Italian is one of the romance languages and contains many beautifully sounding words and phrases. When you want to learn Italian for whatever reason ?business or travel ?you can do so from the comfort of your own home through a free course online. Whether you have some knowledge of Italian or you are a beginner, you can take advantage of all levels of courses from beginner to advanced. You learn to read, speak, write and understand the language to become fluent in the language. There are no additional letters in the Italian alphabet, but it is important to start with learning the different pronunciations of the letters. You have to start at the beginning just as you did with learning your own language.

The pronunciation of the letters of the Italian alphabet should not be difficult for native English speakers. Many of the letters are pronounced in the same way. The main difference is in pronouncing the vowels. You do not have to change how you pronounce them depending on their position in the word as you do in some English words. The vowels and are the only ones that have different sounds depending on their use in a word. They are always pronounced as short vowels. If you look at the phonetic spelling you will see that there is an included after each one to show that it is short.

When you pronounce a word in Italian that contains an you have to roll the letter around your tongue. This is why you need to listen to native Italian speakers to gain a sense of how to pronounce this letter correctly. There is no graphic way of denoting this sound so you will not notice any difference when you do look at the phonetic spelling of the word. You do have to be cognizant of the way the letter sounds when you say it.

In the Italian language there are special clusters of letters that are pronounced in a certain way. The cluster is pronounced cha. You do not pronounce each letter when you say this combination. The rule to remember is that when ci is followed by a vowel , you do not pronounce the When you say the cluster of you pronounce it as you would in English and sounds like the English sound of The letter when followed by vowels, sounds like the English letter When is followed by another vowel, the becomes silent. Thus, is pronounced like.

There is also a difference in the way you pronounce words in Italian that have double consonants. Unlike the English pronunciation, you do pronounce both of these consonants as if there were two separate syllables. There is a short suspension between the consonants giving them two distinct sounds. Any consonant can be doubled in the Italian language except for the letter .

In your course, take the time to listen to the sounds of all the letters , the clusters and the double consonants to give you a greater understanding of the proper pronunciation.

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