Familiarize yourself with the order of the Italian alphabet. There are only 21 letters in Italian, so the alphabet does not include the five English letters "j," "k," "w," "x" or "y." Understand that you can only use these letters in Italian if they appear in foreign loan words. Note that the letter "h" is also rarely used.
Study the Italian vowels. There are five Italian vowels which correspond to only seven vowel sounds, compared to approximately 15 sounds in English. This means that Italian vowels are normally pure, and you should always pronounce them in the same way, regardless of their position in a word. Listen to the correct pronunciation of the Italian vowels and repeat the sounds aloud until you are confident that you can reproduce the sounds correctly.
Learn the Italian consonants. The consonants "b," "f," "m," "n" and "v" are pronounced exactly the same as in English. Other consonants may require more practice. The Italian "r," for example, should be either flipped or trilled, which may be difficult for native English speakers. Be aware that the pronunciation of some consonants changes depending on the vowel that follows them. Pronounce the letter "c" hard like the "c" in "cat" when followed by "o," "a" or "u," but pronounce it softly like the "ch" in "cheese" when it comes before "i" or "e."