Spelling: Complete Reference

This page is the lookup table for the entire Italian spelling system. It consolidates the rules from each individual spelling subpage into one searchable reference, with the highest-frequency orthographic decisions and the errors English speakers most often make. If you are unsure whether to write paghi or pagi, l'amico or l amico, citta or città, bello or belo, Lunedì or lunedì, 3.50 or 3,50 — this page is your check.

Italian spelling is largely phonetic. Once you internalize the system, you can spell almost any Italian word from how it sounds, and pronounce almost any word from how it is spelled. The exceptions cluster in six areas, each with its own subpage:

1. C and G hard/soft alternation — when to insert silent h or silent i.
2. Apostrophe of elision — when to drop a vowel before another vowel.
3. Accent marks — which words take grave or acute accents on the final vowel.
4. Double consonants — pala vs palla, lexically specified.
5. Capitalization — what to capitalize, what (definitely) not to.
6. Punctuation — quotation marks, decimals, time format.

This page walks each one in turn, with quick rules and high-frequency examples. For depth on any single topic, follow the subpage links.

1. C and G hard/soft (orthographic rules)

The single most important consonant rule in Italian. The letters c and g have a hard and a soft pronunciation, depending on the following vowel:

To preserve the hard sound before e/i, Italian inserts a silent h: chi, che, ghi, ghe. To preserve the soft sound before a/o/u, Italian inserts a silent i: cia, cio, ciu, gia, gio, giu.

Spelling consequences in plurals and conjugations

The rule has predictable downstream effects in Italian morphology:

• Plural of nouns/adjectives ending in -co/-go: many take -chi/-ghi in the plural to keep the hard sound.
  • amico → amici (one of the few exceptions, soft) but parco → parchi, bianco → bianchi, fungo → funghi.
• Conjugation of -care/-gare verbs: insert h before e or i in endings.
  • cercare → tu cerchi, noi cerchiamo. pagare → tu paghi, noi paghiamo.
• Conjugation of -ciare/-giare verbs: drop the silent i before e or i in endings (the i is no longer needed).
  • mangiare → tu mangi (not mangii), cominciare → io comincerò (not comincierò).

For the full rules, see C and G Orthographic Rules.

2. The apostrophe of elision

Italian drops a final vowel before another vowel in many contexts and marks the dropped vowel with an apostrophe. The apostrophe is not a punctuation mark but a part of the spelling of the word.

Required elisions

The contrast un amico (m.) vs un'amica (f.) is critical: gender is signaled by the apostrophe.

Optional / stylistic elisions

Some elisions are not required but commonly seen, especially in literary or older Italian: anch'io (instead of anche io), senz'altro (instead of senza altro), com'è (instead of come è).

Truncations vs elisions

There is also a related but different process called truncation (troncamento), in which a final vowel or syllable is dropped without an apostrophe: un libro (from uno libro), bel ragazzo (from bello ragazzo), un buon amico (from un buono amico). These do not take an apostrophe — there is nothing to mark, just a shortened form.

The exceptions: a few imperatives are written with an apostrophe to mark truncation — di'! (say!, from dici), fa'! (do!), va'! (go!), da'! (give!), sta'! (stay!). Also po' (a bit, from poco).

For the full system, see The Apostrophe in Elisions.

3. Accent marks

Italian marks final-syllable stress with a written accent on the final vowel. The accent is part of the spelling — writing citta without the accent is a spelling error, not a typographical shortcut.

Grave accent: à è ì ò ù

The grave accent is the default. It appears on final-stressed a, i, u, and on the open variants of e and o.

Acute accent: é

The acute accent is rare. It appears on closed final e — and the words that take it are essentially memorizable. The most common are:

The most frequently misspelled is perché. English speakers, primed by the grave accent on città, often write perchè with a grave — and that is wrong. Perché takes the acute, marking the closed final é.

Critical homograph distinctions

Some short words exist in two forms, distinguished only by the accent. Mixing them up is a spelling error that changes meaning.

For the full system, see Written Accent Marks.

4. Double consonants

Italian distinguishes single from double consonants in spelling, and the difference is phonemic — it changes meaning. Doubling is lexically specified, meaning you have to learn it word by word.

Critical minimal pairs

Reliable suffixes

These suffixes always have doubled consonants: -etto, -ello, -elli, -accio, -uccio, -occhio, -ezza, -issim-. These suffixes never have doubled consonants: -mento, -mente, -zione, -sione, -tore, -ità.

Prefix + same consonant

When a prefix ending in a consonant attaches to a stem starting with that same consonant, doubling results: ad + bracciare = abbracciare, ad + dormentare = addormentare, com + muovere = commuovere, in + nocente = innocente.

For the full rules and minimal pairs, see Double Consonants in Spelling.

5. Capitalization

Italian capitalizes much less than English. The rule, in one sentence: proper nouns, sentence-initial words, and a small set of formal titles. Almost nothing else.

