Italian Alphabet & Letter Pronunciation Guide (2024)

The Italian alphabet (alfabeto italiano) is the foundation of the Italian language, so it is typically the very first thing you learn when you start taking Italian lessons online or in the classroom.

The Italian language is derived from Latin, and it is almost perfectly phonemic. That means you’ll find that this phonetic language has almost total correspondence between the sounds (phonemes) and the letters (graphemes).

So by learning the alphabet and its sounds, understanding the pronunciation of an Italian word tends to be very easy and logical even if you don’t know the meaning. Unlike the English language, where the correlation between sounds and letters is very weak, you may be able to pronounce Italian words correctly on the first attempt.

In this article, we will introduce you to the letters of the Italian alphabet and some basic Italian words to create a strong foundation for learning Italian. So, keep reading to learn more.

The Italian alphabet

This chart will help you learn the letters of the alphabet and their pronunciations. You can download our printable PDF for easy reference. There are 21 letters in the Italian alphabet — 5 vowels and 16 consonants. Letters j, k, w, x, and y are missing as they are only used in foreign words.

What are the Italian vowels?

The Italian alphabet includes five vowels (a, e, i, o, and u), just like in English – if we don’t count “y”, which is technically a consonant but often acts like a vowel. The vowels are pronounced very clearly, and they usually end words. There are seven vowel sounds in Italian: e and o have two different pronunciations each, depending on acute or grave accents.

Italian glides, semivowels and diphthongs

In addition to simple vowels, Italian has semivowels (or semi-consonants), diphthongs and glides. Pronunciation-wise, these are all similar to simple vowels but the difference lies in the structure of the syllables.

A semivowel is a sound pronounced similarly to a vowel that acts like a consonant. In Italian, we can find semivowels i and u (sounds [j] and [w]) whenever another vowel follows them. In these cases, they become glides, and the first vowel appearing in the word is shorter and weaker than the second. Let’s see some examples:

Diphthongs, on the other hand, are when the vowels u or i are combined with another vowel, making the sound of one single syllable. The vowels u and i can be combined with each other, so either the i or u may remain unstressed. There are two categories of diphthongs:

Falling diphthong (dittongo discendente) is when vowels u or i are in second position. In these cases, the sound is stronger on the first vowel and less prominent on the second. Remember that the diphthong vowels are supposed to be pronounced together as one single syllable.

Rising diphthong (dittongo ascendente) is when vowels u or i are in first position. In these cases, the sound is weaker on the first vowel and more prominent on the second one. Here are some examples:

How do Italian accent marks change pronunciation?

Italian words can only have accents on vowels, not consonants. Accents can be either tonic or graphic. Tonic accents aren’t written. You can hear them by listening to what part of a word is stressed. For example, there’s a tonic accent on the nain nation. Graphic accents are clearly written. There are two types, acute and grave, and they change the pronunciation of the vowel:

• Acute accent: close sound, accent mark leaning to the right [´]
• Grave accent: open sound, accent mark leaning to the left [`]

Be careful: Pronouncing the same word with different accents might change its meaning!

Acute accent

The acute accent [´] is used for closed vowel sounds, where the lips are close together. The Italian language uses the acute accent on letters e and sometimes on o (é and ó). Try to pronounce the English word “state.” The a sound is similar to the sound of an acute accent on vowel e.

The acute accent indicates a long vowel sound, for instance: perché, “because,” or “why” (pehr-keh).

Sometimes, acute accent distinguishes words that have different meanings but are written in the same way, for instance: credé, “he believed” (kreh-deh) and crede, “he believes” (kreh-deh).

Grave accent

The grave accent [`] is used for open sounds of vowel e and o (è, ò), pronounced with spread lips, and for all the other vowels (à, ì, ù), where mouth can be either more open or closed, and it doesn’t impact the pronunciation. Try to pronounce the English word “hello:” the e sound is the sound of a grave accent on vowel e.

Grave accents are certainly more common, and they want the last syllable to be emphasized, for instance: città, “city” (cheet-tah), caffè, “coffee” (kahf-feh), lunedì, “Monday” (loo-neh-dee).

The grave accent indicates a short vowel sound, for instance: virtù, “virtue” (veer-too), and perciò, “therefore” (pehr-choh).

Sometimes, just like the acute accent, the grave accent distinguishes words that have different meanings but are spelled the same. For instance: saltò, “he jumped” (sahl-toh) and salto, “I jump” (sahl-toh).

What are the Italian consonants?

The Italian alphabet includes 16 consonants (b, c, d, f, g, h, l, m, n, p, q, r, s, t, v, and z), but 21 are the total consonant sounds pronounced.

Compared to vowels, where the air stream meets no obstruction in the mouth whenever pronounced, consonants are categorized depending on the type of the obstruction to the flow of air coming out of the mouth. Italian has six different categories for consonants: plosive, fricative, vibrant, lateral, affricate, and nasal.

