Discover the fascinating world of the Italian Alphabet.

Letters can be lowercase or uppercase. Normally lower case is used, while uppercase has a specific use in particular contexts, e.g.

– At the beginning of a period or question.

– At the beginning of direct speech, after a colon or quotation mark.

– In proper names of persons, such as Mario or Luisa.

– In geographical names, e.g. Italy, Lazio.

– In the names of cities, rivers, mountains.

– In religious and civil holidays.

– For stars and constellations.

– With the names of associations and public bodies.

– In the titles of books, films or works of art.

– With the names of streets and squares.

– With the signs of the zodiac.

– In religious settings.

– With the names of companies or brands, for example Lux or Autogrill.

– In acronyms and acronyms.

There are five vowels: a, e, i, o, u. They are distinguished into weak (i, u) and strong (a, e, o). The vowels a, i, u have only one pronunciation, while e and o can have an open or closed pronunciation.

A diphthong arises from the union of a weak vowel with a strong one pronounced in a single voice emission, e.g. “iede,” “son,” “rain.” Possible diphthongs are:
• ià, ié, iò, iù
• uà, ué, uì, uò
• ài, àu
• èi, èu
• òi

Instead, the union of two weak vowels with a strong one forms a triptong, as in “tuoi,” “suo,” “aiuola.”

Hiatus occurs when two vowels are pronounced separately, with two different voice emissions, and occurs:
• Between two strong vowels, e.g. “poeta,” “aereo.”
• When weak vowels are accented, e.g. “zio,” “più.”
• In words derived from words with accented i or u.
• In ri- and re- prefixes, e.g., “riaprire.”
• When i is preceded by r or consonant groups.

Consonants are sounds pronounced with the vocal tract closed or semi-closed. The phonatory organs involved in their pronunciation are tongue, lips, teeth, and palate.

Based on the organ of articulation, consonants are divided into:
• Labial: b, f, m, p, v
• Dentals: d, l, n, r, s, t, z
• Palatals: sweet c, sweet g
• Guttural or velar: c hard, g hard, q

Based on the vibration of the vocal cords, they are divided into:
• Deaf: b, c, d, g, p, q, t
• Sonorous: m, n, l, r, f, s, v, z

Sound consonants can be:
• Nasal: m, n
• Liquid: l, r
• Spiral: f, v, s, z

• All consonants except h can be doubled in the middle of a word.
• The reinforcing part of q is cq: acqua, acquista. The only exception is soqquadro
• To reinforce the ch/ci link, only the letter c is doubled: sacchi, acciaio, occhiali, cuccia
• The digrams gh, gi are reinforced by doubling only the g: agghiacciare, raggiro
• The digrams gn, sc and the trigrams gli/sci cannot be doubled but represent an enhanced pronunciation by themselves.
• The consonants g, z are never doubled before the termination ion (stagione, azione).
• The consonant b is not doubled at the ending -bile (automobile, contabile).
• As a rule, the initial consonant is doubled (except for impure s) in compound words with the prefix a, da, fra, ra, so, su, sopra, sovra, contra: e.g., accanto, davvero, frapporre, raccogliere, sommesso, sussulto, sopraggiungere, sovrapporre, contraffare.
• You never double contro (controsenso).
• Doubled consonants also appear in compositions such as: ebbene (e bene), oppure (o pure), suvvia (su via), diciannove, fabbisogno, fallo (fa lo).

The syllable is the minimum phonetically distinguishable unit that a word can be divided into. It can be formed by:

• A vowel (a-mo-re)
• A diphthong (uo-mo)
• A triphthong (a-iuo-la)

followed or preceded by a consonant (sa-pe-re, pie-de, fi-gliuo-lo).

