Chapter 2 – The Italian Accent and Pronunciation

Any spoken language involves the usage of an audible accent. In some cases, stressing a particular syllable of a word can completely change its meaning. More often than not, however, stresses have been decided arbitrarily a long time ago, and have then been passed on to others over time.

Many words in the any language provide a hint on which syllable must be stressed. This is denoted through the use of the following accents: acute (́) or grave (`). The Italian language, however primarily relies on the grave accent rather a combination of the two, like how other languages do.

To illustrate this, here are Italian words with their respective accents. Take note of the pronunciation of each word. The italicized syllable corresponds with the accent of the given word.

• “università” (ooh-nee-vehr-see-tah ) – “university”
• “caffè” (kahf-feh ) – “coffee”
• “lunedì” (looh-neh-dee ) – “Monday”
• “però” (peh-roh ) – “but”
• “virtù” (veer -tooh) – “virtue”

In the Italian language, accents can only be found among the vowels. As a general rule, almost every Italian word that ends with a vowel features the grave accent (`). However, for the rest of the words that do not use accented vowels, such instances can be quite challenging for novice Italian speakers.

There are many rules and exceptions that you must learn in order to fully master the Italian accent. Going through the entire list may be overwhelming for beginners. To aid you on this, here are some effective techniques that you can apply when you decided to go for a heuristic approach in learning the Italian accent.

• Most Italians tend to stress a word in either the last syllable or the penultimate—or second to the last—syllable.
• If the stress is applied on the very last syllable, a grave accent is used to mark this.
  • “faro” (fah-roh ) – “will do” or “make”
  • “gioventù” (joh-vehn-tooh ) – “youth”
• Words with exactly two syllables are stressed on the first syllable. Due to the short length of the word, this does not typically affect the overall pronunciation of the word. For instance:
  • “fame” (fah -meh) – “hunger”
  • “madre" (mah -dreh) – “mother”
• The middle syllable of words is normally stressed among words that feature three syllables. Here are some sample words to illustrate this principle:
  • “capire” (kah-peeh -reh) – “to understand”
  • “domani” (doh-mah -nee) – “tomorrow”
• The typical location of stress for words with at least four syllables is on the third to the last syllable, as illustrated by the following words:
  • “preparare” (preh-pah -rah-reh) – “to prepare”
  • “scivolare” (skeeh-voh -lah-reh) – “to slip”

One of the many good things about the Italian language is that only few words are spelled exactly the same, but bears different meanings depending on the accent used. To an untrained ear, there is no discernible change in the pronunciation, so the distinction is mainly found in the written form of such words.

This principle is mostly observed among monosyllabic words. For example:

• a/à
  • “a” (ah) – “at” or “to”
  • “à” (ah) – “has”
• da/dà
  • “da” (dah) – “from”
  • “dà” (dah ) – “gives”
• di/dì
  • “di” (deeh) – “of”
  • “dì” (deeh ) – “day”
• do/dò
  • “do” (doh) – “one of the basic musical notes”
  • “dò” (doh ) – “I give”
• e/è
  • “e” (eh) – “and”
  • “è” (eh ) – “is”

• la/là
  • “la” (lah) – “the”
  • “là" (lah ) – “there”
• li/lì
  • “li” (leeh) – “them”
  • “lì” (leeh ) – “there”
• se/sè
  • “se” (seh) – “if”
  • “sè” (seh ) – “oneself”
• si/sì
  • “si” (seeh) – “one of the reflexive pronouns”
  • “sì” (seeh ) – “yes”

The grave accent, though tiny and unassuming, made all the difference between the two words. Learning how to properly use and read accents could also spell the difference between being fluent in Italian and being misunderstood by the people around you.

Tips and Techniques on Mastering the Basics of Italian Pronunciation

The key to overcoming difficulties in pronouncing new words is patience. Do not rush the process since doing so would only be counterintuitive to your progress. Keep in mind that the primary objective of this step of your journey is to be able to speak the Italian language in an understandable manner.

To better learn pronunciations, here are some essentials tips and techniques that you might want to apply.

1. Relax your facial muscles. Many Italian words would require you to move around your mouth in ways that you do not typically do when speaking your mother tongue. As a warm up, you might want to consider doing short, repetitive lips and tongue exercises to familiarize your muscles with the motions involved.
2. Divide words into syllables. Whether it is a long word or a two-syllable word, chopping a single Italian word into its parts would allow you to sound out properly. This would then give you an opportunity to identify points for improvement and correct any mistakes that you are making.
3. Listen regularly to recordings of spoken Italian language. As you listen, try to mimic the words you hear, and pretend that you are fluent in Italian as well.
4. If you know someone who is a native or experienced Italian speaker, engage in actual conversations or discussions with them. Observe how they produce the correct sounds, especially for words that you are having trouble with. Ask them if they could listen to your pronunciations and then point out where else you could improve on.
5. To master the pronunciation of a word, practice sounding it out loud on its own before moving on to using the word in a phrase, a sentence, or to make it more fun, a tongue twister.

Exercise

Answer the following questions to check your understanding of the Italian accent and pronunciation.

1. Which type of accent is applicable to Italian words?
2. Which syllable must be stressed for words that has only three syllables in them?
3. If an Italian word has four syllables, which syllable must be stressed?

Answer Key:

1. grave accent
2. middle syllable
3. third to the last syllable