Italian Pronunciation - Lesson 2

Sempre a, e, i, o, u

After this class you should;
be able to pronounce the 5 vowels of the Italian Alphabet.

Grammar

Italian vowels

First and foremost you need to remember when taking this class that it is not important or necessary for you to learn what the vocabulary words in Italian mean? The goal is mere to be able to begin to be able to pronounce them. Let's keep the eye on the ball! So...here we go:

When speaking Italian, pronounce the vowels in the following manner:

Vowel
A
E
I
O
U

Sounds Like
Ah
Ay
Ee
Oh
Oo

It is also important to note that in Italian we pronounce every vowel no matter how many of them we have in a row therefore a word like aiutare is pronounced like AH-EE-OO-TAH-RAY. Each syllable is pronounce rapidly but distinctly. Do not worry about the speed of your pronunciation at this point in time, that will come with time.

Printable Homework

basic online exercise

Vocabulary

il
un
se
su
sei
via
uva
due
una
con
quei
vino
nove
pane
viola
mano
piede
sopra
anima
aiutare

the
a
if
on
six
by, street or away
grapes
two
a
with
those
wine
nine
bread
violet
hand
foot
above or over
soul
help

istruire
bianca
scuola
agosto
sabato
panino
gambe
udiamo
suonare
costruire
bambino
sostituire
ospedale
feroviaria
aeroporto
domenica
novembre
particolare
rimangono
metropolitana

to instruct
white
school
August
Saturday
sandwich
legs
we hear
to play
to build
little or baby boy
to substitute
hospital
railway
airport
Sunday
November
particular
they remain
subway

Printable vocabulary list

Printable large flash cards (English Side)

Printable large flash cards (Italian Side)

Downloadable Podcast

You can learn more about Italian vowells and pronunciation on these pages of the following books.

Page 2 (page #'s may vary as I have an older edition) of "Ciao" by Carla Federici & Carla Larese Riga, copyright 1986.

If you do not own these books, don't worry, it is not mandatory that you do unless you were instructed to buy them at the beginning of the class. However, they can be very useful in a lot of ways and if you would like to know more about these books and where to buy them, simply go to our online bookstore or quicker yet, just click on the appropriate book below.

Did you know? - A bit of Italian Trivia

" Dialect in Italy are.... countless! Some are more popular and spoken, but in different cities you may find different vernaculars, even if those cities are relatively close; that's for big cities, but also smaller region ("region" intended as a specific valley or so, not in political/administrative way) have their own dialect; for instance, dialect spoken in Turin is *very* different form the one you can hear if you go in the northeast of Piedmont, 50-80 miles away... By the way, dialects are way more spoken in the South of Italy, while in the North is more easy to find local accent on regular Italian language.

How many times it takes to learn Italian... I can say it will take 100 hours of good teaching (and work form students :) for a basic knowledge of a language. Then you have to improve by experience..."

This information about Dialects obtained from Yahoo! Answers

Have you heard? - Some good Italian Music

Juat one of many beautiful songs sung by Eros Ramazzotti. I am sure you will enjoy it but take the time also to listen to the pronunciation and you will hear what we have been discussing it class!

This and many other
great songs are available on --->

Here are the song's lyrics,
read along while you listen to Solo Ieri and listen to his pronunciation of the words you see!

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