Italian IPA

Every sound of standard Italian, written in IPA: seven vowels, the consonants, the double consonants that change a word's meaning, the one syllable-linking habit worth knowing, and where stress falls. Each symbol comes with an Italian example and the nearest English sound.

For the spelling rules behind these sounds, see the Italian alphabet page. For a hands-on tour of the whole chart, the IPA course has interactive charts you can play with.

Italian spelling is one of the friendliest in Europe. The IPA still earns its place in four spots: the open and closed e and o, the double consonants, the letter pairs that change sound before e and i, and stress, which Italian does not write down.

The seven vowels

Italian has five vowel letters and seven vowel sounds. The extra two come from e and o, which each have a closed and an open version.

The phrase to hold on to is "pure". English "go" and "say" glide ([əʊ] or [oʊ], and [eɪ]). Italian /o/ and /e/ start and end in the same place. Of all the changes you can make, dropping the glide does the most to stop you sounding English.

Open and closed e and o

Only stressed syllables carry the open/closed split, and the spelling does not tell you which is which. Both are written e, and both o. Dictionaries mark it with the IPA symbol. A few pairs where it changes the word:

These pairs are rare. Most words have a default that you absorb with listening.

The only place spelling shows the difference is a written accent on a final stressed vowel: the grave è is open /ɛ/, as in è (is) and caffè /kafˈfɛ/, and the acute é is closed /e/, as in perché /perˈke/. A final ò is always open: può /pwɔ/.

Unstressed vowels: five, not seven

In unstressed syllables the open/closed contrast disappears. Only /i e a o u/ are possible there. Compare a stressed and an unstressed version of the same root:

• bello /ˈbɛllo/, beautiful, with open /ɛ/.
• bellezza /belˈlettsa/, beauty, where the same e is now unstressed and closed /e/.
• otto /ˈɔtto/, eight, with open /ɔ/.
• ottobre /otˈtobre/, October, where the o is now unstressed and closed /o/.

Unlike English, Italian does not reduce unstressed vowels to a schwa. Casa has two full /a/ sounds. The "a" in banana is /a/ three times, every time. This is a large part of why Italian sounds so clear to a learner's ear.

Diphthongs and glides

Italian has two glides, /j/ (as in "yes") and /w/ (as in "we"). They sit next to a vowel to make what spelling calls a diphthong: piano /ˈpjano/, uomo /ˈwɔmo/, quando /ˈkwando/, più /pju/. When the i or u is stressed, it stays a vowel and the syllables separate: zio /ˈtsio/ and mio /ˈmio/ are two syllables each, with a vowel and no glide.

The consonants

Most Italian consonants are close to English ones. The ones worth studying are the letters that change sound before e and i, the palatals, and the doubles.

Stops

Italian /p t k/ are unaspirated, as in Spanish and French. Hold a sheet of paper in front of your mouth: English "pen" flutters it, Italian pane /ˈpane/ barely moves it.

Hard and soft c and g

This is the most important spelling-to-sound rule in Italian, and the only one that regularly trips beginners.

In IPA: cena /ˈtʃena/ (dinner), gelato /dʒeˈlato/, che /ke/ (that, what), spaghetti /spaˈɡetti/. The /tʃ/ is the "ch" of "church", and /dʒ/ is the "j" of "judge".

The consequence shows up in plurals, where the sound stays hard or soft by changing the spelling: amico /aˈmiko/ becomes amici /aˈmitʃi/, while lago /ˈlaɡo/ becomes laghi /ˈlaɡi/ with an inserted h to keep the g hard.

A silent i sometimes sits between c or g and a back vowel purely to signal softness: ciao /ˈtʃao/, arancia /aˈrantʃa/, pioggia /ˈpjɔddʒa/. The i is not pronounced.

Fricatives and affricates

The letter sc works like c and g. Before e and i it is /ʃ/: scena /ˈʃɛna/ (scene), pesce /ˈpeʃʃe/ (fish). Before a, o, u it is /sk/: scuola /ˈskwɔla/. To keep the hard sound before e and i, spell sch: schiena /ˈskjɛna/ (back).

