and loanwords such as hat or hate. Numerous doubled consonants exist; French does not distinguish doubled consonants from single consonants in pronunciation as Italian does. A marked distinction exists between a single and doubled : doubled is always voiceless , while an intervocalic single is voiced . The nasal consonants and when final or preceding a consonant ordinarily nasalize a preceding vowel but are not themselves pronounced (faim, tomber, vin, vendre). Initial and intervocalic and , even before a final silent , are pronounced: aimer, jaune. Most final consonants are silent, usual exceptions to be found with the letters , , , and (the English word careful is mnemonic for this set). But even this rule has its exceptions: final is usually pronounced /e/ (=) rather than the expected /ɛʀ/. Final is silent after even in a diphthong (œil, appareil, travail). Final -ent is silent as a third-person plural verb ending, though it is pronounced in other cases. Final consonants that might be silent in other contexts (finally or before another consonant) may seem to reappear in pronunciation in liaison: ils ont "they have", as opposed to ils sont "they are"; liaison is the retention (between words in certain syntactic relationships) of a historical sound otherwise lost, and often has grammatical or lexical significance. Italian The letter most often marks a / as hard (velar), as in spaghetti, where it would otherwise be soft (palatal), as in cello, because of a following front vowel ( or ). * The digraph , used to represent before the back vowels and , has a silent . In contrast, the i is pronounced in . for has the same silent before and . When the is not silent it must be marked with a trema: . Before and , the is not silent. Silent is also used in forms of the verb avere ('have') – ho, hai and hanno – to distinguish these from their homophones o ('or'), ai ('to the') and anno ('year'). The letter is also silent at the beginning of words borrowed from other languages, such as hotel. Spanish Despite being rather phonemic, Spanish orthography retains some silent letters: is silent outside of the digraph and loanwords such as hámster or hachís. The digraph , used to represent before the front vowels and , has a silent . In contrast, the u is pronounced in . for has the same