Please consider revisiting us in this space weekly, as we will provide an updated language tutorial every Tuesday. In keeping with one of our five core initiatives (“Promote learning and use of Italian language”), we will earnestly begin our ongoing electronic tutorial. We will focus on vocabulary first, and evolve into rudimentary grammar. But we’ll begin with some basic pronunciation rules that you can apply across your ever-broadening mother-tongue lexicon:
In general, the second-to-last syllable receives emphasis in an Italian word. For example, in the three-syllable word spa-ghet-ti, the “ghet” is the second-to-last syllable, and therefore emphasized. Spah-get’-tee is the phonetic version of the word. Note: There are exceptions to this rule, but it applies in the vast majority of cases.
In English, our vowels have long and short sounds. Italian is simpler. Three of the five vowels has a single basic pronunciation, while the other two have a second sound. So, in English, we have 10 possible vowel sounds while Italian yields only 7:
A is short, as in the English word “father,” sounding like “ah.”
E has two versions, “eh,” as in sette (see the number seven below) or “ay” as in sera (Buona sera means “good evening”)
I is always long, sounding like “ee,” as in lira (the old Italian currency).
O can be long or short. Like “oh,” in the case of Roma, or “aw” as in “gnocchi.”
U is always like “oo.” Think of the word “fusilli,” for example.
What does every student learn first when it comes to a foreign language? Counting. Let’s begin with scaling from 0 to 20.
0 Zero
1 Uno
2 Due
3 Tre
4 Quattro
5 Cinque
6 Sei
7 Sette
8 Otto
9 Nove
10 Dieci
11 Undici
12 Dodici
13 Tredici
14 Quattordici
15 Quindici
16 Sedici
17 Diciasette
18 Diciotto
19 Diciannove
20 Venti
Finally, Italians pronounce every letter. so DUE is a two-syllable word. Doo’-ay, phonetically. Those terminal e’s that so many Italian words feature result in a final “eh” or “ay” at the end of so many words.
