The Italian alphabet is fairly similar to our own (English, or depending on where you’re from, American). The letters K,J,W,X,Y occur only in foreign origin words. Each lesson will explain a few more letters. This week, I’ll explain the interesting letters (or combinations thereof) from this week’s words (above).

gli

The gli (followed or not by another vowel) in Italian is pronounced more or less as ll in Spanish

However there are words like glicine (flower name), negligente, anglicano in which, for etymological reasons, g and l are pronounced as two separate sounds as in English.

Thus, the Italian word coniglio (rabbit) is pronounced like conihlyo. and the word conigli (rabbits) is pronounced like conihli.

gn

The gn is the same sound as Spanish ? i.e. is the same sound as the ny pair in the word canyon.

Thus, signore is pronounced like sin-yore.

h

The Italian h is always silent and as such an Italian speaker won’t pronounce it when it occurs in foreign origin words (e.g. hotel). Moreover the letter h in Italian occurs only in the groups ch and gh (see below) and in the present tense of the verb to have. Thus, ho ( [I] have ) is pronounced o and hanno ( [they] have) is pronounced anno, the same as the word anno (year).