Cómo empezar a aprender italiano
Como puedes imaginar, el primer paso para aprender un idioma es conocer su alfabeto. Repasemos el alfabeto italiano, letra por letra.
Por cierto, esta es la guía que más me ha ayudado a la hora de empezar a aprender italiano por mi cuenta 😉
Las letras con un asterisco (*) no pertenecen al alfabeto en sí, sino que representan diferentes sonidos que deben ser resaltados y tratados por separado.
Los símbolos de pronunciación son lo más precisos posible, pero recomiendo que escuches los audios para familiarizarte con los diferentes sonidos. Lo he grabado yo mismo en una pronunciación italiana (de Italia) lo más estándar posible.
Espero que te sea útil 😊
| Letter | Name | Pronunciation | Examples | Phonetics | Traduction |
| a | a | [a] as in arm. | appena | [ap’pena] | barely |
| à | grave a | Many monosyllabic words are spelled with an accent in order to avoid ambiguity with other words (e.g. là versus la). |
là | [la] | there |
| b | bi | [b] as in boy. | bambina | [bam’bina] | girl |
| c | kee | Represents the plosive [k] before ‘r’ and before the vowels ‘a – o – u’. It represents the affricate [tʃ] when it precedes a front vowel (‘i’ or ‘e’). |
cadere città |
[‘kadere] [tʃit,’ta] |
to fall city |
| ch* | – | [k] used before a front vowel (‘i’ or ‘e’). ‘che’ represents [ke] or [kɛ] and ‘chi’ represents [ki] or [kj]. |
chi chiamare |
[ki] [kja’mare] |
who to call |
| cch* | – | It indicates consonant dupliacation [kk] when it occurs before ‘i’ or ‘e’. |
occhi | [‘ɔk,’ki] | eyes |
| ci* | – | Unless ‘i’ is stressed it has no sound. For example, ‘cia – cio – ciu’ is spelled as [tʃɔ – tʃa – tʃu]. In words like CIA is pronounced as [tʃia] because ‘i’ is stressed. |
ciao | [tʃao] | hello / bye |
| d | di | [d] as in down. | dove | [‘dove] | where |
| e | ae | [e] as in red. | essere | [‘es,sere] | to be |
| è | grave ae | It may be used when it represents an open-mid vowel. The accents may also be used to differentiate homophone pairs within Italian (for example pèsca ‘peach’ vs. pésca ‘fishing’), but in practice this is limited to didactic texts.” |
c’è | [tʃe] | There is /are |
| é | acute ae | It represents close-mid vowel when it is stressed in a position other than the default second-to-last (penultimate) syllable. This use of accents is generally mandatory only to indicate stress on a word-final vowel; elsewhere, accents are generally found only in dictionaries. |
perché | [per’ke] | why |
| f | ef | [f] as in fight. | fare | [‘fa:re] | to do |
| g | dʒi | Represents the plosive [ɡ] before ‘r’ and before the vowels ‘a – o – u’. It represents the affricate [dʒ] when it precedes a front vowel (‘i’ or ‘e’). |
gatto genere |
[‘gat,to] [‘dʒenere] |
cat kind / sort |
| gh* | – | [g] used before a front vowel (‘i’ or ‘e’). ‘ghe’ represents [ge] or [gɛ] and ‘ghi’ represents [gi] or [gj]. |
ghiaccio ghepardo |
[‘gjatʃɔ] [gɛ’pardo] |
ice cheetah |
| ggh* | – | It indicates consonant dupliacation [gg] when it occurs before ‘i’ or ‘e’. |
agghindare | [ag,gin’dare] | to dress up |
| gi* | – | Unless ‘i’ is stressed it has no sound. For example, ‘gia – gio – giu’ is spelled as [dʒɔ – dʒa – dʒu]. |
gioco | [‘dʒɔko] | game |
| gl* | – | It represents palatal [ʎ] before ‘i’. Between vowels it is pronounced phonetically long [ʎʎ]. |
gli aglio |
[ʎi] [‘aʎ,ʎo] |
they garlic |
| gn* | – | It represents [ɲ] with any vowel following like ‘cognac’. Between vowels it is pronounced phonetically long [ɲɲ]. |
ogni | [‘oɲ,ɲi] | each |
| h | akka | It has no sound. | hanno | [‘an,no] | they have |
| i | ee | [i] as ‘ee’ in fee. | invece | [in’vetʃe] | instead |
| í* | acute ee | Many monosyllabic words are spelled with an accent in order to avoid ambiguity with other words. |
víola | [‘vi,ola] | violates |
| ì* | grave ee | It may be used when it represents an open-mid vowel. The accents may also be used to differentiate homophone pairs within Italian, but in practice this is limited to didactic texts. |
