The Italian alphabet has 21 letters: 5 vowels and 16 consonants. Listen to the pronunciation here.

The missing consonants from the English alphabet are: j (i lunga), k (cappa), w (doppia vu), x (ics), and y (ipsilon).  They only appear in words with foreign origin as in x-ray.

Some differences in pronunciation of consonants are:

H is not pronounced.

C before e or i sounds like CHE or CHI ( like the ch in church in English ).

CH is pronounced like the letter K.

SC is pronounced like SH.

G before e and i is pronounced like J.

S if in between two vowels sound like the English letter Z.

Some useful internet or website conventions:

@ chiocciola
. punto , dot
/ barra, forward slash
– trattino, hyphen