C sound

How to pronounce C in Italian

C is a consonant.

C can represent two different sounds depending on the letter that follows it.

C is pronounced with a hard sound (with IPA symbol /k/) when followed by any consonant or the vowels A, O and U.

It is never aspirated as in cat.

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How to pronounce CH in Italian

The “ke” and “ki” sounds, as in Kentucky and keen, are spelled as CHE and CHI.

Examples:

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How to pronounce CI in Italian

C sounds like the “ch” in check when followed by the vowels E or I.

Ci + A, E, O and U, respectively CIA, CIE/CE, CIO and CIU, roughly correspond to the sounds in charcoal, check, chocolate and choose. The IPA symbol is /ʧ/.

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Length of the C sound

The C sound in Italian can be single or double.

Italian pronunciation tantrums: what’s up with those double consonants?
These double consonants are called geminates. English uses them only in the written language: a word like tabby, as in tabby cat, is pronounced as if it were actually “taby” and not as “tab-bee”.

Italian geminates, on the other hand, are longer in quality than single consonants, as if they were “doubled”.

Not all Italian consonants can be doubled.

It is double when it’s written as cc. You won’t find a double consonant at the beginning of an Italian word, but always in the middle. For example…

Listen closely. The “cc” sounds in bacca and cuccia (one is hard and the other one is not) are double and have a longer sound. Here are some other examples:

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Other Italian words with the C sound

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Your turn!

Pronounce each given word.

Easy

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Hard

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