finì | [fi’ni] | He / She / It finished |
| î* | ee circumflex | Used to mark the contraction of two vowels, especially a double, final ‘ii’ may become ‘î’. For example, it can be used to differentiate words like geni (‘genes’, plural of gene) and genî (‘geniuses’, plural of genius). This is especially seen in older texts. |
genî | [dʒe’ni] | geniuses |
| j* | long ee | [j] used only in loanwords, proper names and archaisms, with few exceptions. |
jeans | [dʒeens] | jeans |
| k* | kappa | [k] used only in loanwords, proper names and archaisms, with few exceptions. |
kilo | [‘kilo] | kilo |
| l | elle | [l] In standard pronunciation [l] is always the alveolar, or ‘clear’ l of English ‘flee’, never the velar, or ‘dark’ l of English ‘cool’. |
lasciare | [la’ʃare] | to leave |
| m | emme | always silent in standard pronunciation. |
mettere | [‘met,tere] | to put into |
| n | enne | [i] Also used before or after a vowel to make different diphthongs. |
nonostante | [nonos’tante] | nevertheless |
| o | o | [o] as in poll. | olio | [‘olio] | oil |
| ó* | acute o | It represents close-mid vowel when it is stressed in a position other than the default second-to-last (penultimate) syllable. This use of accents is generally mandatory only to indicate stress on a word-final vowel; elsewhere, accents are generally found only in dictionaries. |
metró | [me’tro] | subway |
| ò* | grave o | It may be used when it represents an open-mid vowel. The accents may also be used to differentiate homophone pairs within Italian, but in practice this is limited to didactic texts. |
viòla | [‘vjola] | violet |
| p | pee | [p] as en peace. | potere | [‘potere] | can (to be able) |
| q | koo | [k] as in key. | quindi | [‘kwindi] | so… |
| cq* | – | [kk] as in key. | acqua | [‘ak,kwa] | water |
| r | erre | [r] as the Scottish rolled r in rock. | riuscire | [rju’ʃire] | to succeed |
| s | esse | s’ represents a dental sibilant consonant, either [s] or [z]. The voiceless ‘s’ occurs at the start of a word before a vowel (e.g. Sara ‘sara’) or a voiceless consonant (e.g. spuntare ‘spuntare’) The voiced ‘z’ occurs before voiced consonants (e.g. sbranare ‘zbranare’). ‘ss’ always represents voiceless [ss]. |
spuntare sbranare |
[spun’tare] [zbra’nare] |
to trim to tear apart |
| sc* | – | Used before ‘e’ and ‘i’ to represent [ʃ] (‘sh’). | discernere scialare |
[di’ʃernere] [ʃa’lare] |
to notice to waste (money) |
| sch* | – | [sk] as in skate. | schernire | [sker’nire] | to mock at |
| t | tee | [t] as in cat. | trovare | [tro’vare] | to find |
| u | oo | [oo] as in tool. | questo | [‘kwesto] | this |
| ú | acute oo | [oo] as in tool. It represents an ‘u’ carrying the tonic accent. It is used only if it is the last letter of the word except in dictionaries. As in piú (more refined variant of più). |
piú | [pju] | more |
| ù | grave oo | It may be used when it represents an open-mid vowel. The accents may also be used to differentiate homophone pairs within Italian, but in practice this is limited to didactic texts. |
più | [piu] | more |
| v | vi | [v] as in vice. | venire | [ve’nire] | to come |
| w* | doppia vi | [woo] used only in loanwords, proper names and archaisms, with few exceptions. |
whisky | [‘wiski] | whisky |
| x* | eex | [ks] used only in loanwords, proper names and archaisms, with few exceptions. |
xilofono | [ksi’lofono] | xylophone |
| y* | greca ee | [j] used only in loanwords, proper names and archaisms, with few exceptions. |
yoga | [‘yoga] | yoga |
| z | dzeta | Normally pronounced as [ts] at the start of a word in which the second syllable starts with a voiceless consonant. Also as [dz] at the start of a word in which the second syllable starts with a voiced consonant or ‘z’ or ‘zz’. ‘zz’ is generally voiceless [tts] but also [ddz]. |
zucchero zebra |
[‘tsuk,kero] [‘dzebra] |
sugar zebra |
