Let’s get to the long awaited Latin consonants. Before we do that I just want to say that if you’re an English speaker or if you speak a Romance language like Italian, French or Spanish, you’ll probably relate to Latin a lot easier than someone who has no familiarity with a Romance language. Most of the consonants are pronounced like in English except for a few of the consonants:

The letter C is a harsh sound like Cat, not like the upper case C in Circus.

The letter A before the letter t or s is pronounced like a p

R’s are rolled like in Spanish

V is pronounced as a W never like the V in Vine

S is pronounced as Slide not like the s in eaSe

G is hard like Go, not like the g in briGht and not like the g in jumpinG

T is pronounced as a the t in naTive not like the t in naTion

Doubled consonants should have a slight pause. The double t should be pronounced like the word in rat trap, not slurred like the word for cattle.

Like English, Latin words can be divided into syllables. When a consonant is wedged between two vowels, the consonant will be attached to the second vowel. For instance, the word amiable in Latin can be divided into syllables like this: a – mā – bi – lis

For reference, the last syllable of a word is called ultima, the one next to the last is called penult, and the syllable before the penult is the antepenult.