Spelling & Pronunciation

VOWELS

The Italian vowels are a, e, i, o, u. They are pronounced as follows:

Letter	Sound	As In	Example
a	ah	bah	cane (dog)
e	eh	bet	bene (well)
i	eeh	beet	vino (wine)
o	oh	bought	oro (gold)
u	ooh	boot	uso (use)

In words where the i and u come before or after another vowel (in the same syllable), they are pronounced instead as follows:

Letter	Sound	As In	Example
i	y	yes	ieri (yesterday)
i	y	say	mai (never)
u	w	way	uomo (man)
u	w	cow	causa (cause)

SINGLE CONSONANTS

Italian uses the Latin alphabet, which results in a language with only 21 letters, because the letters j, k, w, x and y only occur in Italian as part of words imported from other languages.

Additionally, the language has both single and double consonants. The pronunciation of single consonants is summarized in the chart below:

Letter	Sound	As In	Example
b	b	bat	bene (well)
c (before a, o, u)	k	cat	cane (dog)
ch (before e, i)			chi (who)
c (before e, i)	ch	chin	cena (dinner)
ci (before a, o, u)			ciao (hi/bye)
d	d	dip	dopo (after)
f	f	fair	fare (to do, make)
g (before a, o, u)	g	gas	gatto (cat)
gh (before e, i)			ghiaccio (ice)
g (before e, i)	j	gym	gente (people)
gi (before a, o, u)			giacca (jacket)
gli	ly	million	figlio (son)
gn	ny	canyon	bagno (bathroom)
l	l	love	latte (milk)
m	m	man	mano (hand)
n	n	name	nome (name)
p	p	pen	pane (bread)
q	k(w)	quick	qui (here)
r	r	brrrrr	rosso (red)
s (voiceless)	s	sip	sale (salt)
		spin	specchio (mirror)
s (voiced)	z	zip	casa (house)
			sbaglio (mistake)
sc (before a, o, u)	sk	skill	scuola (school)
sch (before e, i)			schema (scheme)
sc (before e, i)	sh	shave	scena (scene)
sci (before a, o, u)			sciarpa (scarf)
t	t	tent	tanto (much)
v	v	vine	vino (wine)
z	ts or ds	cats or lads	zio (uncle)

DOUBLE CONSONANTS

These are not sounded in English, even though double letters are often used (but they represent single consonant sounds).

The Italian double consonants last approximately twice as long as corresponding single ones and are pronounced with more intensity. They occur between vowels or between a vowel and l or r:

Example	Meaning
arrivederci	good-bye
basso	short
bello	beautiful
caffè	coffee
camminare	to walk
faccia	face
formaggio	cheese
mamma	mom
nonno	grandfather
occhio	eye
pizza	pizza

SPELLING PECULIARITIES

In general, there is a one-to-one correspondence between a sound and the letter (or letters) used to represent it. The main exceptions are as follows.

Words with a stressed final vowel are written with an accent mark on the vowel. The mark is usually grave. But in some words, especially those ending in -ché, the acute accent mark may be used.

Example	Meaning
caffè	coffee
città	city
perché	why, because
poiché	since

Words spelled with j, k, w, x, and y are words that Italians have adopted from other languages, especially English.

Example	Meaning
il jazz	jazz
il karatè	karate
il weekend	weekend

The letter h is used only in several present indicative tense forms of the verb avere (to have). It is always silent.

Example	Meaning
io ho	I have
tu hai	you have (familiar)
Lei ha	you have (polite)
lui / lei ha	he / she has
loro hanno	they have

As in English, capital letters are used at the beginning of sentences and to write proper nouns (names of people, countries, etc.). However, there are a few different conventions worth noting: the pronoun io (I), titles, months of the year, days of the week, and adjectives and nouns referring to languages and nationalities are not capitalized.

Example	Meaning
dottore	Dr.
professore	Professor
signora	Ms., Mrs.
cinese	Chinese
inglese	English
italiano	Italian
gennaio	January
settembre	September
ottobre	October
lunedì	Monday
martedì	Tuesday

On the other hand, the polite pronoun Lei (you) and other corresponding polite forms are capitalized (although this is optional).