Today’s Parola del giorno is the masculine invariable noun l’ÙFO, which means UFO or unidentified flying object.

In English, this word is an initialism - we say each of the letter: You-Eff-Oh. In Italian, l’UFO is an acronym so it is pronounced as a word.

Sometimes you will also hear on the news or in military reports the initialism written or spoken as “unidentified flying object.”

In Italian, the individual letters are not mentioned. No one would ever say “U-effe-o.”

When spelled out, the noun is no longer invaraible: un oggetto volante non identificato or an unidentified flying object.

Can you think of some other acronyms or initialisms in Italian?