Italian alphabet consists of 21 Latin letters. Five letters: J, K, W, X and Y are not part of the proper alphabet, and appear only in loanwords, foreign names, and in a handful of native words, which all derive from regional languages. The Italian alphabet is the shortest European alphabet.

Italian orthography also includes some letters with diacritical marks: à, è, é, ì, í, î, ò, ó, ù, ú. They are used to show accents at the end of a word (caffè, perché). An open-mid vowel is marked with the grave accent ˋ . It is always written on “a”, “i” and “u”. A close-mid vowel is written with the acute accent ˊ .