Italian Letter
The letter H is silent in Italian and is rarely found on its own. Other than in words borrowed from other languages, H is only found in some conjugations of avere (to have).
 |
Per esempio… |
| the letter h | ||
| ho | I have | |
| hai | you have | |
| ha | he / she has | |
| hanno | they have | |
The main purpose of H is to make the pronunciation of C and G hard in front of the soft vowels E and I.
|
Per esempio… |
| che | what | |
| chi | who | |
| rughe | wrinkles | |
| funghi | mushrooms |
Note that H is only ever added to C and G in front of soft vowels (E, I), in order to make their pronunciation hard. In front of hard vowels (A, O, U), the letters C and G are already hard sounds.
Related lessons
- Letters: C | G
- Combinations: CH | GH | SCH
- Hard and soft vowels
- Italian alphabet
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Ciao! I’m Laura K Lawless, creator, writer, editor, and CLO (Chief Lawless Officer) of this free online Italian learning site. Lawless Italian is an official Lawless Languages site.
