{"id":22622,"date":"2014-07-16T09:00:31","date_gmt":"2014-07-16T14:00:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/selectitaly.com\/blog\/?p=16622"},"modified":"2021-01-20T14:23:53","modified_gmt":"2021-01-20T14:23:53","slug":"italian-pronunciation-101","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/selectitaly.com\/blog\/all-you-can-italy\/italian-pronunciation-101\/","title":{"rendered":"Italian Pronunciation 101"},"content":{"rendered":"

You started out with great intentions to learn the entire Italian language before your trip to Italy. But, as it often does, life gets in the way, and you weren’t even to get able to get past lesson four of the Rosetta Stone<\/em>. No need to fret, though, you definitely aren’t the only one of a huge network of Italian travelers who do not speak the language and hope is not lost for you to stills impress your Italian hosts – the simple but ever useful secret? Pronunciation. Say the names of the hotels, the dish, and your guide correctly, and you’ve got a definite in. Not going to Italy anytime soon? Use these tips the next time you go out to an Italian restaurant and wow<\/em> your fellow diners as well as your waiter!<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Italian<\/a>
Italian is spoken as a second language by 14 million people<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Letters that were in the original Italian alphabet<\/span><\/h2>\n

First rule of Italian pronunciation: everything in the original Italian alphabet (which does not include the letters) is pronounced literally and every single letter is pronounced\u00a0<\/span>(silent letters don’t exist in Italian – why make a word harder than it should be?) An\u00a0L\u00a0<\/i>sounds like la an R<\/em>\u00a0sounds like ra. Vowels sound like they do in most other Romance languages: ah,<\/em> ey,<\/em> ee,<\/em>\u00a0oh, oo<\/em>. Easy enough, right? Let’s try this little test. Try pronouncing the following words then click on the hyperlinks to hear the actual pronunciations\u00a0in Italian by clicking the Listen\u00a0<\/em>button on the word’s page\u00a0in\u00a0the infinitely useful online dictionary, WordReference.com<\/span>
1) Mano<\/a><\/span>
2) tavola<\/a><\/span>
3) strada<\/a><\/span>
4)\u00a0albero<\/a><\/span>
5) scacciapensieri\u00a0(J<\/span>ust kidding! We will\u00a0go over how to pronounce this one, which follows the rules as long as you know them, below)<\/span><\/p>\n

Letters which are not in the Italian alphabet<\/span><\/h2>\n

Let’s start with H<\/em>. Remember how we said you pronounce every single letter and Italian word? H<\/i>\u00a0is kind of the exception. This letter does not exist except for in borrowed words in Italian, and Italians as a whole have a difficult time trying to pronounce it. And therefore, in line with the Italian philosophy of “If it’s too hard, don’t do it,<\/em>” they often don’t. \u00a0So, after you check into your Venice ‘otel<\/em>, head over to ‘arry’s<\/em> Bar for an aperitivo<\/em> from an ‘andsome<\/em> waiter. Or for another example of language evolution, take the Italian word for\u00a0horrible, which is orribile<\/em>. Look familiar, sans one very obvious English sounding H?<\/span><\/p>\n

\"sundowner-344094_640\"<\/a>
“A Day in the Life of an Italian” – 6pm: stopping at a bar for an aperitivo of Spritz<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The rest of the consonants are fairly easy (and also forgivable if you make up, since they aren’t real <\/em>Italian letters).\u00a0For W<\/em>‘s, Italy takes a page out of Germany’s book and pronounces this letter like the English V<\/em>\u00a0– Walter<\/em> is Valter<\/em>. This meets its exception\u00a0when the borrowed word is from English, like web<\/em>. The letter\u00a0K<\/em>\u00a0only appears in foreign words and names and enjoys the same hard C<\/em>\u00a0sound as in English. J<\/em> hasn’t quite been decided on by Italians, as it appears in some ancient or dialect words in which it sounds like Y<\/em>\u00a0(as in Juventus<\/em><\/a> or the Friulian soup Jota<\/em>) but also appears as the English-sounding ‘J’ in words recently introduced such as Jessica.<\/span><\/p>\n