The letter z is two sounds with one spelling, and there is no reliable rule. Zio /ˈtsio/ takes /ts/. Zero /ˈdzɛro/ takes /dz/. Learn each word as you meet it. The good news is that Italians themselves vary, and the difference rarely matters for being understood.

In the middle of a word between vowels, z is always long: grazie /ˈɡrattsje/, pizza /ˈpittsa/, mezzo /ˈmɛddzo/.

The letter s has two sounds. At the start of a word before a vowel, and next to another consonant, it is /s/ (sole /ˈsole/, sera /ˈsera/). Before a voiced consonant it is /z/: sbaglio /ˈzbaʎʎo/. Between two vowels it depends on where you are. The dictionary standard follows Tuscan, which decides word by word: /s/ in casa /ˈkasa/ and cosa /ˈkɔsa/, /z/ in rosa /ˈrɔza/. Northern speakers say /z/ in every one (casa [ˈkaza]), and much of the centre and south says /s/ in every one.

This site's word pages follow the dictionary. All three habits are everyday Italian and almost never change a meaning, so pick one and keep it.

Nasals

The gn is one sound, not "n" then "y": gnocchi /ˈɲɔkki/, ogni /ˈoɲɲi/. Between vowels it is always long, so ogni takes a held nasal. If you say /n/ followed by /j/ nobody is lost, but the real thing is a single movement of the tongue body against the hard palate.

Liquids and glides

Gli is the other palatal. Figlio /ˈfiʎʎo/ (son) and famiglia /faˈmiʎʎa/ (family) show it: the middle of the tongue presses against the hard palate while it makes an "l". It is always long between vowels. The one common exception is gli the article at the start of a phrase, with no vowel before it, where it is short: gli amici /ʎi aˈmitʃi/.

H is never pronounced. Ho /ɔ/ (I have) is just an open o. In Italian, h only works as a spelling device: it keeps c and g hard (chi, ghiro), and it separates the forms of avere (ho, hai, ha, hanno) from other words.

The Italian r

Italian has one r phoneme, /r/, and it is a rolled sound made with the tip of the tongue against the ridge behind the upper teeth. A single r between vowels is often just one flick of the tongue, a tap [ɾ], very close to the American "t" in "butter". A single r elsewhere, at the start of a word for instance, is usually a short trill of one or two beats. A double rr is a full trill with several beats, held longer.

The pair to drill is caro /ˈkaro/ (dear) against carro /ˈkarro/ (cart). The difference is length: one tap against a held trill. It is not two phonemes the way it is in Spanish.

A tap in place of a trill is a mark of accent and not much more, but the double rr counts as a double consonant and should be held. ::callout{type="tip" title="Cannot trill yet"} Many learners cannot trill at first, and that is a normal place to start. Say the word with a tap, hold it a little longer, and you are already right about what matters, which is the length. ::

Double consonants

In Italian, double consonants are not a spelling decoration. They are pronounced as length: the consonant is held for roughly twice as long as a single one, with a pause of silence inside it for the stops.

Most Italian consonants can be double, and the doubles have to be pronounced.

The trick is to think of it as two beats: pal-la, with the tongue on the l for the whole of the first beat.

Five sounds are always long between vowels, even when written once: /ʃ ʎ ɲ ts dz/. So pesce /ˈpeʃʃe/, figlio /ˈfiʎʎo/, ogni /ˈoɲɲi/ and grazie /ˈɡrattsje/ all take the long form without a double letter in the spelling. In IPA the length is shown by writing the symbol twice, as in this page, or sometimes with the length mark /ː/.

The vowel before also shifts in length. In an open stressed syllable the vowel is long (casa [ˈkaːsa]), and before a double consonant it is short (cassa [ˈkassa]). You do not have to practise it separately. If you hold the consonant, the vowel shortens by itself.

