How to say a word in italian

Home

About

Blog

Contact Us

Log In

Sign Up

Follow Us

Our Apps

Home>Words that start with W>word>English to Italian translation

How to Say Word in ItalianAdvertisement

Categories:
Communication
Linguistics

If you want to know how to say word in Italian, you will find the translation here. We hope this will help you to understand Italian better.

Here is the translation and the Italian word for word:

parola
Edit

Word in all languages

Dictionary Entries near word

  • woolen
  • woollen
  • woolly
  • word
  • word for word
  • word formation
  • wording

Cite this Entry

«Word in Italian.» In Different Languages, https://www.indifferentlanguages.com/words/word/italian. Accessed 14 Apr 2023.

Copy

Copied

Check out other translations to the Italian language:

  • assimilation
  • call
  • Have a seat
  • hotline
  • How do you say that in English?
  • I agree with you
  • Sorry about that
  • What happened?
  • When is the next bus to Chicago?
  • You don’t look your age

Browse Words Alphabetically

Ezoicreport this ad

Let’s take a closer look at the conversation. Do you remember how Ben asks, «How do you say «book» in Italian?» Come si dice «book» in italiano? The standard way to ask for the meaning of a word in Italian follows a simple pattern. First is come, translating as «How» in this context. Come. Come. Next is si dice. «One says.» Si dice. Si, «one,» roughly translating as, «one» as in «one says.» Si . si. Next is the word, dice, «says,» as in «one says.» Dice. Dice is from the verb, dire, meaning «to say.» Dire. Together, Come si dice, literally, «How one says,» but translates as, «how [does] one say.» Come si dice. After this is the English word, «book.» Last is the phrase, in italiano, meaning «in Italian.» In italiano. First is, in, «in.» In. In. After this is, italiano.»Italian,» as in «the Italian language.» Italiano. Italiano. Note, when the context is clear, you may omit in italiano. All together, Come si dice «book» in italiano? means something like «How one says «book» in Italian?» but translates as, «How [does] one say «book» in Italian?» and in more natural English, «How do you say «book» in Italian?» Note the rising intonation of the sentence to mark that it’s a question. Come si dice «book» in italiano? Let’s take a closer look at the response. Do you remember how Federica says, «You say ‘book.'» Si dice «libro,» First is the phrase, si dice, which literally means «one says,» but translates here as «you say.» Si dice. After this is the answer to the question, libro, «Book.» Libro. Libro. All together Si dice «libro» literally means «One says «book,» but it translates as «You say «book.»» Si dice «libro,» The pattern is: Come si dice «{ENGLISH WORD}» in italiano? How do you say «{ENGLISH WORD}» in Italian? Come si dice «{ENGLISH WORD}» in italiano? To use this pattern, simply replace the {ENGLISH WORD} placeholder with the word you want to know. Imagine you want to know the Italian word for «pen.» Ask «How do you say «pen» in Italian?» Ready? Come si dice «pen» in italiano? «How do you say «pen» in Italian?» Come si dice «pen» in italiano? This lesson introduces a grammatically complex, but commonly used, pattern: the impersonal form with si. The si-construction is used to express what people do in general, rather than point to a specific person. The pattern is si plus a verb in the third person. The example used in the lesson was si dice, «one says.» Let’s quickly look at a few more examples. Si chiama, one calls, as in, «One calls it «a book,»» Si mangia, one eats, as in, «One eats a lot at Christmas.» Si dorme, one sleeps, as in «One sleeps late on Saturday.»

Italian pronunciation is much easier than you can imagine. Why? Because Italian is a highly phonetic language. This means that each sound is (almost) always graphically represented by the same combination of letters (vowels and/or consonants.) Once you have learned a few rules, you can correctly pronounce any Italian word, even if you’ve never heard it spoken before!

THE ALPHABET
The Italian alphabet consists of twenty-one letters, plus five (j, k, w, x, y) that are used almost exclusively for words imported directly from other languages (jazz, bunker, kiwi, yogurt, etc.). Every letter is pronounced except h, which is always silent. The table below lists all the letters of the Italian alphabet with their names and keys indicating the proper way to pronounce them.

To practice the alphabet pronunciation, use Quizlet.

