Introduction to Italian/Lesson 2

The Italian Alphabet
The Italian alphabet is very similar to the English alphabet:

Notice that it lacks the letters j, k, w, x, and y. These are "foreign letters" used only in loanwords.

It is important to notice that letters are all feminine nouns.

Vowel pronunciations
Each vowel has basically one pronunciation. They are as follows: a - pronounced roughly like the a in father or class, like the sound a dentist might have you make when you open your mouth wide. It is usually pronounced in a relaxed way, but hardens when an accent mark is added (à). e - pronounced like the e in pest or Edward. When it has an accent (è) it is pronounced like the a in plate or the ei in eight. i - pronounced like the ee in feed or the ea in peak. o - pronounced like the oa in boat or the oe in toe. u - pronounced like the o in to or who.

Note on accented vowels
In some languages accented letters are counted as their own letters (for instance, in Swedish the letter ä is considered different from the letter a). In Italian, à and è are just variations on a and e. So in a dictionary, the words ‘‘e’’ and ‘‘ è’’ will appear immediately after one another.

Consonant pronunciations
Most Italian consonants are pronounced the same as they are in English: