Italian Alphabet #

The Italian alphabet has 21 letters. Here’s a breakdown with pronunciation examples, Italian-style letter names, and notes:

Letter	Pronunciation Example	Italian Name	Notes
A	as in amore	a	Love
B	as in bello	bi	Beautiful
C	as in cane (dog) or ciao (hello)	ci	Hard before A, O, U; soft before E, I
D	as in donna	di	Woman
E	as in elefante	e	Elephant; closed E in stressed syllables (e.g., perché), open E in unstressed ones (e.g., bene)
F	as in fatto	effe	Done
G	as in gatto (cat) or gioco (game)	gi	Hard before A, O, U; soft before E, I
H	Silent in Italian	acca	Used in borrowed words like hotel
I	as in isola	i	Island
L	as in luna	elle	Moon
M	as in mare	emme	Sea
N	as in notte	enne	Night
O	as in orologio	o	Clock; closed O in stressed syllables (e.g., osso), open O in unstressed ones (e.g., molto)
P	as in pane	pi	Bread
Q	as in quadro	cu	Painting
R	as in rosso	erre	Red; rolled pronunciation is typical in Italian
S	as in sole	esse	Sun; voiced /z/ sound often occurs between vowels (e.g., casa)
T	as in tavolo	ti	Table
U	as in uva	u	Grapes
V	as in vino	vi/vu	Wine; vi or vu can be used depending on context
Z	as in zebra	zeta	Can sound like ’ts’ in zucchero or ‘dz’ in mezzo

These letters appear in borrowed words:

Letter	Example Words	Italian Name	Notes
J	jeans, Juventus	i lunga	Rare, typically used in foreign or archaic words.
K	kiwi, ketchup	kappa	Found in loanwords.
W	whisky, wafer	vu doppia	Pronounced /v/ in some words and /w/ in others, depending on the origin.
X	xilofono (xylophone)	ics	Common in scientific or borrowed terms.
Y	yogurt, yacht	ipsilon	Found in borrowed words.

Double consonants: Pronounce both sounds distinctly. For example, palla (ball) has a stronger /ll/ than pala (shovel).
Vowels: Italian vowels are consistent and always pronounced. Compare this to English, where vowels can have multiple sounds.
R: Roll it for the classic Italian flair! Practice with words like rosso or arrivederci.

Enjoy practicing the Italian alphabet, and remember: a, bi, ci… sei pronto? (a, b, c… are you ready?) 😊