A (a) B (bi) C (ci) D (di) E (e) F (effe) G (gi)
H (acca) I (i) L (elle) M (emme) N (enne) O (o) P (pi)
Q (cu) R (erre) S (esse) T (ti) U (u) V (vi/vu) Z (zeta)
J (I lunga) K (cappa) W (vu doppia) X (ics) Y (ipsilon)

[Relax and enjoy The Alphabet with Passione Italiana]

  • To ask how to spell a word in Italian you say Come si scrive + noun?
  • To answer the question you say  Si scrive + spelling

Listen to a few examples:

Come si scrive “albero”Si scrive A – ELLE – BI – E – ERRE – O;  Come si scrive “casa”Si scrive CI – A – ESSE – A.

  • To ask how to pronounce a word in Italian you say Come si pronuncia + noun?
  • To answer the question you say  Si pronuncia + pronunciation.

Listen to a few examples:

Come si pronuncia “albero”Si pronuncia alberoCome si pronuncia “casa”Si pronuncia casa.

  • To ask how to say a word or a phrase in Italian you say Come si dice +English word or phrase + in italiano ?
  • To answer the question you say  Si dice + Italian word or phrase.

Listen to a few examples:

Come si dice tree” in italianoSi dice alberoCome si dice housein italianoSi dice casa.

  • To ask what an Italian words or phrase means in English you say Cosa significa + Italian word or phrase?
  • To answer the question you say  Significa + English word or phrase.

Listen to a few examples:

Cosa significa alberoSignifica tree“;  Cosa significa casaSignifica house“.

[Relax and enjoy Come si dice? and Come si scrive? with Passione Italiana ]


Previous > The Italian you can speak without knowing a word of Italian
Next > Pronunciation 2: The vowels



Italian


Italian


All Languages


Quiz


Collections



{{app[‘fromLang’][‘value’]}} -> {{app[‘toLang’][‘value’]}}


{{app[‘user_lang_model’]}}




x

  • Pronounce

  • Translate
  • Collections
  • Quiz


Italian


Afrikaans


Albanian


Amharic


Arabic


Armenian


azerbaijan


Basque


Bengali


Bosnian


Bulgarian


Burmese


Catalan


Chinese


Croatian


Czech


Danish


Dutch


English


Esperanto


Estonian


Filipino


Finnish


French


Galician


Georgian


German


Greek


Gujarati


Hebrew


Hindi


Hungarian


Icelandic


Indonesian


Irish


Japanese


Javanese


Kannada


Kazakh


Khmer


Korean


Laotian


Latin


Latvian


Lithuanian


Macedonian


Malay


Malayalam


Maltese


Marathi


Mongolian


Nepali


Norwegian


Pashto


Persian


Polish


Portuguese


Romanian


Russian


Serbian


Sinhala


Slovak


Slovenian


Somali


Spanish


Sundanese


Swahili


Swedish


Tamil


Telugu


Thai


Turkish


Ukrainian


Urdu


Uzbek


Vietnamese


Welsh


Zulu

All Languages


Italian



Arabic



Burmese



Chinese



English



French



German



Hindi



Indonesian



Japanese



Korean



Portuguese



Russian



Spanish



Turkish


{{temp[‘translated_content’]}}

italian pronunciation guide

Italian is a beautiful language with impressive peaks and valleys and spectacular rhythms and melodies. But Italian pronunciation can seem anything but simple as a beginner.

When you’re a new Italian learner and you listen to a fluent speaker, you might think, “How could I ever make those sounds!?”

But though it might seem intimidating and exotic at first, Italian pronunciation is actually very, very easy.

In fact, one thing that sets Italian apart from other languages is that the pronunciation rules are absolutely constant.

Italian is completely phonetic.

This means that once you learn the rules, you can correctly pronounce ANY Italian word you see written down, even if you’ve never heard it spoken before!

This article will teach you the rules of Italian pronunciation, so you can get started speaking with confidence right away.

Once you’ve spent some time practicing pronouncing words using these rules, your mouth and your mind will start to catch onto the patterns.

Before you know it, correct Italian pronunciation will become second nature.

By the way, if you’re determined to master Italian pronunciation, I recommend Italian Uncovered, my comprehensive online Italian course that teaches you through StoryLearning®.

The course features in-depth Italian pronunciation lessons from native speaker, Martina. To find out more about Italian Uncovered and test out the StoryLearning® method for free, click here.

Why Italian Pronunciation Is So Much Easier Than It Seems

Let’s think about English pronunciation for a moment…

If you see a word written down that you have never encountered before, are you always one hundred percent sure of how to pronounce it?

Nope!

