Study Words

Challenge Words

1 Long e (\ē\) at the end of a word from Italian is usually spelled with i as in confetti, graffiti, zucchini, fantoccini, and many other words on the list. In Italian, a final i usually indicates a plural form. This is not always true, however, of Italian words in English.
2 Long o (\ō\) at the end of an Italian word is spelled with o as in incognito, stucco, virtuoso, vibrato, concerto, and many other words on the list.
3 A long e sound (\ē\) at the end of a word from Italian can be spelled with e as in provolone, finale, and one pronunciation of vivace, although this spelling of the sound is less common than i.
4 The \sh\ sound has various spellings in words from Italian; a spelling it usually doesn't have is sh! It can be spelled sc as in crescendo and prosciutto or ch as in charlatan and pistachio. The spelling of the \sh\ sound in capricious is also seen in words that come from Latin—the ancestral language of Italian.
5 The \k\ sound can be spelled cc when it comes before long o (\ō\) as in stucco or when it comes before \ä\ as in staccato.
6 Another Italian spelling of \k\ is ch as in scherzo. Compare to stucco.
7 The sound \ē-nē\, common at the end of Italian words (it forms diminutives), is usually spelled ini as in zucchini and fantoccini.
8 The double consonant zz is typically pronounced \ts\ in words from Italian, as in paparazzo.