the last vowel of words of more than one syllable stressed on that vowel (città, caffè) and on a few one-syllable words: più, può, già, giù, and those it tells apart from another word, such as è (“is”) and e (“and”), tè (“tea”) and te (“you”), sì (“yes”) and si (a pronoun), là (“there”) and la (an article). It is grave on à, ì, ò, ù and on the open è; it is acute on the closed é, notably in words ending in -ché (perché). Everywhere else, the stress is not written.
Difference from English
English never writes its stress, and an English speaker tends to drop the accent or to stress the wrong syllable, often the first: città is stressed on its last syllable. The accent is part of the spelling: without it, è becomes e (“and”) and tè becomes te (“you”). The apostrophe marks a dropped vowel, as in English “it's”: l’amico, un po’; it never replaces an accent.
- casahouse
- tavolotable
- cittàtown
- caffècoffee
- perchéwhy, because
Common mistakes
[taˈvolo]→ [ˈtavolo]tavolo is stressed on the first syllable.[ˈtʃitta]→ [tʃitˈta]The written accent of città shows that the last syllable is stressed.e un amico→ è un amicoThe verb è (“is”) has an accent; without it, e means “and”.
Capital letters. As in English, a capital marks the start of a sentence and proper names; but days, months and adjectives of nationality are written with a small letter, unlike in English: lunedì, gennaio, italiano. The pronoun io (“I”) is written with a small letter too.
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The silent h and the end of words
In English, a final e is usually silent (“name”, “come”); in Italian, most words end in a vowel, and that vowel is always said, clearly: pane has two syllables, and so has sole. A final consonant, in the few words that have one, is said too (con). The only silent letter is h.
| Spelling | Sounds | Examples | Tip |
|---|---|---|---|
| h | silent | ha hanno | never said: ha (“has”) sounds the same as a (“to”); it is used in ch and gh, in four forms of the verb avere (ho, hai, ha, hanno) and in loanwords (hotel) |
Difference from English
An English speaker tends to drop a final e or to say it like the “a” of “about”. In Italian, the final vowel is said in full, with its own sound: pane ends in a clear “e”, vino in a pure “o”, never in “oh-oo”. The h of hanno, hotel or ho is never breathed, unlike English h in “house”.
- panebread
- solesun
- conwith
- hannothey have
Common mistakes
[pan]→ [ˈpane]The final e of pane is always said.[ˈvinəʊ]→ [ˈvino]The final o of vino is pure, with no glide into “oo”.[ˈhanno]→ [ˈanno]The h of hanno is not said.
Practise
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In short
| Written | Said | Example |
|---|---|---|
| c, g before a, o, u | “k”, g of “go” | casa, gatto |
| c, g before e, i | “ch” of “church”, “j” of “jet” | cena, gelato |
| ci, gi before a vowel | “ch”, “j” | ciao, giorno |
| ch, gh | “k”, g of “go” | anche |
| sce, sci | “sh” of “ship” | pesce |
| sch | “sk” | schermo |
| gn | “ny” of “canyon” | bagno |
| gli | “lli” of “million” | figlio |
| z, zz | “ts” or “dz” | grazie, zero, pizza |
| qu | “kw” | quattro |
| u | “oo” of “food” | luna |
| r | rolled r | rosso |
| nn, tt, ss… | long consonant | nonno, gatto, rosso |
| stressed e, o | open or closed | bello, sera; nove, sole |
| final vowel | always said | pane |
| a, e, i, o, u | pure, never gliding | vino |
| on, an, in | the vowel, then a clearly said n | con |
| à, è, é, ì, ò, ù | stress on the last syllable | città, perché |
| h | silent | ha, hanno |