Particular Letter Cases
| c and g | example | |
| hard |
before a o u and all consonants | casa, cosa, cura, che, crosta
gato, goccia, gusto, ghiaccio, gradine |
| soft |
before e and i | cena. circo gelo, gita |
| q | example |
| Sounds like hard c,
always followed by a short voiced u |
quando, quercia, quinto, quota |
| h | example | |
| Always mute | before four forms of the verb avere | ho, hai, ha, hanno |
| after c and g to make them hard before e and i | che, chi ghepardo, ghirlanda |
|
Inicial h is used to differenciate the verb forms from:
o |
ai |
a |
anno |
| s | example | |
| Unvoiced | at the beginning of words and before or after consonants | salto, pasto, psicologo |
| Voiced | between vowels | casa |
| sc | example | |
| one sound |
when followed by e or i | sciarpa, scelto, sci, sciolto, asciutto |
| two sounds (s+c) | when followed by all other letters | scarpa, schema, scuola |
There are also in Italian two stress marks which may be used above the vowels in some cases:
à |
è |
é |
ì |
ò |
ù |
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