spelling

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Pronunciation Guides

Accents

Italian accentsWhile Italian uses many of the same letters as English, the vowels may have little decorations that can make them look and sound very different. In Italian, accents are essential: they’re there for a reason, so you must include them when writing.

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Pronunciation Guides

Alphabet

Italian alphabetIf you want to read and write in Italian, one of the first things you should learn is the Italian alphabet, which has 21 letters. You know them all from the English alphabet but they are pronounced differently, so take a moment to learn the Italian alphabet.

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Adjectives

Fractions

Italian fractions
In both Italian and English, there’s a lot of overlap between fractions and ordinals: the vast majority of these two types of numbers share the same word.

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Mistakes and Difficulties

Hard and Soft Vowels

Italian hard and soft vowelsItalian vowels are divided into two categories: hard and soft. Hard vowels (A, O, U) cause the consonant that precedes them to be pronounced with a hard sound, while soft vowels (E, I) are preceded by a soft sound.

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Mistakes and Difficulties

Spelling Change Verbs -care -cire -gare

Italian spelling change verbsItalian verbs that end in –care, –gare, and –cire require a small spelling change in certain conjugations. For the most part, these verbs are conjugated just like regular –are verbs, other than a little problem in some conjugations that must be corrected for reasons of pronunciation. It’s easy enough to do, once you understand why and how.

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