Italian All-in-One For Dummies (7 page)

bere
(
beh
-reh) (
to drink
)

The Italian
e
actually has two pronunciations: an open
e
and a closed
e.
The open
e
sounds like the
e
in the English words
exit
and
bet
and in the Italian
ecco
(
ehk
-koh) (
here we go
) (
here it is
),
è
(
eh
) (
he/she/it is
), and
festa
(
feh-
stah) (
party
). You pronounce the closed
e
like the
a
in the English words
late
and
day,
such as in the Italian words
e
(eh) (
and
),
nemico
(neh-
mee-
koh) (
enemy
), and
nome
(
noh-
meh) (
name
). How do you know when to pronounce the open or closed
e?
You listen to many Italian songs and native Italian speakers and follow their lead.

The vowel “i”

The Italian
i
is simply pronounced (ee), as in the English word
see.
Here are some examples:

cinema
(
chee
-neh-mah) (
cinema
)

bimbo
(
beem
-boh) (
little boy
)

vita
(
vee
-tah) (
life
)

The vowel “o”

The Italian
o
is pronounced as the
o
in the English (from the Italian)
piano,
and the pronunciation appears as (oh). Try it out on the following words:

domani
(doh-
mah
-nee) (
tomorrow
)

piccolo
(
peek
-koh-loh) (
little; small
)

dolce
(
dohl
-cheh) (
sweet
)

Just as the
e
has two pronunciations for the open or closed
e,
so does the
o.
You pronounce the open
o
in Italian like the
o
in the English word
soft:
buono
(
bwoh-
noh) (
good
),
notte
(
noht-
teh) (
night
), and
nove
(
noh
-veh) (
nine
). The closed
o
sounds like the English word
cold,
which you see in Italian words like
sole
(
soh
-leh) (
sun
),
voto
(
voh-
toh) (
vow
), and
torta
(
tohr-
tah) (
cake
). Again, the best way to get familiar with the two pronunciations is to listen to native Italian speakers and practice.

The vowel “u”

The Italian
u
always sounds like the English (ooh), as the
oo
in
zoo.
Here are some sample words:

tu
(tooh) (
you
)

luna
(
looh
-nah) (
moon
)

frutta
(
frooht
-tah) (
fruit
)

Pronunciation peculiarities

You'll come across some sounds and spellings that aren't so familiar, for example:

ohy as the
oi
in
oink:
noi
(nohy) (
we
)