Latin Pronunciation Guide

Vowels

Vowel	Pronunciation	Example
a	as in arm	ad, mater
e	as a in fate	me, video
i	as in machine	qui, ire
o	as in or	porta, omnis
u	as in tutor	cum, sumus

Dipthongs (two letters together that are pronounced as one sound)

Dipthong	Pronunciation	Example
ae	as a in fate	prae, illae
oe	as a in fate	coelum, coepi
au	as ou in out	aut, laudo

In a few instances, the individual vowels of ae and oe are pronounced separately. This is shown by a diaeresis (¨) over the second vowel. (e.g. Michaël, poëma)

Consonants (pronounced as in English with the following exceptions)

Consonant	Pronunciation	Example
c (before e or i)	as ch in church	certus, cibus
ch	as in ache	Christus
g (before e or i)	as in gentle	gens, agit
g (before other letters)	as in go	gratis, glória
gn	as ny in canyon	agnus, ignis
j (or consonant i)	as y in yes	Jesus, justus
s	as in sing (never as in raise)	miser, fides
sc (before a,o,u, or a consonant)	as sc in scope	scutum, Pascha
sc (before e and i)	as sh in shall	ascendere, scio
th	as in ten	Thomas
ti (when followed by a vowel and preceded by any letter except s, t, or x)	as tsee	gratia, totius
x (in words beginning ex followed by a vowel, h, or s)	as gs	exaudíre
x (in all other cases)	as ks	pax, excusáre