Based on the number of syllables, words are:

• Monosyllabic: only one syllable (no, re)
• Bisyllabic: two syllables (spo-se, ca-ne)
• Trisyllabic: three syllables (a-mo-re, po-te-re)
• Quadrisyllabic: four syllables (dot-to-res-sa, gat-to-par-do)
• Polysyllabic: more than four syllables (pre-ci-pi-to-so)

To correctly divide a word into syllables, some rules are followed, for example:

• A consonant with the following vowel (mo-re, fe-de-le)
• Consonant + l/r with following vowel (a-cre, so-pra, sem-pli-ce)
• l/m/n/r followed by other consonants, with preceding vowel (al-be-ro, sem-pli-ce, pen-sie-ro)
• Impure s with following consonants (pi-sta, fe-sta)
• Double consonants are divided (por-ro,car-ro,ot-to,mat-to)
• Diphthongs and triphthongs are indivisible (mo-glie, scien-za)
• Vowels forming diphthongs are divided (ma-e-stro, a-e-re-o)
• An apostrophe cannot be at the end of a line: (l’am-i-co, l’an-no scor-so, quel-l’ai-ro-ne)

Every word has one syllable that is pronounced with greater vocal intensity than the others. This particular way of pronouncing that syllable is called a tonic or simply accent. The syllable that carries the accent is called the tonic syllable, while the others are called atonic syllables.

Based on the accent, words are divided into:

• Oxytones: if the accent falls on the last syllable (virtù, onestà)
• Paroxytones: if the accent falls on the penultimate syllable (belléz-za, amó-re)
• Proparoxytones: if the accent falls on the antepenultimate syllable (tà-vola, bellís-simo)
• Barytones: if the accent falls on the fourth-to-last syllable (sù-perano, rè-citano)

There are three types of accents:

• Grave accent, which goes from left to right, used for open sounds on vowels a, e, o: pietà, canapè, falò.
• Acute accent, which goes from right to left, used for closed sounds on vowels i, u, e, o: morí, Corfú, saldaménte, tócco.
• Circumflex accent, rarely used to indicate a contracted syllable or on certain final i’s when an i has been dropped: studî, ozî, spazî.

Some monosyllabic words have no accent and combine with previous or following words: dimmi, sentilo, vacci (enclitic); un uomo, mi pare, ma bene (proclitic).

The tonic accent is usually not marked. When marked, it is called graphic accent and some rules apply for when it must be written.

• The semicolon (;) indicates a pause longer than a comma and separates two parts of the same sentence or denotes a difference or opposition between two sets of circumstances, e.g. When I saw everyone staring at me, I felt embarrassed; however I did not lose courage and responded.
• The colon (:) is used:
  • To introduce an explanatory phrase: The soul of the crafty is like the serpent: smooth, shiny, slippery and cold (Tommaseo).
  • When reporting someone else’s words or speech. In this case, the colon is followed by a dash or quotation marks and a capital initial, e.g. The wise Socrates said: “The only thing I know is that I know nothing”.
  • When it precedes a list or enumeration, e.g. Subordinate clauses can be of various types: interrogative, objective, final, etc.
• The period (.) indicates the longest pause and is used at the end of a sentence. It also comes after abbreviations (e.g., etc., pp., Mr., adv.) or between the letters of an acronym, where the last period is not followed by a capital letter.
• The question mark (?) denotes a direct interrogative sentence. If the question is indirect, the question mark is not used, e.g. What does he say?; Tell me what he says; Tell me: What does he say? If a question mark closes a sentence, the next word has a capital letter; if multiple questions follow, a lowercase letter can come after each question mark.
• The exclamation point (!) ends a sentence expressing wonder, awe, pain or excitement. It can also create an emphatic pause in the middle of a sentence. It may be put in brackets after a phrase or word quoted from another author, as a kind of terse comment.
• The interrobang (!?) expressing surprise or disbelief is formed by a question mark superimposed onto an exclamation point. The next word starts with a capital letter.
• Ellipses (…) indicate an interruption, meaningful pause or reticence in speech. They can prepare the reader for a bold metaphor, invite them to draw conclusions, replace parts of a quote, or trail off at the end of a list to denote continuation.
• Quotation marks (“…”) set off direct speech, highlight an element of the sentence, or introduce a quote.
• Dashes (–) often replace quotation marks in dialogues. Parentheses (( )) enclose non-essential words or clauses. Hyphens (-) show the splitting of a word between lines or join compound words.