Italian plosive consonants

A plosive consonant means that the flow of air meets complete obstruction when the consonant is pronounced, and then it is quickly released in a sort of explosion. There are six sounds associated with plosive consonants: [b], [d], [g], [k], [p], [t] which are created from the following letters and letter combinations:

• B + a, e, i, o, u
• D + a, e, i, o, u
• G + a, he, hi, o, u
• C + a, he, hi, o, u
• P + a, e, i, o, u
• T + a, e, i, o, u

Here are some examples to clarify the pronunciation of plosive consonants:

Italian fricative consonants

Fricative consonants are sounds made by squeezing the air between a small gap as it leaves your mouth. Unlike the plosive consonants, the air flow here meets an incomplete obstruction. The sounds associated with fricative consonants are five: [f], [v], [s], [z], [ʃ], created from the following letters and letter combinations:

• F + a, e, i, o, u
• S + a, e, i, o, u
• SC + ia, e, i, io, iu
• V + a, e, i, o, u
• Z + a, e, i, o, u

Please note that the fricative sound /sc/ is soft whenever followed by letters listed above, like the English /sh/ of the word “sharp.” Let’s see some examples:

Italian vibrant consonants

Vibrant consonants are also called trills. The Italian vibrant consonant is represented by the trilled r that has no equivalent in English. For example, sera (seh-rah), which means evening.

Italian lateral consonants

Lateral consonants are sounds where the air stream meets only one obstruction in the middle of the mouth, but it still escapes via the sides. There are two Italian lateral consonant sounds: [l] and [ʎ].

The lateral sound [ʎ] is very particular and doesn’t exist in English. Whenever followed by the vowel i (with a few exceptions!), [ʎ] is soft, and it has to be pronounced with the tip of the tongue pushing against the palate while the air flows from the side of the tongue (similar to the English sound [l] followed by letter y in the word you).

Italian affricate consonants

Affricate consonants are a combination of plosives and fricatives: first, a complete obstruction, then a continuous stream of air. There are four affricate sounds:

Italian nasal consonants

Nasal consonants are the ones where the velum is lowered and the air escapes through the nose, instead of the mouth. Nasal consonants in Italian are n and m, which make the following three sounds:

In English, there is no equivalent of the Italian soft sound /gn/, but it is very similar to the word “onion” or to the Spanish /ñ/, as in mañana.

What are the special Italian pronunciation rules?

In addition to the above consonant classification, there are some special pronunciation rules that are very common to find and are important to keep in mind when you learn Italian.

Double consonants

Double consonants are the same consonant repeated twice, and there is a big difference in sound between a single or a double consonant: the double one is longer and more stressed.

Here’s a tip for your pronunciation: to make a double consonant sound longer, you can also shorten the pronunciation on the vowel before it. Every consonant can be doubled, except for silent h and the q, which is extremely rare. The only word with double q is soqquadro, “mess” (sohk-koo-ah-droh). Some examples: tetto (teht-toh) meaning roof and sasso (sahs-saw) meaning stone.

Hard and soft pronunciation of c and g

C pronunciations

The hard pronunciation of letter c occurs when it is followed by the vowels a, o, u or consonants, and also when it is followed by letter h with vowels e and i (che, chi). For example, amiche (ah-mee-keh) meaning female friends and cuore (koo-oh-reh) meaning heart.

The soft pronunciation of letter c occurs when it is followed by the vowel e or i (ce, ci). For example dolce (dohl-cheh) meaning sweet/cake and cibo (chee-boh) meaning food.

G pronunciations

The hard pronunciation of letter g occurs when it is followed by the vowels a, o, u or consonants, and also when it is followed by letter h and vowels e and i (ghe, ghi). For example, ghiro (ghee-raw) meaning dormouse.

The soft pronunciation of letter g occurs when it is followed by the vowel e or i (ge, gi). These combinations are similar to the English sound /j/. For example, gelato (jeh-lah-toh) meaning ice cream and magico (mah-jee-koh) meaning magic.

The silent h

As mentioned above, the h modifies the pronunciation of letter c and g, whenever it follows them. However, sometimes it appears in front of a word, and in that case, the h is totally silent like in hanno (ahn-noh) meaning they have.

The Italian r

Italian r has two slightly different pronunciations. One is trilled and more stressed, and it occurs when it is at the beginning of the word and precedes or follows a consonant or when doubled. For example, Roma (roh-mah) or Rome.

The other one is flipped – so slightly softer and gentler – and it occurs when it is preceded and followed by vowels. For example, mare (mah-reh) meaning sea.

S and z sounds

Consonants s and z can make two sounds: One is voiced, one is unvoiced. You will recognize them just by touching your throat. If you feel vibration, they are voiced. If you don’t, they are unvoiced. So, the s is pronounced just like the z when between two vowels or if it comes before a voiced consonant.

What are the 5 letters missing in the Italian alphabet?

Compared to the English alphabet, which has 26 letters, five are missing in the Italian one: j, k, w, x, and y. These letters have not been officially included in the Italian alphabet, and their English sounds are reproduced by other letters, such as ch, which is the same as the English k.

These five missing letters are still used for all the foreign words that Italians adopted in their common speech from other languages, for instance:

Turn theory into practice with Preply

Language learning typically begins with the most basic foundation – the ABCs – and Italian is no different. Once you understand how to pronounce the Italian alphabet, you will be able to sound out most Italian words on your own.

However, putting what you’ve learned in theory into practice is vital, and the best way to do this is speaking with a native Italian tutor on Preply.

A professional tutor can help you with the basics, like pronunciation and the alphabet, but they will also give you the confidence to start speaking from the beginning of your Italian learning journey.

Lessons on Preply start from $10 per hour, and if you’re not satisfied with your first lesson, you can choose a new tutor for free or get a full refund. So, check out our list of Italian tutors and take your first steps to fluency today.