English has all sorts of weird pronunciation quirks:

  • “Daughter” looks like it should rhyme with “laughter”, but it doesn’t
  • Meanwhile, “borough” and “burrow” are pronounced the exact same way

If you can handle that kind of crazy inconsistency, you can definitely handle Italian.

It will never play a trick on you like that!

You can count on it to follow the rules.

Italian is a phonetic language.

This means that it is spoken the way that it is written.

As you can imagine, learning pronunciation is always much easier in phonetic languages than in non-phonetic languages.

Better yet, every letter is always spoken. There are no silent letters to throw you for a loop in Italian like there are in French!

The Italian Alphabet

italian alphabet

Italian uses the same alphabet as English, so there are no new symbols for you to memorise.

Again, this is just another reason why learning to read and pronounce Italian correctly, is not particularly hard.

Let’s take at the alphabet letter by letter!

A – Always pronounced like the a in the word ‘bar’

  • albero (tree)

B – Exactly the same sound as in English

  • banana (banana)

C – If followed by an ‘e’ or an ‘i’, ‘c’ will be pronounced like the ‘ch’ in ‘cheese’. If followed by an ‘h’, it will sound like the ‘c’ in ‘cut’

  • cioccolato (chocolate) 
  • cane (dog) 

D – Exactly the same as in English

  • dadi (dice)

E – It can be open (like the ‘e’ in ‘net’) or closed (like the ‘a’ in ‘say’), depending on its location in the word. It can also vary slightly depending on the regional accent of the speaker, but don’t worry about this – the exact same thing happens in English and almost every other language you can think of it. It’s not unique or particularly scary

  • elefante (elephant) 

F – Exactly the same as in English

  • fiore (flower) 

G – If followed by an ‘i’, ‘g’ will be pronounced like the ‘j’ in ‘jumble’. If followed by an ‘n’, they will together sound like the Spanish ‘ñ’ (there’s no English equivalent, but it’s still easy for English natives to master – think of the ‘ny’ sound in the word ‘onion’). If followed by any other letter, ‘g’ is pronounced the same as in English words like ‘go’

  • gatto (cat) 

H – Only ever used to define the pronunciation of ‘c’, or silently in combination with ‘g’

  • hotel (hotel) 

I – Always pronounced like the ‘ee’ in ‘see’

  • imbuto (funnel) 

J – Exactly the same as in English

K – Exactly the same as in English

L – Exactly the same as in English

  • leone (lion) 

M – Exactly the same as in English

  • mela (apple) 

N – Exactly the same as in English, except when used in the ‘gn’ combination (see above)

  • nave (ship) 

O – Always pronounced like the ‘o’ in ‘horse’

  • orologio (clock) 

P – Exactly the same as in English

  • pera (pear) 

Q – Always pronounced like the ‘k’ in the English word ‘make’

  • quadro (painting) 

R – Slightly rolled. The top of the tongue lightly touches the roof of the mouth

  • ruota (wheel) 

S – Exactly the same as in English

  • sole (sun) 

T – Exactly the same as in English

  • tavolo (table) 

U – Always pronounced like the ‘oo’ in ‘boo’

  • uva (grape) 

V – Exactly the same as in English

  • vaso (vase/jar) 

W – Exactly the same as in English

X – Exactly the same as in English

Y – Exactly the same as in English

Z – Always pronounced like the ‘ts’ in the English word ‘mats’

  • zebra (zebra) 

As you can see, many of the letters – b, d, f, j, k, l, m, p, s, t, v, w, x, and y – are the exact same in Italian as they are in English!

You’ll also find that you will rarely encounter j, k, w, and x in Italian, because they are only used in words that are “borrowed” from other languages.

This means that there are really only 8 commonly used letters that are different from what you’re used to in English.

How To Pronounce Italian Double Consonants Like CC or ZZ

Sometimes you will see the same consonant twice in a row in an Italian word.

Double consonants – or le consonanti doppie – are indicators that you should pronounce the letter in a more prolonged manner or with more force.

How To Avoid The 3 Most Common Italian Pronunciation Mistakes

avoid common Italian pronunciation mistakes

When new Italian speakers get tripped up, it’s almost always on just a handful of letter combos, which I’ll go over here.

If you can master these, you’re golden!

It’s a great idea to memorise these sounds and practice them daily until they really stick.

#1 GN

If you freeze up every time you try to order ‘gnocchi’ in a restaurant, you are not alone.

Imagine if an English word started with ‘ny’ and then a vowel. That’s more or less what ‘gn’ in Italian sounds like.

