Are you starting to learn Italian and make confusion between "E" and "I"? Or between "CE" and "CHE"?

Are you leaving for Italy? Do you have little time to learn some Italian words that can help you survive a few days in Italy? To order a meal at the restaurant, to take a taxi, to ask for information?

 

Here is a small practical guide to Italian pronunciation!

 

Let's start with the accents: the majority of Italian words have the accent on the penultimate syllable, therefore, in Italian words, most of the time, the stress falls on the second-to-last syllable. So, for example, "castello" is pronounced: ca-STEL-lo, "risotto" is pronounced ri-SOT-to, " Venice "is pronounced Ve-NE-zia", “ambasciata" is pronounced am-ba-SCIA-ta (the

"SCIA" is pronounced as in SHower")

 

For example, in English <em>'Giovanni is at home'</em> is an affirmative sentence. This phrase in order to become interrogative must change the order of the words in: <em>'is Giovanni at home?'</em> In Italian, on the other hand, word order is less binding, consequently, the intonation becomes indispensable.

The different intonation allows you to distinguish an affirmative sentence from an interrogative one.

For example: <em>'Giovanni è a casa'</em> is an affirmation and it must be pronounced with a descending intonation. Instead in: <em>'Giovanni è a casa?</em>' the word order is identical, but the intonation will be ascending because the sentence is interrogative.

 

Let's move on to the vowels. Remember that in Italian there are many vowels and that almost all Italian words end with a vowel and you have to pronounce them all!

But their pronunciation is very simple, compared to English where the same vowels can be pronounced very differently (for example: clOUd vs thrOUgh). In Italian, instead, the vowels are almost always said in the same way!

So remember that:

 

"A" is pronounced like the "a" in father,

"I" as "ee" in greet or as the "i" in machine,

"U" is pronounced as the "u" in rule

"E" is pronounced open as in bet or closed as in moment

"O" is pronounced open as in office or closed as in ball

 

The consonants, on the other hand, are pronounced very similarly to the English ones, but there are exceptions.

 

•         The letter "C" before "I" or "E" is pronounced as "ch", as in chin or in chess. Try saying "ciao" (hello) and "cena" (dinner)

•         "G" before "I" or "E" is pronounced as “g” in ginger or in general. Try saying: "giorno" (day) and "gelato" (ice-cream).

•         "H" is always silent but in the "che" or "chi" group modifies the sound of "C" in “k” as in kettle or kid and in the group "ghe" or "ghi" modifies the sound of "G" as in get or give. Try saying "forchetta" (fork), "chiesa" (church), "spaghetti" or "ghiaccio" (ice).

•         "Q" is always accompanied by the letter "U", as in "when" and is pronounced as / kw / as in square.

•         "Z" may sound like “ds” in lads but also as “ts” in sets: it also depends on the regional pronunciation.

 

Got that? All very simple, right? Well, Italian is a highly phonetic language, which means that each sound is, almost, always graphically represented by the same combination of letters. More or less: it’s written the way it sounds. This makes it fairly easy for English speakers to learn Italian pronunciation, compared to other languages.

There is something, however, that confuses everything, and is the regional or dialectal pronunciation. Italy, the country with a thousand cities, is also the country with a thousand dialects, but this topic requires another article.

If you want to read the Italian version of this article, have a look to my blog: <a href="https://timetolearnitalian.wordpress.com/2018/12/11/una-piccola-guida-alla-pronuncia-italiana/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://timetolearnitalian.wordpress.com/2018/12/11/una-piccola-guida-alla-pronuncia-italiana/</a>;