Pronunciation: vowels

Italian for Beginners :

Good news is that most Americans already know how to pronounce Italian sounds as there are many Italian words that are used in English language. Italian vowels contrary to English vovels are ALWAYS pronounced in the same way regardless their positions in the words.

There are five written vowels in Italian language; they are a, e, i , o , u. Among these sounds there is no Italian sound that does not have an identical or fairly close English sound. Italian language does not use y, j and w instead it replaces them with i and u unless it is a word borrowed from English.

Enclosed below are examples of words that can be used to master pronunciation of certain vowels:

· O in all Italian words is always pronounced like in English word sport

· U is always pronounced like in words buongiorno or uno (as numero uno)
A and I are pronounced as in the world’s most known Italian word pizza

· A, E and I are pronounced like in the spaghetti

· A and E are pronounced as in Italian word latte

Here is an exercise for you to practice sounds pronunciations that we have just learned: ( of course push the play button to hear the audio )

Adagio
Al Dente
Alto
Antipasto
Banana
Biscotto
Brava
Bravo
Broccoli
Cappuccino
Carpaccio
Cello
Ciao
Confetti
Cupola
Donna
Espresso
Fiasco
Forte
Fresco
Gelato
Gondola
Grappa
Impresario
Influenza
Lasagna
Linguine
Lotto
Madonna
Mamma mia
Manifesto
Marinara
Monopoli
Mozzarella
Opera
Paparazzo
Pasta
Presto
Pronto
Propaganda
Prosciutto
Radicchio
Spaghetti
Stiletto
Stucco
Tempo
Terracotta
Tiramisu
Tuba
Villa
Zucchini

Now lets try with a word not in the English language
Patata
Mela
NoceMare
Senape

ITALIAN FOR BEGINNERS : VOWEL PRONUNCIATION : LEARN ITALIAN : ITALIAN LANGAGE LESSONS ONLINE

by Paolo Nascimbeni