ITALIAN PHONETICS

The Alphabet, Spelling and Phonetic Conventions. Italian is a highly phonetic language. This means that each sound is (almost) always graphically represented by the same combination of letters (vowels and/or consonants.) Compare that with English where, as Bernard Shaw once famously said, the word "fish" could be written "ghoti": F as in enough; I as in women; SH as in the ending -tion.
ALFABETO / ALPHABET
Click the button to hear the sound of individual letters
Phonetic Conventions These pronunciation conventions are fixed. That means that every time you encounter these clusters, the pronunciation is always the same.
"C" and "G" The letter "C" has two different sounds, depending on the vowels that follow it:
	"K" sound: CASA, COMO, CUBO
	*Followed by A, O, U, "C" will have a hard sound* similar to English "K".**
	"K" sound: CHILO, ORCHESTRA
	*In order to obtain the hard sound* "K", when "C" is followed by the vowels E and I, the letter "H" is inserted.**

	"CH" sound: CENA, CINEMA
	*Followed by E, I, "C" will have a soft sound* similar to English "CH"**
	"CH" sound: CIAO, RANCIO, CIURMA
	*In order to obtain the soft sound* "CH", when "C" followed by the vowels A, O and U, the letter"I" is inserted.**

"GLI" It is probably the most difficult sound to produce for a non-native speaker.
	GLI, CONIGLI, MAGLIA, MOGLIE, MAGLIONE, LUGLIO
	In front of another vowel or in isolation, the cluster "GLI" is pronunced as in the soundfile examples.

	GLICINE, GLUCOSIO, GLOBO, GLABRO, INGLESE
	In front of a consonant, the letters are pronounced as separate entities..


"SCI, SCE" The sound corresponds to the English "Sh"
	SCIPPO, SCIAME, SCIOPERO, SCIUPARE, SCIENZA, FASCE
	Confront here with the sound "SK"
	SCHIFO, SCHERMA, SCATOLA, SCOPO, SCUSA