ITALIAN PRONUNCIATION |
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Italian Syllabication |
Phonetically speaking, the syllable is the smallest fraction of a word,
pronounced as a single sound.
Most Italian syllables end in a vowel sound. All syllables must contain at
least one vowel, which is their strong sound, while they do not necessarily need
a consonant: syllables without vowels do not exist, while syllables without
consonants do exist.
Grammatically, the division of a word into syllables follows these rules:
- A single consonant goes with the following vowel.
| • Casa (house) » ca-sa |
• Matita (pencil) » ma-ti-ta |
| • Positivo (positive) »
po-si-ti-vo |
• Ruvido (rough) »
ru-vi-do |
- Any double consonant must be split into two subsequent syllables:
| • Gatto (cat) »
gat-to |
• Carrozza (carriage, wagon) »
car-roz-za |
| • Mappa (map) »
map-pa |
• Possessore (owner) »
pos-ses-so-re |
- Two consonants, the first of which is l, m,
n, or r, are divided.
|
• Trenta (thirty)
» tren-ta
|
• Cantante (singer)
» can-tan-te |
| • Perla
(pearl) » per-la |
• Contento (contented)
» con–ten–to |
Otherwise, a combination of two consonants belongs to the following
syllable.
| • Figlio (son)
» fi–glio
|
• Vetrina (shop-window)
» ve-tri-na |
| • Padre (father)
» pa-dre |
• Decreto (decree,
bill) » de-cre-to |
- A vowel alone may form a syllable at the beginning of a word if followed
by a consonant:
| • Isola (island)
» i-so-la |
• Animale (animal)
» a-ni-ma-le |
| • Odore (smell)
» o-do-re |
• Aratro
(plough) » a-ra-tro |
However, when the following consonant is either nasal or liquid and any
further consonant comes after it, i.e. vowel + nasal or liquid consonant + any
consonant (such as alt..., enc..., imp..., ond..., urg..., and so on), the first
syllable binds to the vowel, to accomplish the previous rule:
| • Intero
(whole) » in-te-ro |
• Urgente (urgent)
» ur-gen-te |
| • Ultimo (last)
» ul-ti-mo |
• Imparare (to learn)
» im-pa-ra-re |
- When three consonants are together the first goes with the preceding
syllable, except s, which goes with the following syllable:
| • Sempre (always)
» sem–pre
|
• Entrare (to
enter) » en-tra-re
|
| • Membro (member)
» mem–bro
|
• Inglese
(english) » in-gle-se
|
However, with 3 consonant that are
together with "s" at the beginning:
| • Finestra(window) » fi–ne–stra
|
• Maestro(Master)
» ma-e-stro
|
| • Minestra(soup) » mi–ne–stra
|
• Strano(strange) » stra-no |
| • Ministro(minister)»mi-nis-tro
|
• Spremere(to squeeze)»spre-me-re
|
- Diphthongs and triphthongs are never divided.
| • Buono (good)
» buo - no |
• Quadro (picture,
painting) » qua-dro |
| • Viale (avenue) » via
- le |
• Miele (honey)
» mie–le
|
| • Chiodo (nail) » chio
- do |
• Lingua (language)
» lin–gua
|
Diphthongs may occur in stressed or unstressed syllables. However, when a
diphthong is broken by stress (the vowel i or u directly bears the stress), then
the two vowels break into separate syllables.
| • Mio
(mine) » mi–o
|
• Terapia (therapy)
» te–ra–pi–a
|
| • Tuo
(yours) » tu–o |
• Allegria
(joy) » al–le–gri–a
|
| • Mania
(mania) » ma–ni–a
|
• Farmacia (pharmacy)
» far–ma–ci–a
|
- There are many monosyllabic words, which cannot be split since they are
made of only one syllable. The most common ones are:
- Definite articles (il, lo, la, i, gli, le);
- Simple prepositions (di, a, da, in, con, su, per,
tra, fra);
- Several conjunctions (e, o, ma, sì, no,
etc.);
- Most personal pronouns (io, tu, te, ti, lui, lei,
gli, le, noi, ci, voi, vi, si etc.);
- Many indicative pronouns (quel, qui, qua, lì,
là);
- Two numbers (tre, sei);
- Some short words of daily
use (blu, più, già, giù, etc.).
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