HOW DO YOU PRONOUNCE THE LETTER C IN ITALIAN?
How do you pronounce the letter C in Italian? Basically there are two ways you can say it depending on the letter that follows. In a nutshell, the C gets a soft sound when combined with the vowels E and I. In all the other cases, you say it as a K.
Today, I’ll show you exactly how to pronounce the letter C in Italian.
At the end of this lesson, you’ll be able to read any Italian word with a C in it 🙂
You can watch the video lesson below, keep on reading or doing both … it’s up to you!
HOW DO YOU SAY THE LETTER C IN ITALIAN?
This is the first thing that you need to know: generally the Italian way to say the C is different from the English one.
Indeed, in some English words, the C can get the sound: “SI:“, like for example in “circle” or “celebrity“. In Italian, this never happen.
So let’s see what’s different in the way you tell the “C” in Italian.
We’ve said already that the “C” can get two different sounds: a soft or a hard sound.
But how do you say it exactly and when should you expect one rather than the other?
It’s very simple … you only need to look at the letter that comes after the “C”.
Let’s dive into it.
LETTER C IN ITALIAN: SOFT SOUND
The letter “C” in Italian gets a soft sound when followed by the vowels E and I.
But how does it sound? Listen to the example below.
CENTO / CINA
In these words, the C gets the following sound: /tʃ:/
It’s same as saying for example “church” in English.
But what happen if the C is followed by another letter? Then it’s very easy … keep on reading 🙂
LETTER C IN ITALIAN: HARD SOUND
How do you say the C if it’s not followed by the letters E or I? In these cases you tell it with a hard sound. Easy right?
So this happens when after the C you see either a consonant or one of the following vowels: A, O or U.
Listen to the following words.
CASA / COSA / CUORE
In these examples, the C gets this sound: /k:/
It’s the same as when you say “cat” in English.
Just be careful when you see a H after the C and remember that the same rule applies!
Indeed, the letter H helps the C to get a hard sound combined with the vowels E and I.
Listen at the way you say the following words: CHE (that) and CHIAVE (key).
CHE / CHIAVE
This is a bit tricky for English speakers because in English “CH” can be soft or hard.
So for example in the word “cheese” you say the “C” in a soft way (/tʃ:/).
Whereas in the word “school“, the C gets the sound of a /k:/ (hard sound).
So you don’t really know what to expect, do you?
In Italian, it’s actually much easier! You just need to remember a simple thing: “CHE” and “CHI” always get hard sound in Italian.
LET’S RECAP …
In this lesson you’ve learnt that you can say the letter C in Italian in two different ways:
- SOFT /tʃ:/ when it’s followed by the vowels E and I
- HARD /k:/ in all the other cases i.e. before a consonant or the vowels A, O and U.
Also remember that when you see a H after the C, it will always get a hard sound, like in the words “CHE” or “CHIAVE”.
If you want to practice your pronunciation, I really recommend you to watch the following video (if you didn’t already) as there’s a short exercise at the end.