Alphabet
The Italian alphabet is different to that of the English one.
The English Alphabet is:
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Whereas, the Italian Alphabet is:
A B C D E F G H I L M N O P Q R S T U V Z
The difference is the lack of: J K W X Y - which do appear in Italian, but only for loanwords (words foreign to Italy).
Vowels & Consonants
The letters of the Italian Alphabet are broken into two groups; Vowels and Consonants, and they are as follows:
Vowels: A E I O U
Consonants: B C D F G H L M N P Q R S T V Z
However, in Italian grammar, consonants are not treated equally when they appear at the beginning of a word.
Italian grammar distinguishes between different types of initial consonant sounds, which directly affect article usage.
Nouns can either begin with either a simple or a complex initial sound.
Simple Sound: these begin with a single consonant sound, like: B C D F G L M N P Q R T V, or an S followed by a vowel. For example: libro, cane, pane, and sole. These sounds are considered simple for grammatical purposes.
Complex Sound: these occur when a word begins with a consonant cluster or a special consonant sound, like: Z GN PS, or an S followed by a consonant (like sp, st, etc). For example: studente, zaino, gnomo, and psicologo. These sounds are treated as a separate group in Italian grammar.
We also have letts like H which is silent and does not create a sound on it's own, and Q which is always followed by U and behaves like a simple consonant sound.
Being able to recognise these later will be a crucial element of learning Italian grammar. We'll really see this take place in "Articles".
Gender
In Italian grammar, nouns are separated into three groups; Masculine, Feminine, and Either.
Masculine words end in either an E or an O, for example; nome and padre, libro and ragazzo.
Feminine words end in either an E or an A, for example; notte and madre, casa and ragazza.
E is the either element becuase it can be either masculine or feminine. The way we determine the gender is using: article, adjective, and what the meaning is.
Numerical
In Italian grammar, there is a numerical factor to consider, and that is: Singular and Plural.
Singluar, meaning one, is when the noun is a singluar thing, for example, la cosa rossa (the red thing).
Plural, meaning more than one, is when the noun is a plural thing, for example, le cose rosse (the red things).
The difference between singular and plural being the use of the last letters of the words that are a article, noun, and adjective.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the Italian grammar system utilises gender (masculine and feminine) and numerical (singular and plural) to decide how a sentence is structured. It determines the article, noun, adjective, and other grammatical elements (we'll get to them). Vowels and consonants helps in this, by pinpointing which version to use.
For example, whether the consonant is simple or complex, the type of article we use is different.