A1 · Alphabet and pronunciation
The alphabet
Twenty-one letters, five guests and a silent h.
The Italian alphabet has twenty-one letters. Their names are a, bi, ci, di, e, effe, gi, acca, i, elle, emme, enne, o, pi, cu, erre, esse, ti, u, vu, zeta. For v you will also hear vi.
The vowel names are where English speakers trip when spelling aloud. Italian a is the ah of father, e is the eh of bed, and i is the ee of see. So the English names are traps: say the English letter E and an Italian writes i; say the English letter I and you get something that is not a letter at all.
Five letters are missing from the list because they only appear in foreign words and names: j (i lunga), k (cappa), w (doppia vu), x (ics) and y (ipsilon). You find them in jeans, kiwi, taxi and yogurt — never in a native Italian word.
The h is called acca and is never pronounced, not even at the start of a word as in hotel or house. It has two jobs: it appears in four forms of avere — ho, hai, ha, hanno — to keep them apart from other words, and it keeps c and g hard before e and i (see the third topic).
To ask how something is spelt you say Come si scrive? On the phone Italians spell with city names rather than words like alpha and bravo: A come Ancona, B come Bologna, C come Como, R come Roma, T come Torino. A double letter is due or doppia: Anna, con due enne.
The form
| the letters a to i | a, bi, ci, di, e, effe, gi, acca, i |
| the letters l to t | elle, emme, enne, o, pi, cu, erre, esse, ti |
| the letters u to z | u, vu, zeta |
| only in foreign words | i lunga, cappa, doppia vu, ics, ipsilon |
| How do you spell that? | Come si scrive? |
| R as in Rome, with two s's | R come Roma, con due esse |
The rules one by one
The form this topic is about
j, k, w, x and y only appear in foreign words.
Ho comprato un kiwi e uno yogurt.I bought a kiwi and a yoghurt.
The h is called acca and is always silent.
Io ho fame e lui ha sete.I am hungry and he is thirsty.
When spelling aloud, you give a city for each letter.
Rossi: R come Roma, poi O come Otranto.Rossi: R as in Rome, then O as in Otranto.
A double letter is spelt with due.
Mi chiamo Anna, con due enne.My name is Anna, with two n's.
How to spot it
- acca
- come
- due
- si scrive
Example sentences
Come si scrive il tuo cognome?How do you spell your surname?
Bianchi si scrive con l’acca dopo la ci.Bianchi is spelt with an h after the c.
In hotel l’acca non si sente.In hotel you don't hear the h.
Puoi ripetere l’ultima lettera, per favore?Can you repeat the last letter, please?
The trap English speakers fall into
Watch out
Because the h is silent, it is easy to leave it out when writing — and then you have written a different word. hannomeans they haveannomeans year; homeans I haveomeans or; hameans he hasameans to Spoken, each pair is identical; written, they are not. English has the same thing with hour and our, so the idea is not new — only here it happens in the commonest verb of the language.
You never hear the h, but you always write it.
Your turn
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