C’s and G’s<\/span><\/h2>\n

When paired with\u00a0A, O,<\/em>\u00a0and U<\/em>, these two consonants act like they do with any other letter (hard\u00a0C\u00a0<\/em>and hard\u00a0G<\/em>). However, when E<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0I<\/em> are thrown in the mix, the situation becomes slightly more complicated. Ce<\/em> and Ci<\/em> make the ‘ch’ sound (just think ciao<\/em>! Or pace –<\/em> peace) while adding an H<\/em>\u00a0in the mix returns them back the the normal hard C<\/em>\u00a0(chiesa<\/em> -church- is a good example). G<\/em> works the same way –\u00a0Ge<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0Gi\u00a0<\/em>are softer, as in giraffe, while\u00a0ghe\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0ghi<\/em> make the hard sound like girl. Try these words for practice!
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

1) pace<\/a><\/span>
2)\u00a0bicicletta<\/a><\/span>
3) ghiaccio<\/a><\/span>
4)\u00a0gelato<\/a><\/span>
5) chiaro<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

\"Gelato<\/a>
Gelato is without any doubt a useful word to know when in Italy<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Double Consonants…<\/span><\/h2>\n

Make a HUGE difference in Italian. Rosa<\/em> (a rose) is the color rosa<\/em> (pink) and residents of the Veneto ride a cavallo<\/em> (horse) before eating cavolo<\/em> (cabbage). Every letter and sound is pronounced, even when you have two of the same back to back! The trick is not to restart the sound completely over again, but to hold the sound a bit longer than you feel is natural and give it a little emphasis half way through. Practice makes perfect, and this one needs a lot of it – try the following words out!
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

1) zucchero<\/a><\/span>
2) pomeriggio<\/a><\/span>
3) pizza<\/a> (thought we’d give you a break on this one)<\/span>
4) raccomandazione<\/a><\/span>
5) azzurro<\/a><\/span>
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

Questions, tips or thoughts on Italian pronunciation? Leave them below!<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Martina shares simple but useful tips about the ultimate Italian language secret: pronunciation!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":22687,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[337],"tags":[671,1066,1178,1940,1939,649],"class_list":["post-22622","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-you-can-italy","tag-italian","tag-language","tag-learn-italian","tag-learning-italian-tips","tag-study-italian","tag-tips"],"yoast_head":"\nItalian Pronunciation 101 - It's All About Italy<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/selectitaly.com\/blog\/all-you-can-italy\/italian-pronunciation-101\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Italian Pronunciation 101 - It's All About Italy\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Martina shares simple but useful tips about the ultimate Italian language secret: pronunciation!\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/selectitaly.com\/blog\/all-you-can-italy\/italian-pronunciation-101\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"It's All About Italy\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-07-16T14:00:31+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-01-20T14:23:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/selectitaly.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/possible-379215_640.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"640\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"472\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Select Italy\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Select Italy\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/selectitaly.com\\\/blog\\\/all-you-can-italy\\\/italian-pronunciation-101\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/selectitaly.com\\\/blog\\\/all-you-can-italy\\\/italian-pronunciation-101\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Select Italy\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/selectitaly.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/5cd6bb8d85286f98fe2a5cb85526165a\"},\"headline\":\"Italian Pronunciation 101\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-07-16T14:00:31+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-01-20T14:23:53+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/selectitaly.com\\\/blog\\\/all-you-can-italy\\\/italian-pronunciation-101\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":834,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/selectitaly.com\\\/blog\\\/all-you-can-italy\\\/italian-pronunciation-101\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/selectitaly.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2014\\\/07\\\/possible-379215_640.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"italian\",\"language\",\"learn italian\",\"Learning Italian Tips\",\"Study Italian\",\"tips\"],\"articleSection\":[\"All You Can Italy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/selectitaly.com\\\/blog\\\/all-you-can-italy\\\/italian-pronunciation-101\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/selectitaly.com\\\/blog\\\/all-you-can-italy\\\/italian-pronunciation-101\\\/\",\"name\":\"Italian Pronunciation 101 - 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