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The soundboard

Say every Italian sound with confidence.

Italian is spelled the way it sounds. Learn the sounds once and you can read anything out loud.

• A

  (ah)

  = sounds 'ah' — amore

  vowel: always 'ah', as in father

• B

  (bee)

  = sounds 'b' — bene

• C

  (chee)

  = 'k', or 'ch' before e/i — casa, ciao

• D

  (dee)

  = sounds 'd' — dove

• E

  (eh)

  = sounds 'eh' — espresso

  vowel: 'eh', as in bed

• F

  (ehf-feh)

  = sounds 'f' — formaggio

• G

  (jee)

  = hard 'g', or 'j' before e/i — gatto, gelato

• H

  (ahk-kah)

  = always silent — ho

• I

  (ee)

  = sounds 'ee' — isola

  vowel: 'ee', as in see

• L

  (ehl-leh)

  = sounds 'l' — latte

• M

  (ehm-meh)

  = sounds 'm' — mamma

• N

  (ehn-neh)

  = sounds 'n' — notte

• O

  (oh)

  = sounds 'oh' — oggi

  vowel: short and crisp

• P

  (pee)

  = sounds 'p' — pane

• Q

  (koo)

  = always 'kw' with u — quanto

• R

  (ehr-reh)

  = rolled 'r' — Roma

• S

  (ehs-seh)

  = 's' or 'z' — sole, rosa

• T

  (tee)

  = sounds 't' — treno

• U

  (oo)

  = sounds 'oo' — uva

  vowel: 'oo', as in food

• V

  (voo)

  = sounds 'v' — vino

• Z

  (dzeh-tah)

  = 'ts' or 'dz' — pizza, zero

• J K W X Y

  (ee loon-gah, kahp-pah, dohp-pyah voo, eeks, eep-see-lohn)

  = foreign letters — only in borrowed words

  not part of the 21-letter Italian alphabet

• ciao

  (chow)

  = hi

  C + e/i = 'ch'

• che

  (keh)

  = what

  CH + e/i = 'k'

• gelato

  (jeh-lah-toh)

  = ice cream

  G + e/i = 'j'

• spaghetti

  (spah-geht-tee)

  = spaghetti

  GH + e/i = hard 'g'

• figlio

  (fee-lyoh)

  = son

  GLI = 'lyee', like million

• bagno

  (bah-nyoh)

  = bathroom

  GN = 'ny', like canyon

• notte

  (noht-teh)

  = night

  double letters: hold the sound