Italian Letters

Italian Vowel Letters

The Italian alphabet has 5 basic vowel letters: a, e, i, o, u. Italian vowels are pure sounds and are pronounced consistently, making Italian pronunciation relatively straightforward ^[1].

Italian Accented Vowel Letters

Italian uses 7 accented vowel letters: à, è, é, ì, ò, ó, ù (and their uppercase forms). These accents indicate stress and help distinguish words with different meanings. The grave accent (`) is most common ^[1].

Italian Double Consonants

Italian uses double consonants (consonanti doppie) which significantly affect pronunciation and meaning. Examples include bb, cc, dd, ff, gg, ll, mm, nn, pp, rr, ss, tt ^[3].

The difference between single and double consonants can change word meanings entirely.

Italian Digraphs

Italian uses digraphs (two-letter combinations) that represent single sounds: ch (sounds like "k"), gh (hard "g"), gl (palatalised "l"), gn (like Spanish "ñ"), and sc (can be "sk" or "sh") ^[3].

These digraphs are essential for proper Italian pronunciation.

Italian Consonant Letters

Italian has 16 native consonant letters ^[1]. The letters J, K, W, X, Y are used mainly in loan words from other languages ^[3].

Italian consonants are generally pronounced as written, contributing to the language's phonetic nature.

Special Characters in Italian

Italian writing uses punctuation marks and symbols including period (.), comma (,), question mark (?), exclamation (!), apostrophe ('), and Italian quotation marks (« »). The Euro symbol (€) is also commonly used ^[1].

Italian punctuation follows similar rules to other Romance languages.

Digits in Italian

Italian uses the standard Arabic numerals 0–9, with Italian number names: zero, uno, due, tre, quattro, cinque, sei, sette, otto, nove ^[1].

Like many European languages, Italian uses a comma (,) as the decimal separator ^[1].

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)