Italian Pronunciation

The Italian alphabet has 5 vowel letters, a, e, i, o, and u. Of those vowels, only “a” has one sound value while each of the others has 2.
In Italian there is no phonemic distinction between short and long vowels. However, vowels in stressed open syllables are long, except when word is final.

in general, the pronunciation of vowels in the Italian language does not change with other letters like English

Italian letters and their English sound:

a (ah)
e (eh)
i (ee)
o (oh)
u (oo)
ai (eye)
au (ow)
ei (ay)
ia (yah)
ie (yeh)
io (yoh)
iu (yoo)
ua (wah)
ue (weh)
uo (woh)
ui (wee)
ci  (chi)
ce (che)
gi (zh)
sci (sh)
sch (sk)
aia (ah-yah)
aio (ah-yoh)
iei (ee-yay)
uio (oo-yoh)
uoi (oo-oy)
ch (k)
h (silent)
r (trilled)

As a general rule, the sound of Italian vowels is not affected by other letters however there are some exceptions with the letter “I”:

CI + vowel - In this case, yhe I loses its sound. (For example: cia sounds like cha)
CH + I or E - The letter H between C and E/I gives it a hard sound (For example chi sounds like Ki)

SC + I or E - Sounds like an English sh
SCI + vowel Thee sound of i is lost. (For example: scia sounds like sha in English)

GI + vowel - In this case I becomes mute. (For example: gia sounds like ja).
GH + I or E - The letter H between G and E/I gives it a hard sound (For example chi sounds like Ki)
GLI + vowel - The sound of i is lost; glia sounds like Spanish lla (Does not exist in Elnglish)

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