There are 21 letters in the Italian alphabet, 5 vowels and 16 consonants.
Italian is a phonetic language, meaning the words are typically pronounced as they are written.
There are seven vowel sounds in Italian: e and o have two differenct pronunciation each, depending on acute or grave accents.
Examples
- casa - kah-sah
- mela - may-lah
- festa - feh-stah
- dormire - dohr-mee-reh
- notte - noht-teh
- mondo - mawn-doh
- gufo - goo-foh - moon
In Italian, we can find semivowels i and u whenever another vowel follows them. In the cases, they become glides, and the first vowel appearing in the word is shorter and weaker than the second.
Examples
- aiuto - ah-you-toh - help
- quello - kweh-lo - that
Is when vowels u or i are in second position. In these cases, the sound is stronger on the first vowel and less prominent on the second.
Diphthong vowels are supposed to be pronounced together as one single syllable
- zaino - zah+ee-noh - backpack
- direi - dee-reh+ee
- poi - poh+ee - then, later
- lui - loo+ee - ele
- aumento - ah+oo-mehn-toh - increase