Italian › Pronunciation › Alphabet
In short: the Italian alphabet has just 21 letters — no j, k, w, x or y. Below, every letter is spoken the way Italians actually spell aloud: with city names — A come Ancona, B come Bologna, R come Roma. Learn the alphabet, get a tour of Italy free. 👇
R, come Roma
the rolled Italian R — the sound of the whole country
All 21 letters — the city-name way
| Letter | Its name / sound | Example | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| A | ah | Ancona | |
| B | bee | Bologna | |
| C | chee — as in “cheese” | Como | |
| D | dee | Domodossola | |
| E | eh | Empoli | |
| F | EF-feh | Firenze | |
| G | jee | Genova | |
| H | AH-kah — always silent! ⭐ | Hotel | |
| I | ee | Imola | |
| L | EL-leh | Livorno | |
| M | EM-meh | Milano | |
| N | EN-neh | Napoli | |
| O | oh | Otranto | |
| P | pee | Palermo | |
| Q | koo | Quarto | |
| R | ER-reh — rolled ⭐ | Roma | |
| S | ES-seh | Savona | |
| T | tee | Torino | |
| U | oo | Udine | |
| V | voo | Venezia | |
| Z | DZEH-tah | Zara |
💡 The golden rules: c before i/e is “ch” (ciao = chow), but ch is “k” (chianti = kee-AHN-tee). Same for g: gi is “j” (Giovanni), gh is hard g (spaghetti). Master those two pairs and you can pronounce almost any Italian word on sight.
The five missing letters
J, k, w, x and y only visit Italian inside borrowed words — jeans, weekend, taxi, yogurt. Italians pronounce them the foreign way and move on. This is why Italian spelling is so learner-friendly: 21 letters, nearly one sound each, no surprises like English “though/tough/through”.
🇮🇹 The telephone alphabet: spelling your name at an Italian hotel desk? Do it the local way: “M come Milano, A come Ancona, R come Roma…” The receptionist will visibly upgrade their opinion of you. It’s the most charming spelling system in Europe — and now it’s yours.
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Practice: quick check
1. How do you pronounce “bruschetta”?
broo-SKET-tah — the ch says “k”! The h hardens the c. Order it right and you’ll be understood perfectly — and maybe earn a small nod.
2. Spell “Nathan” the Italian phone way…
N come Napoli , A come Ancona , T come Torino , H come Hotel , A come Ancona, N come Napoli. Congratulations — you’re operational in any Italian office.
3. Why is “gnocchi” not “guh-nocky”?
Italian gn is the soft “ny” of “canyon” — NYOK-kee. And the ch keeps the c hard . One brand-new sound (gn = “ny”) plus the hard-c rule from the tip above — one perfectly ordered dinner.
Frequently asked questions
How many letters are in the Italian alphabet?
Only 21 — one of the most compact alphabets in Europe. J, k, w, x and y are missing; they appear only in foreign words like jeans, weekend and taxi.
Why do Italians spell words with city names?
It’s the traditional Italian telephone alphabet: A come Ancona, B come Bologna, R come Roma. Every Italian knows it, offices use it daily, and it doubles as a geography lesson — our audio uses it for every letter.
Is h really silent in Italian?
Completely — hotel is “oh-TEL”. But h has a secret job: it hardens c and g in writing (chi = “kee”, spaghetti = hard g). Silent, yet load-bearing.