Italian Pronunciation

This is a book on Italian pronunciation. Since it does not come with sound, it’s a good idea to listen to your teacher or other Italian-speaking person who can pronounce the words for you.

Italian pronunciation is not difficult, but there are a few traps in Italian.The most notable is that the position of the stressed syllable is not shown in written Italian, when it is in a non-standard position.

As in all my books, I write the standard written Italian accent marks on words that are accented on the last syllable, as in città, and also write it on words that are accented on the third-from-last syllable and the fourth-from-last syllable as well. Do not write this extra accent mark when writing Italian.

Do you know where to put the stress accent in words ending in IA? This book shows you a list, indicating the correct position.

Do you know how to pronounce Italian place names, such as Brindisi, Sassari and Taranto? this book shows you where to put the stress accent on 40 names of Italian localities.

Can you distinguish between Italian words which differ only in the doubling of a consonant? Can you pronounce "anno" so it doesn't sound like "ano"? The book has a list of the more important words distinguished by the doubling of a consonant.

There are significant regional differences in how Italian is pronounced. I have striven to provide a pronunciation that will be understood throughout Italy.

This book is currently being used in Italian classes taught by the author.

The author founded Second Language, LLC in Vernon CT, USA, in 2005, and has taught Italian there for about 11 years. He is currently teaching Italian, and is highly enamored of Italian culture, and the Italian language. This book is being used quite successfully as a text for Italian lessons.