In this chapter, you'll use the “one letter, one sound” rule to begin the foundation of learning la bella lingua (the beautiful language). For example, in most cases the letter a in Italian is always pronounced in the same way (as in the English word car). This is not the case with English, where pronunciation follows few rules and often involves guesswork or memorization. Let's look at the letter a again — but this time in English. It has several different pronunciations. The words cat, date, and park all contain the letter a, and it is pronounced differently in each one. As you develop an ear for the Italian language, you will gain a better understanding of the slight variations in pronunciation of the letter a. For the student of Italian, mastering pronunciation basics is easy. It just takes a little bit of practice!

Table 2-1

L'alfabeto (The Italian Alphabet)

Table 2-2

The Italian Alphabet Pronunciation Key