Pronouncing Italian

Without Knowing Any Italian

(Generally More Than You Actually Need To Know)

Overview

The Absolute Minimum to Remember:
CH is pronounced like our K.
C before I or E is pronounced like our CH.
The G before L or N is silent, merely softening the L or N.

Italian probably ties with Spanish as the foreign language that is easiest for Americans to pronounce recognizably.

Consonants

Italian has long and short consonants. Basically, the long ones are written double and held longer when speaking. For a digraph like CH (pronounced K), only the first letter is doubled (CCH, still pronounced K). Don’t worry about it.

Most consonants are similar to English, but here are a few to pay attention to:

Letter	Sound	Example
C before E or I	CH	Gucci
CH	K	chianti
C elsewhere	K	casa
GN	NY (like Spanish Ñ)	Romagna (ro-MA-nya)
GL	LY	Modigliani (mo-di-LYA-ni)
G before E or I	soft G	gelato (djeh-LA-to)
G elsewhere (including before H)	hard G	Gucci (GU-chi)
S between vowels or before an unvoiced consonant	like English Z	rosa, museo (RO-zah, moo-ZAY-oh)
SC before I or E	like English SH	scienza (shee-EN-tsa = science)
Z	TS	pizza, piazza( (PEET-tsa, PYAT-sa)

Because I and E signal that G and C are “soft,” their job is sometimes done when that has been accomplished and they are scarcely pronounced as vowels at that point, or even as vowel glides: Ciao = hello/goodbye, for example, usually comes out simply like the CHOW in English “chowder.”

Vowels

Italian's five written vowels are like ours, but their pronunciation is easier. There are differences between long and short vowels, but they are unlikely to bother you. In general, the following will work fine:

Letter	Long Sound	Short Sound
A	A as in father	A as in father
E	A as in mate	E as in met
I	I as in machine	I as in mint
O	O as in glow	O as in glow
U	OO as in cool	OO as in cool

When two vowels come together, they tend to glide into each other. Don't be surprised, and don't worry about it.

(Italian also has long and short consonants, indicated in the spelling because the long ones are doubled: pane = bread vs panne = breakdown or tono = tune vs tonno = tuna-fish. This gives spoken Italian a very distinctive rhythm, but rarely affects understanding if you get it wrong. When the "long" consonant is a stop, it is spoken with a short pause --called a geminate-- before the release: patos = pathos vs patto = pact.)

Stress

Stress follows rules in Italian, but they are rarely obvious from the spelling. Follow your instincts and you will be right lots of the time. If you hear somebody else do something different, go with that till you have reason to think it is wrong.

Now you know.

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