The Italian Alphabet, l’alfabeto italiano, has 21 letters. These letters are all shared by the English alphabet, but they are not pronounced the same way.
Below is an audio guide to the pronunciation of the letters of the Italian alphabet.
As you can see, the Italian alphabet looks exactly like the English one! However, the letters J, K, W, X and Y are rare in Italian.
Resources for further reading:
We have included them here, however you’ll find them most commonly used for loanwords - that is, words borrowed from other languages.
a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i, j, k, l, m, n, o, p, q, r, s, t, u, v, w, x, y, z
Below you can find the full alphabet, complete with audio for each individual letter so that you can get each sound down.
And after that, there's your Rocket Reinforcement activities - so don't forget to scroll to the very bottom!
A
Sounds like "a" in “cat”
B
Sounds like "bee"
C
Sounds like "chee" in “cheese”
D
Sounds like "dee" in “deep”
E
Sounds like "ey" in “they”
F
Sounds like "ef-eh"
G
Sounds like "gee"
H
Sounds like "ah-ca"
I
Sounds like "ee"
J
Sounds like "jay"
K
Sounds like "kappa"
L
Sounds like "el-eh"
M
Sounds like "em-eh"
N
Sounds like "en-eh"
O
Sounds like "oh"
P
Sounds like "pee"
Q
Sounds like "coo"
R
Sounds like "eh-reh"
S
Sounds like "es-eh"
T
Sounds like "tee"
U
Sounds like "oo"
V
Sounds like "vee"
W
Sounds like "doh-pia-voo"
X
Sounds like "eecks"
Y
Sounds like "eepsilon"
Z
Sounds like "dzay-tah"
Rocket Record lets you perfect your Italian pronunciation. Just listen to the native speaker audio and then use the microphone icon to record yourself. Once you’re done, you’ll get a score out of 100 on your pronunciation and can listen to your own audio playback. (Use a headset mic for best results.) Problems? Click here!
Now that we've been through all the letters, it's time to see if you can pronounce the following words:
amore
love
bambino
baby
cane
dog
dito
finger
estate
summer
fame
hunger
gufo
owl
hotel
hotel
idea
idea
jeans
jeans
koala
koala
latte
milk
madre
mother
naso
nose
odore
odor / smell
piede
foot
qualità
quality
rosso
red
sole
sun
terra
land / earth
uscita
exit
venerdì
Friday
wurstel
frankfurter
xenofobico
xenophobic
yogurt
yogurt
zio
uncle
That's probably enough pronunciation practice of the alphabet in Italian! With these Italian lessons, remember the more you listen, the more you'll be able to recognize words as they're spoken. Here are a few recommended Italian lessons to try next!
A presto! Maria DiLorenzi: Rocket Italian
Reinforce your learning from this lesson with the Rocket Reinforcement activities!