Pronunciation 7 - The Letters S and Z

The Letter Z

The letter z has two possible pronunciations: a voiced pronunciation and an unvoiced pronunciation. The voiced pronunciation sounds like the English combination dz and the unvoiced pronunciation sounds like the English combination ts.

Normally the voiced pronunciation occurs at the beginning of a word and the unvoiced pronunciation occurs in the middle of a word, as in the following examples.

	voiced z		unvoiced z		unvoiced z
	zero		grazie		pizza
	zona		senza		canzone
	zoo		silenzio		distanza
	zaino		alzare		calzino
	zebra		marzo		forza

However there are many exceptions, so generally you’ll need to learn the correct pronunciation of each word individually.

	unvoiced z		voiced z
	zio		azzurro
	zuppa		pranzo
	zucchero		benzina
	zampa		barzelletta

When the letter z appears between two vowels, whether it is voiced or unvoiced, it is always pronounced as though it were a doubled consonant. In other words, the preceding vowel is short and the consonant itself is elongated (see Lesson 3). It follows, therefore, that a single z and a double z have exactly the same pronunciation - in this regard the letter z is unlike all the other Italian consonants.

	single z		double z
	azione		ragazzo
	direzione		altezza
	spazio		tazze
	azienda		mezzo

The Letter S

Like the letter z, the letter s has two possible pronunciations: a voiced pronunciation and an unvoiced pronunciation. The voiced pronunciation sounds like the English s in rose. The unvoiced pronunciation sounds like the English s in base.

When the letter s comes before another consonant, it’s pronunciation depends on that other consonant. The s is voiced if it comes before a voiced consonant (b, d, g, l, m, n, r, v) and it is unvoiced if it comes before an unvoiced consonant (c, f, k, p, q, t).

	voiced s		unvoiced s
	sbaglio		scuro
	sdraio		tasca
	disgrazia		sfera
	trasloco		eskimo
	turismo		aspetto
	bisnonno		squalo
	sregolato		storia
	sveglia		posto

When a single s appears between two vowels it can be either voiced or unvoiced. Unfortuately there is no way to work out the correct pronunciation from the spelling so you’ll need to learn the pronunciation for each individual word.

	voiced s		unvoiced s
	lasagne		casa
	vaso		naso
	esatto		pesante
	chiesa		difesa
	francese		inglese
	disagio		risata
	viso		riso
	rosa		cosa
	uso		chiuso

In all other situations, s is unvoiced.

	unvoiced s		unvoiced s		unvoiced s
	sano		classe		gas
	sete		persona		gratis
	simile		penso		ananas
	sole		falso		autobus
	sugo		psicologo		chips

Exercise

The following exercise contains all the example Italian words from this lesson.