Pronuncia italiana · LinguaBLOX

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Pronuncia italiana

In English, I think of a "soft c" as in cease, cent, face, rice.
However, in Italian pronunciation the "soft c" is the sound like at the start of the English words "chap" and "chocolate" or the "choo choo" sound of imitating a toy train. For example Ciao! ( pronounced "Chow") would be described as a "soft c".

This "soft c" in Italian is ONLY pronounced like the "choo choo" sound if the C is IMMEDIATELY followed by E or I.

3.And what helps me is that the Italian "soft c" sound is both at the beginning of the English word "chickpeas" AND with BOTH C´s in the Italian word for chickpeas, which is "ceci", giving an example of the ONLY two letters that can make a "C" sound like at the beginning of choo choo, chocolate etc.

Ceci (chickpeas) is pronounced "CHEH CHI"

And so is every other C that you see in any word, and in any place in a word, that has an E or I IMMEDIATELY after the C.

5. If there is an H or any other letter after the C it is hard like cat.

6. In Italian, when many English speakers see an "h" after a c, our brains can habitually want to say "ch" as in choo choo of a train. It is NEVER like that with c and h together in Italian. CH in Italian is ALWAYS hard like cat, car, coal.

7.So ... after this long explanation ..., in case this helps, just think ceci and chickpeas. The start of the English word "chickpeas" is the same sound you have to make if an Italian "c" has an e or i after it. So dinner, food, cinema and hi/bye in Italian (cena, cibo, cinerma, ciao) are pronounced "chena", "chibo", "chinema", "chow". And you have to admit, how cute does "chinema" sound?

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