IL PRANZO – a lunch
LA CENA – a dinner
GLI SPAGHETTI (plural) – spaghetti
LA FARMACIA – a pharmacy
LA PIZZERIA – a pizzeria, pizza restaurant
IL PESCE – fish
L’USCITA – an exit
L’ENTRATA – an entrance
OGGI – today
IERI – yesterday
DOMANI – tomorrow
L’ENERGIA – an energy
IL RISTORANTE – a restaurant
IL MARE – a sea
FREDDO – cold
CALDO – warm, hot
LO STRANIERO – a foreigner
The nouns are written with the definite article, we will learn more in Lesson 6.
An alphabetical list of the vocabulary can be found here.
Pronunciation of C:
Normally you read “c” as “k”, it’s the same in English. Listen to the pronunciation of CAPPUCCINO:
If “c” is followed by “h” you still read “c” in the same way, as “k” but you don’t pronounce “h”. Listen to the pronunciation of CHE:
But if “c” is followed by “i” and then by “a”/”e”/”o”/”u” , don’t pronounce “i” but pronounce “c” as “tʃ”. Listen to the pronunciation of CIAO:
The rule is not applicable if there is the accent on the letter “i”. In this case you must pronounce also “i”. You must learn the words with the accent but there aren’t so many of them. Listen to the pronunciation of FARMACIA:
But if “c” is followed by “i” and by any other letter (or “i” is the last letter), you pronounce “i” and you pronounce “c” as “tʃ”. Listen to the pronunciation of CAPPUCCINO above.
There can be also “c” followed by “e” which is read in the same way, as “tʃ” and “e” normally. Listen to the pronunciation of CENA:
The last rule concerns the connection of “sc” followed by “i” or “e”. The pronunciation is “ʃ” followed by “i/e”. Listen to the pronunciation of PESCE:
Pronunciation of G (the principle is identical to “C”):
Normally you read “g” as “g” in God, it’s the same in English. Listen to the pronunciation of GRAZIE:
If “g” is followed by “h” you read “g” again in the same way but you don’t pronounce “h”. Listen to the pronunciation of SPAGHETTI:
But if “g” is followed by “i” and by “a”/”e”/”o”/”u”, don’t pronounce “i” but pronounce “g” as “dʒ”. Listen to the pronunciation of GIOVANE:
But if “g” is followed by “i” and by any other letter (or “i” is the last letter), you pronounce “i” and you pronounce “g” as “dʒ”. Listen to the pronunciation of OGGI:
There can be also “g” followed by “e” which is read in the same way, as “dʒ” and “e” normally. Listen to the pronunciation of GELATO:
The rule is not applicable if there is the accent on the letter “i”. In this case you must pronounce also “i”. You must learn the words with the accent but there aren’t so many of them. Listen to the pronunciation of ENERGIA:
If “g” is followed by “n” – “gn” it’s pronounced in a different way: [ɲɲ]. To understand better, let’s say that it is pronounced for example as “ny” in “canyon”. Listen to the word “June” – “giugno” which is included in the Lesson 9:
Pronunciation of “Z”:
There are two types of the pronunciation:
- “ts”, listen to the pronunciation of PIZZA, GRAZIE
- “dz”, listen to the pronunciation of ZERO.
Double letters:
In a lot of Italian words there are double letters, there are two ways of reading them:
- F, L, M, N, R, S, W – a little bit longer
- B, C, D, G, K, P, T, Z – a little pause before the letter and then a strong pronunciation
You mustn’t pronounce it as two single letters. Listen to the pronunciation of OGGI above, PICCOLO and CORNETTO.
There are rules about the accent on all the Italian words but it’s much easier to learn listening to the correct pronunciation. In the future we can learn also the rules, for now let’s say that generally the accent is on the second syllable counting from the end of the word but there are a lot of exceptions. For the pronunciation on the second syllable listen to the pronunciation of PIZZA (above), BUONO and CINQUE.