My Italian

How to pronounce consonants in Italian

Italian consonants are relatively easy to pronounce as they follow simple rules and there are no irregularities in spelling as there are in English.

The following consonants are pronounced as you would expect them to be:

b, d, f, l, m, n, p, s, q, t, v, x

However, these consonants are a little different:

c - is pronounced ‘k‘ if followed by a, he, hi, o, u. eg camera (room), colazione (breakfast), chiesa (church)
c - Is pronounced ‘ch‘ if followed by e, i.  eg cinzano, cena (dinner)
g - is pronounced as a hard ‘g’ if followed by a, he, hi, o, u. eg gara (race), gheppardo (leopard)
g - is pronounced j if followed by e, i eg giapponese (japanese) or gentile (kind)
h - is always silent
j - is pronounced ‘y
r - is always pronounced and doesn’t disappear when in between vowels as in English
z - is pronounced  ‘tz
k - doesn’t exist in Italian except in foreign imported words
w - doesn’t exist in Italian except in foreign imported words
y - doesn’t exist in Italian except in foreign imported words

Combinations of certain consonants:
gl - becomes ‘lly‘ as in famiglia
gn - becomes ‘ny‘ as in gnocchi
sc - becomes ‘sh‘ when followed by e or i eg sciarpa (scarf)

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