Quick Italian Tutorial

ciao - hello, goodbye (familiar)
salve - hello
addio - goodbye
bene - well
egli - he (literary)
lui - he (common speech), him
ella - she (literary)
lei - she (common speech), her
esso - it (masculine)
essa - it (feminine)
essi - they (persons or things)
loro - them (persons or things), they (common speech, persons)
grazie - thank you
spiacente - I'm sorry
noi - us, we (plural)
signore - sir, mister, mr.
signora - madame, mrs.
signorina - miss
tu - you (informal)
voi - you (plural, formal and informal)
io - I

Numbers 1-10

0 zero
1 uno
2 due
3 tre
4 quattro
5 cinque
6 sei
7 sette
8 otto
9 nove
10 dieci

PHONETICS

ca-cu-co hard like English in ka(ki)-coo(k)-(al)co(hol)

chi-che hard like English in kee-ke(nnedy)

ci-ce soft like English in chee-che(ck)

È acute accent (closed) like English e in (ad)e(quate) or (op)e(n)

Ë grave accent (open) like English e in chess

gi-ge soft like English gin-ge(neral)

ghi-ghe hard like English gui(lty)-gue(st)

ga-go-gu hard like English garden, golf, good

gn - like English canyon o gn in Franch or Ò in Spanish

gli like ll in northern Spain, or similar to English (mi)lli(on)

*few names are exceptions and pronunciation is like in English anglican, glicin, negligent, gerogliphic = anglicano (angliCAno), glicine (GLIcine), negligente (negliGENTe), geroglifico (geroGLIfico).

gle-glo-gla-glu like in English gla(d)-glo(rious)-gla(ss)-gloo(m)

Û acute accent (closed) like English in (c)o(ld)

Ú grave accent (open) like English in o(il)

s has the sound of English (plea)s(e) in some words and the sound of English s(olid) in other words

sci-sce like in English sh

sca-sco-scu-schi-sche have the English sounds of sk (remember the vowels have the Italian pronounciation of a-o-u-i-e)

z has the sound of English z(eal) in some words and the sound of English z(oom) in other words.

• In Italian all the consonants can be double in many words and they must be pronounced with a prolongation (or extension) of the sound of the first consonant; examples: sasso (sas-so), little stone; cappello (cap-pel-lo), hat; terra (ter-ra), land; acciaio (ac-ciaio), steel; mucchio (muc-chio), heap; oggetto (og-get-to), object; macchina (mac-china),car; nazionalizzazione (nazionaliz-zazione), nationalization;gatto-(gat-to), cat.

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