There are sixteen consonants (b-c-d-f-g-h-l-m-n-p-q-r-s-t-v-z) in the Italian alphabet.
| Lettera maiuscola (Uppercase letter) | Lettera minuscola (Lowercase letter) | Nomi delle lettere (Name of the letter) | Esempio (Example) |
| B | b | bi (bee) | Balena (Whale) |
| C | c | ci (chee) | Cane (Dog) |
| D | d | di (dee) | Delfino (Dolphin) |
| F | f | effe (ehf-feh) | Farfalla (Butterfly) |
| G | g | gi (jee) | Giraffa (Giraffe) |
| H | h | acca (ahk-kah) | Hyena (Hyena) |
| L | l | elle (ehl-leh) | Leone (Lion) |
| M | m | emme (ehm-meh) | Maiale (Pig) |
| N | n | enne (ehn-neh) | Nido (Nest) |
| P | p | pi (pee) | Pappagallo (Parot) |
| Q | q | cu (koo) | Quaglia (Quail) |
| R | r | erre (ehr-reh) | Rana (Frog) |
| S | s | esse (ehs-seh) | Squalo (Shark) |
| T | t | ti (tee) | Topo (Mouse) |
| V | v | vi (voo) | Vipera (Viper) |
| Z | z | zeta (tseh-tah) | Zanzara (Mosquito) |
Le semiconsonanti / The semi-consonants.
The i and the u, when they are not stressed and are followed by another vowel with which they form a diphthong [ieri (yesterday), uomo (man)], can have an intermediate sound between a vowel and a consonant. For this reason, they are called semiconsonants.
In the phonetic alphabet, they are transcribed with /j/ and /w/.
| Alfabeto Italiano (Italian alphabet) | Alfabeto fonetico internazionale (International phonetic alphabet) | Esempio (Example) | Grafia fonetica (Phonetic spelling) |
| I | j | Piede(Foot) Dietro(Behind) | Pjɛde Djɛtro |
| U | w | Suono(Sound) Uovo(Egg) | Swɔno wɔvo |
When we pronounce the vowels i and u (of lino and uva) the air passes through the canal phonatory without encountering obstacles and only making the vocal cords vibrate.
However, when we pronounce the semi-consonant i and u the channel narrows producing the classic intermediate sound between that of a vowel and that of a consonant (as, for example, in English yes or in French hier).
Exercise on the lesson here
Next lesson:
The consonants (the letters c,p,b,q,h)