Italian Pronunciation Guide

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The standard contemporary Italian alphabet has 21 letters. Here is a quick reference guide to Italian pronunciation : choose the sound you want and follow the link to know more about it.

A	[a]	as in	antico ►IPod PG antico0
B	[b]	as in	banana ►IPod PG banana0
C	[k] or [tʃ]	as in	come ►IPOD PG come0 ciao ►IPod PG ciao0
D	[d]	as in	dolce ►IPod PG dolce0
E	[e] or [ɛ]	as in	elegante ►IPod PG elegante0 essere ►IPod PG essere0
F	[f]	as in	forte ►IPod PG forte0
G	[g] or [dʒ]	as in	guerra ►IPod PG guerra0 giorno ►IPod PG giorno0
H	silent	as in	hotel ►IPod PG hotel0
I	[i]	as in	isola ►IPod PG isola0
L	[l]	as in	letto ►IPod PG letto0
M	[m]	as in	Marco ►IPod PG marco0
N	[n]	as in	Napoli ►IPod PG napoli0
O	[o] or [ɔ]	as in	ombra ►IPod PG ombra0 olio ►IPod PG olio0
P	[p]	as in	piano ►IPod PG piano0
Q	[k]	as in	questo ►IPod PG questo0
R	[r]	as in	ridere ►IPod PG ridere0
S	[s] or [z]	as in	sempre ►IPod PG sempre0 cosa ►IPod PG cosa0
T	[t]	as in	tutto ►IPod PG tutto0
U	[u]	as in	ultimo ►IPod PG ultimo0
V	[v]	as in	Venezia ►IPod PG venezia0
Z	[dz] or [ts]	as in	zanzara ►IPod PG zanzara0 pozzo ►IPod PG pozzo0

The letters J, K, W, X and Y are not considered part of the standard Italian alphabet, but appear in borrowed words (jeans, whisky, and taxi..) and are pronounced as in English.

The pronunciation of Italian words can be said to follow a general rule of thumb: the stress falls on the second to last syllable. For example:

Pesca (peach): [pès-ca]
Finestra (window): [fi-nè-stra]

When words don't follow this rule, specifically when the stress falls on the last syllable, an accent mark will be used to indicate it. For example:

Città (city) : [cit-tà]
Caffè (coffee) : [caf-fè]

Of course there are exceptions to this rule! Words like:

Tavolo (table): [tà-vo-lo]
Napoli (Napoli): [Nà-po-li]

These words are unaccented, yet don't follow the general rule mentioned above.