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 words, and in scientific or technical terms of foreign origin. Nowadays it is common to use the English alphabet instead of the Italian one.

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 26 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.

CLUSTERS OF LETTERS INSIDE THE SAME SYLLABLE

Some sounds do not have a specific letter, but a cluster of letters

GN: this cluster is always followed by a vowel and must be pronounced /ɲ/ (GNA /ɲa/, GNE /ɲe/, GNI /ɲi/, GNO /ɲo/, GNU /ɲu/). This cluster is prounced as /gn/ only in some technical or scientific terms. Notice that in rare cases syllable GNA must be spelled GNIA even if letter I is silent. (example: DISEGNIAMO, REGNIAMO etc.)

GLI: this cluster is always followed by vowel 'I' alone or 'I + other vowels' and must be pronounced /ʎ/ (GLIA (ʎa), GLIE (ʎe), GLI (ʎi) GLIO (ʎo), GLIU (ʎu). This cluster is pronounced as /gl/ almost only in technical or scientific terms

SCI/SCE: 'SC' plus soft vowels 'E' and 'I' is pronounced /ʃ/; to reproduce sound /ʃ/ before other vowels, letter 'I' must always be used (SCIA /ʃa/, SCE /ʃe/, SCI /ʃi/, SCIO /ʃo/ SCIU /ʃu/); notice that syllable SCE must sometimes be spelled SCIE even if its pronunciation does not change. (example: SCIENZA, SCIENZIATO, SCIENTIFICO etc.)

Accents and Diacritics

ACCENTS

Every language uses accents for different purposes and in different ways.

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.

As you can see, only E and O admit two types of accent: you should pick the grave accents on these vowels only when they are pronounced open /ɛ/ or /ɔ/, while you should use the acute accent when they are pronounced closed /e/ or /o/. For the other vowels only the grave accents is the correct one.

They are used:

- to distinguish 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)
• E -> "and" -- È -> it, she, he is (verb)

- to mark 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 you know you 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/

- to distinguish homograph words that only differs for the stress; NON mandatory for correct spelling

• ÀNCORA -> "anchor" -- ANCÓRA -> "one more time" or "again"
• PRÌNCIPI -> "princes" -- PRINCÌPI -> "principles"

In Italian the circumflex accent and the umlaut accent were used once but nowadays they are never used by Italians (with some very rare exceptions).

APOSTROPHE

The Italian language uses the apostrophe like French or English. It usually stands at the end of a word when some of the final letters are dropped for phonetic reasons.

L'AQUILA -> "L' " stands for "LA" in front of words beginning with a vowel

UN'OCA -> UN' stands for "UNA" in front of words beginning with a vowel

UN PO' -> PO' stands for "POCO": this is a very common Italian expression which can be translated as "a little, a bit"

TUTT'ALTRO -> TUTT' stands for "TUTTO"

C'È -> C' stands for "CI": This expression means "there is"

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
• https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/accento-grafico_(Enciclopedia-dell'Italiano)/

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

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