Tools/Italian to IPA
Italian to IPA converter
Convert Italian text to IPA phonetic transcription. See the IPA, hear the word, and turn it into review-ready flashcards — without leaving what you are reading.
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Italian in IPA
10 worked examples, each chosen for a sound the spelling hides.
butterfly — held double l
year — gemination changes the word
seven — open e plus gemination
evening — close e, same letter
gnocchi — gn, open o, held k
family — palatal lateral
garlic — the same sound again
hi, bye — ci as one affricate
church — silent h, voiced s
thank you — held affricate
Italian sounds to know
The symbols that come up most often in Italian transcription, and what each one actually asks your mouth to do.
| Letter | Example | IPA | What it does |
|---|---|---|---|
| gn | gnocchi | /ɲ/ | A palatal nasal, always long between vowels. Not n followed by y. |
| gl(i) | aglio | /ʎ/ | A palatal lateral — the tongue body against the palate. English has no such sound. |
| c, cc (before e, i) | ciao | /t͡ʃ/ | Before a, o, u the same letter is /k/; the i in cia is only a spelling device. |
| ch | chiesa | /k/ | The h exists purely to keep c hard before e and i. It is never pronounced. |
| z, zz | grazie | /t͡s/ | An affricate, voiceless here and voiced /d͡z/ in other words — the spelling does not distinguish them. |
| e (open) | sette | /ɛ/ | Open-mid. Unmarked in writing, so only a transcription or a dictionary tells you which e a word has. |
| e (close) | sera | /e/ | Close-mid, the other half of the pair. Some minimal pairs rest on it alone. |
| o (open) | gnocchi | /ɔ/ | The same unmarked open/close split applies to o. |
| s (between vowels) | chiesa | /z/ | Intervocalic s is usually voiced in the north and voiceless in much of the south. |
| double consonants | anno | /nː/ | Genuinely held about twice as long. anno (year) and ano are different words; IPA writes it /nː/ or by doubling the symbol. |
How Italian writing maps to sound
Italian spelling is highly regular once you know the digraphs: c and g change value before e and i, and h is a silent letter whose only job is to block that change. What the spelling never shows is stress (written only on a final syllable) and the open/close quality of e and o.
Which Italian do these transcriptions show?
Transcriptions follow the standard Italian taught to learners, historically based on educated Florentine. The open/close realisation of e and o is the most regionally variable part: Milan and Naples distribute them differently, and many speakers merge them. Central and southern Italy also strengthen consonants after certain words (raddoppiamento sintattico).
Why guess Italian pronunciation?
Italian is largely phonetic, yet the spelling does not always show open vs close e and o, where the stress falls, or that a doubled consonant is genuinely held longer — all of which IPA makes explicit.
From Italian text to IPA in seconds
Select the text
Highlight Italian text anywhere — a PDF, a browser, a subtitle, a chat. Or paste it into the free web converter above.
Press Alt+Q
IPAtics detects the language automatically and shows the IPA in a floating overlay, right where you are reading.
Hear it, save it, study it
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Frequently asked questions
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