To pronounce ‘gn’ in Italian, start with the middle of your tongue place right behind your top two front teeth.

As you release the sound, move your tongue backwards, away from your teeth and towards your throat.

Here are a few good words for practicing the gn sound:

  • Gnocchi  – a type of small potato dumpling served in sauce like a pasta
  • Agnello  – lamb
  • Bagno  – shower

#2 GLI

Gli is a masculine article, but you will also find this letter combination within other words.

It is not pronounced how it looks, but instead it is pronounced like the ‘lli’ in the English word ‘million’.

Here are some good words for practicing the ‘gli’ sound:

  • Figlio  – son
  • Negli  – in the
  • Dagli  – from the
  • Maglietta  – sweater

#3 SCE/SCI

This next one is not actually hard to pronounce, but it takes time to build the habit of pronouncing it the Italian way and not like in English!

When followed by an ‘e’ or an ‘i’, ‘sc’ is pronounced the way we pronounce ‘sh’ in English.

Here are some words for practicing the sce/sci sound:

  • Conoscere  – to know
  • Scena  – scene
  • Pesce  – fish

4 Pro Tips For Mastering Italian Pronunciation

master Italian pronunciation

You will likely find that Italian pronunciation is much simpler than you first expected.

As with any other skill, practice makes perfect.

The more often you attempt to speak in Italian, the more quickly you will master the pronunciation.

The following tips will help you practice better and will make the learning process even easier:

1. Exaggeration Is Good

Italian learners often find that when they feel like they are speaking in a silly caricature of Italian is actually when they sound the best to native Italian speakers.

Don’t be afraid to exaggerate the accent!

You might feel silly, but you actually sound good and practicing this way can help you learn speech patterns more quickly.

2. Listen To Native Italian Speakers

better accent listenYou need to be able to hear and recognize sounds if you want to be able to produce them yourself.

If you haven’t heard a sound, you don’t have a very good chance of saying it correctly.

This means that listening is at the heart of improving your Italian.

If you don’t live in Italy and can’t surround yourself with the sounds of Italian by going out and about, a great way to expose yourself to more Italian is by watching Italian movies, listening to Italian podcasts or using specially designed listening training material like Conversations.

Here’s how I learned Italian through input in 3 months, with a big focus on listening.

3. Sing Along To Italian Songs

Make a playlist of your favourite Italian music and do your best to sing along.

This is a great practice tool because you can do it while you’re busy with something else, like unloading the dishwasher or taking a walk! When you sing along, you get real-time pronunciation correction from the singers in the recording.

If you like the sound of this method, why not try learning Italian through opera. Watch me interview expert Gabe Wyner on how to do that in the video below.

4. Repeat Words That Give You A Hard Time

If you find a particular word that trips you up every time, repeat it to yourself correctly over and over again.

The more times you repeat it, the more likely proper pronunciation is to come naturally next time you are trying to use the word in conversation.

Sometimes (especially with long words), it’s just a case of wrapping your tongue around it and getting your mouth used to forming new sounds and sound combinations.

In these cases, the best solution is often to literally ‘exercise’ your speech muscles and give your mouth ‘reps’ producing a particular word or sound just like you might do in fitness training by lifting weights in the gym.

Buona Fortuna!

rome italy

Once you learn the rules and practice them regularly a mastery of Italian pronunciation will soon follow.

The best ways to speed up the process are through exposure and repetition.

Every moment you spend practicing – whether it’s repeating a phrase over and over or singing along to your favourite Italian songs – is one step closer to perfect pronunciation.

Thanks to the phonetic nature of Italian, this process will not be nearly as difficult as it seems at first.

In fact, it ought to be pretty easy, and you may even have some fun in the process!

Master Italian Pronunciation And Learn Italian Naturally

Italian Uncovered

If you want to master not only the pronunciation of Italian, but also learn grammar and vocab in a natural way, then you’re going to love Italian Uncovered, which teaches you through stories, not rules.

I’ve based the course on my years of experience learning languages, and more recently, my Italian project, where I learned Italian in 3 months, by simply immersing myself in compelling and engaging content.

If you’d like to learn Italian through my immersive, story-based method, then click here to find out more information about Italian Uncovered.


Which Italian sounds do you find hardest to pronounce? Let me know in the comments!

Like this post? Please share to your friends:
  • How to save the word
  • How to pronounce this word passive voice
  • How to save file in excel
  • How to pronounce this word in french
  • How to save documents in word