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.On the use of professionaltitles, see 41.3.Call A:A: Pronto, sono Nicola Serra, vorrei parlare con l avvocato Pira.B: Attenda un attimo, glielo passo subito.442 MODERN ITALIAN GRAMMARC: Pronto.Con chi parto?A: Buongiorno avvocato, sono Serra.C: Buongiorno dottor Serra, mi dica.A: Hello, it's Nicola Serra , I'd like to speak to (t he lawyer) Mr Pira.B: Wait a minute, I'll pass him t o you straight away.C: Hello, who am I speaking to?A: Good morning (lawyer).It's Mr Serra here.C: Good morning, Mr Serra, what can I do for you?Call B:A: Pronto, sono Giulio Tramonti.C � Andrea per favore?B: No, mi dispiace, � appena uscito.A: Posso lasciare un messaggio?B: Certo, dimmi.A: Se possibile, Andrea dovrebbe richiamarmi stasera, dopo le 8.Devodirgli una cosa importante.B: Va bene.Glielo dir� certamente.A: Grazie, arrivederci.B: Prego, arrivederci.A: Hello, it's Giulio Tra monti.Is Andrea there, please?B: No, I'm sorry, he's just gone out.A: Can I leave a message?B: Certainly, tell me.A: If possible, Andrea should call me back tonight, after 8 o'clock.I have totell him something important.B: OK.I'll certainl y tell him.A: Thanks, goodbye.B: Not at all.Goodbye.Appendix ISpelling and pronunciationSounds and lettersIt is often said that Italian is easy to learn, because it is spoken as it is written.Thisis not completely true, but certainly, compared with other languages such asEnglish or French, Italian enjoys the advantage of an almost `phonological'system of spelling, in which each letter of the alphabet almost alwayscorresponds to one and only one `sound' of the speech.Consequently it isusually easy to know how to pronounce an Italian word found in a written text,by simply following some straightforward general rules, to which there are noexceptions.The same is true when we need to write down words that we haveheard in their spoken form.However sounds and letters do not always correspond.There are some sounds(`phonemes') which are represented by two or three letters (e.g.[ ]=sc-), andsome letters that can represent two different sounds (e.g.c can be either [k] or[t ] as in ca or ce).Below, you will find a table of the relationship between the written letters ofthe alphabet and the sounds of the spoken language, represented both with thesymbols of the International Phonetics Association (IPA) alphabet, and with someEnglish words in which similar sounds can be found.Following the table there are a few practical tips on some major difficulties ofItalian pronunciation faced by native English speakers.The alphabetThe Italian alphabet is composed of 21 letters.The letters k j w x y do not belongto the Italian alphabet, although they are often use to write words of foreignorigin.Letter Phoneme ExamplesA [a] amoreB [b] bocca, cibo444 APPENAIX ILetter Phoneme ExamplesC [k] c+cons.ca, co, cu, che, chi crudo, casa, chiesa[t ] cia, cio, ciu, ce, ci Luciano, cera, acciugaD [d] dono, piedeE [e] see notes elegante, perch�[�] see notes ecco, vieniF [f] facile, caff�G [g] g+cons.ga, go, gu, ghe, ghi grotta, gola, alghe[d ] gia, gio, giu, ge, gi rifugio, angeloH no aspiration in ItalianI [i] idea, idiota, missileL [l] lettera, colloM [m] mela, ombrelloN [n] naso, anno, intelligenteO [o] see notes voce, dito, ora[ ] see notes buono, ospite, AntonioP [p] pelle, spalla, tappoQ(U) [kw] acqua, questo, PasquaR [r] rosa, birra, pranzoS [s] see notes penso, solo, cassa[z] rosa, socialismoT [t] vita, petto, torreU [u] uva, auguri, burroV [v] volto, avventuraZ [dz] see notes socializzare, zero[ts] see notes palazzo, zucchero[ ]sc-+e, iscena, pesci, piscina+"sci-+a, o, u sciopero, usciamo, prosciutto[ ]gl-+igli, figli, consigligli-+e, a, o, u foglie, bottiglia, aglio[ ] gn-+vowel agnello, gnomo, ogniNotes1The letter hThe letter h does not represent any sound in Italian; it is not pronounced.It isused to distinguish different consonant sounds as in the case of [k] or [g] beforeAPPENAIX I 445e, i vowels: che chi ghe ghi, as opposed to ce ci [t +"e] [t i] or ge gi [d e] [di].+"2The consonants s and zEach of the two letters s and z corresponds to two different sounds: voiced [z][dz] and voiceless [s] [ts].This distinction is not considered important by Italianspeakers themselves.A few tips may however help in the pronunciation of thetwo different sounds of each letter:S is voiceless [s] at the beginning of a word, except before avoiced consonant (spesa, scala, sale, sordo)after a consonant (falso, pensare, corso)when double (passo, assicurazione, messa)voiced [dz] before a voiced consonant, even atbeginning of a word (asma, smetti)Z is voiceless [ts] after l (balzo, alzare, calze)in -ezza (bellezza, carezza, altezza)before -io -ia -ie (divorzio, zio, spazio, amicizia, pazienza)voiced [dz] before a voiced consonant, even when at beginning of wordin -izzare, -izzazione, etc.(nazionalizzare, privatizzazione)between vowels (ozono, azalea)3Open and closed vowelsThere are two pairs of open and closed vowels: [�] and [e], [ ] and [o].The openvowels only occur in stressed syllables.When unstressed they are always closed.The two different vowels are represented in writing by the same letters e and o.The distinction between the two sounds is not very important in spoken Italian;Italians themselves may disagree on the `correct' pronunciation of some words(especially when they speak different regional varieties of Italian).Where necessary, the open and closed vowels can be distinguished by using thegrave accent for the open sound � � and acute accent for the closed � ó; 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