Because the length is predictable, the word pages do not mark it: they write casa /ˈkasa/, as learner dictionaries do, and show length only on the double consonants, written twice as in cassa /ˈkassa/.

Raddoppiamento sintattico

This is the habit you will hear but not see: after certain words, the first consonant of the next word is pronounced double. It is called raddoppiamento sintattico (syntactic doubling) and it is not written in ordinary Italian.

• a casa (at home): [a kˈkasa], said as if "akkasa".
• e poi (and then): [e pˈpɔi].
• va bene (it's fine): [va bˈbɛne].
• così bene (so well): [koˈsi bˈbɛne].

It happens after a small group of words: stressed final vowels (città bella, perché no), many one-syllable words (a, da, e, o, ma, tra, che, tre, più), and a few others. It is a feature of central and southern Italian, and standard in Tuscan and Roman speech. In much of the north it is weaker or missing, and no one will think you are wrong either way.

As a learner, you do not need to produce it. It helps with listening: if you hear "akkasa" and cannot find the word, this is why. It is also a good reason to learn the doubled consonants early: once your ear expects length, this stops being strange.

Stress

Italian stress is not written in ordinary words, but it follows tendencies. In IPA the mark /ˈ/ goes before the stressed syllable.

Words stressed on the last syllable are the one case where the spelling helps: a written accent (à è é ì ò ù) marks them, as in università /universiˈta/, più /pju/, può /pwɔ/, già /dʒa/. Accents also appear on some one-syllable words to tell them apart from a twin: è (is) against e (and), sì (yes) against si (oneself), là (there) against la (the).

Stress matters because it changes words and it is not written. A few pairs:

• papa /ˈpapa/ (pope) against papà /paˈpa/ (dad).
• àncora /ˈaŋkora/ (anchor) against ancóra /aŋˈkora/ (still, again).
• capitano /kapiˈtano/ (captain) against càpitano /ˈkapitano/ (they happen).

In the second and third pairs, the accent only appears in a dictionary or teaching text. In ordinary writing they are just ancora and capitano. You find the right one from the sentence.

Verbs follow the same logic: learn where the stress sits in each form and keep it with the word. Telefono /teˈlɛfono/ (telephone) is stressed on the third syllable from the end, but telefonò /telefoˈnɔ/ (he or she phoned) is stressed on the last, and the accent shows it.

Regional variation

Standard Italian is based on educated Tuscan, and no region speaks it purely. The differences you will actually meet:

• Open and closed e and o. The dictionary pattern is Tuscan-based. Northern and southern speakers keep seven vowels but often disagree with it on which words take the open one, and in Sicily and Sardinia the contrast is weak or gone. The five-vowel version is perfectly intelligible.
• The s between vowels. The north says [z] in every case (casa [ˈkaza]), much of the centre and south says [s] (casa [ˈkasa]), and Tuscany, which the dictionaries follow, splits word by word (casa /ˈkasa/ but rosa /ˈrɔza/). All three are everyday Italian.
• Doubling. Raddoppiamento is strong in Rome and the south, weaker in the north.
• Tuscan "c". In Florence and much of Tuscany, a /k/ between vowels softens to a breathy [h], even across words, so "la casa" comes out as something like "la hasa". This is the gorgia toscana; t and p soften the same way, less famously. It is local, and not the standard.

For learners the sensible target is a neutral, clear Italian: seven vowels if you can hear them, five if you cannot, long doubles, and stress in the right place. Those four things cover most of what a listener hears.

Why IPA is worth the half-hour

Italian spelling is regular enough that you can read most words aloud on day one. The IPA is for the things the spelling hides: open and closed vowels, the length of doubles, which syllable carries the stress, and whether the z is /ts/ or /dz/. A dictionary entry like zero /ˈdzɛro/ or bello /ˈbɛllo/ answers all four at once.

Start with the Italian alphabet for the letter-to-sound rules, then use the IPA course and its charts to hear the symbols. After that, the sounds in this page should read as a short list, not a puzzle.