Capitalize

• Proper nouns: Marco, Roma, Italia, il Tevere, la Toscana, la Banca d'Italia.
• First word of a sentence.
• Formal titles in direct address: Egregio Signor Rossi, Gentile Dottoressa Bianchi.
• High institutional offices: il Presidente della Repubblica, il Papa, Sua Eccellenza (in formal contexts).
• Formal Lei, La, Le, Suo — traditionally, in formal correspondence (modern trend: lowercase).

Do NOT capitalize

• Days of the week: lunedì, martedì, mercoledì, giovedì, venerdì, sabato, domenica.
• Months: gennaio, febbraio, marzo, aprile, maggio, giugno, luglio, agosto, settembre, ottobre, novembre, dicembre.
• Languages: italiano, francese, inglese, spagnolo, tedesco, cinese.
• Nationalities (adjective and noun for people): italiano, un ristorante italiano, gli italiani.
• Religions and adherents: cattolico, ebreo, musulmano, buddista.
• Seasons: primavera, estate, autunno, inverno.
• io (the first-person pronoun, contra English I).
• Cardinal directions as bearings: nord, sud (capitalized only as named regions: il Nord Italia).

Book and film titles

Italian uses sentence-case, not English-style title-case. Only the first word and proper nouns are capitalized: Il nome della rosa, La vita è bella, Cento anni di solitudine, I promessi sposi.

For the full system, see Capitalization Rules.

6. Punctuation

Italian punctuation looks like English punctuation, with three core differences.

Three styles of quotation marks

• «caporali» — formal, literary, books and academia.
• "virgolette inglesi" — modern journalism, business, online.
• 'apici' — nested quotes, scare-quotes.

Pick one and stay consistent within a document.

Decimal and thousands separators

Italian (and most of continental Europe) uses:

• Comma for decimals: 3,14, 1,5 kg, 2,50 €.
• Period for thousands: 1.000, 1.000.000.

This is opposite to English. Misreading can be a three-orders-of-magnitude error.

Time

24-hour clock, with colon or period between hours and minutes — both accepted. Il treno parte alle 14:30 or 14.30.

No Oxford comma

Pane, vino e formaggio — no comma before the final e.

No space before punctuation

Italian, unlike French, has no space before ? ! ; : and uses no inverted opening marks (Italian: Come stai?; Spanish: ¿Cómo estás?).

For the full conventions, see Punctuation.

7. The top-frequency error patterns

These are the orthographic mistakes English speakers make most consistently when writing Italian, ranked roughly by how common they are in student writing.

8. Quick orthographic checklist for any Italian word

When writing or proofreading any Italian word, run this checklist:

1. Hard/soft consonant: any c or g before e/i? Inserted h if hard? Any c/g
   • silent i before a/o/u if soft?
2. Apostrophe of elision: any vowel-on-vowel boundary that needs to elide? (l'amico, un'amica, quest'anno, bell'uomo).
3. Final-syllable stress: does the word end in a stressed vowel? Add the right accent (grave or acute).
4. Double consonants: am I sure about each consonant's doubling? When in doubt, look up.
5. Capitalization: is this word a proper noun, sentence-initial, or formal title? If not, lowercase.
6. Numbers: decimal as comma, thousands as period.

If you survive these six checks, the word is almost certainly spelled correctly.

Common Mistakes

Key takeaways

• Italian spelling is largely phonetic. Six rule areas cover almost every orthographic decision: c/g hard/soft, apostrophe of elision, accent marks, double consonants, capitalization, and punctuation.
• C and g hard/soft: silent h preserves hard sound before e/i (chi, ghi); silent i preserves soft sound before a/o/u (cia, gio).
• Apostrophe of elision: drop the final vowel before another vowel and mark it (l'amico, un'amica, quest'estate, bell'uomo). The apostrophe distinguishes feminine un'amica from masculine un amico.
• Accent marks: required on final-stressed syllables. Grave (città, caffè, però) is default; acute (perché, né, sé, finché) is for closed final é and a small list of words. Critical homograph pairs: e/è, si/sì, da/dà, la/là, li/lì, ne/né, se/sé.
• Double consonants: phonemic, lexically specified. Pala/palla, capello/cappello, ano/anno. Reliable suffixes: -etto, -ello, -accio, -issim- always double; -mento, -mente, -zione, -ità never double.
• Capitalization: proper nouns, sentence-initial words, and formal titles in direct address. Days, months, languages, nationalities, religions, seasons, and io are all lowercase. Italian capitalizes much less than English.
• Punctuation: three styles of quotation marks (caporali, virgolette inglesi, apici); decimal as comma; thousands as period; no Oxford comma; no space before ? or !; 24-hour clock with colon or period.
• The fastest mental check when writing an Italian word: hard/soft consonant rule, elision opportunity, final-stress accent, doubling lookup. After those four, you are almost always correct.

For depth on each area, see the dedicated subpages:

• Italian Spelling: Overview
• C and G Orthographic Rules
• The Apostrophe in Elisions
• Written Accent Marks
• Double Consonants in Spelling
• Capitalization Rules
• Punctuation