All you need to know about c's

The pronunciation of 'c' followed by a vowel in Italian is often difficult to work out at beginners' level. It becomes actually quite straightforward when you consider the following 'rule':

When 'c' is followed by a, o, u it is pronounced as a k, as in casa (/kasa/), cortile (/kortile/), curva (/kurva/). When 'c' is followed by i or e, it is pronounced as English 'ch', as in cinema (/chinema/), cena (/chena/)...