As languages go, we would probably classify Italian as one of the easiest to learn, at least in terms of pronunciation. A big advantage is that it is a highly phonetic language – unlike English and French, for example – so what you see written on paper is very close to how it is spoken.
Another plus is that there are only seven vowel sounds (a, i, u, e, ɛ, o and ɔ), two semi-consonants and twenty-one consonants.
Italian pronunciation can become tricky when:
- there are unfamiliar consonants or consonant clusters within the word such as /ts/ (grazie), the rolled /r/ (rompere) and /ʎ/ (maglia)
- familiar consonants appear in unfamiliar places such as the word initial /ɲ/(gnomo) and /zg/ (sgarbo)
- there is a double consonant such as /tt/ (fatto).
In this article we suggest 5 Italian words difficult to pronounce if you’re not a native Italian speaker.
GHIACCIO ( ice)
The Italian H behaves in a weird way. It’s the ghost letter that never wants to be pronounced, unless it makes a special appearance following a G or C, in which case the H changes the sound. Chi and ghi or ghe and che are pronounced with a hard sound ki, gui (like the sound of the word Guinea in English), ghe (think about spaghetti!), ke.
In the word ghiaccio you also have to pronounce the ci sound, which is different from the ones we just explained: when the letter C and G are followed by E or I the sound becomes soft. This way, you will have ci and ce or gi and ge (pronounced as tchi – tche – dji – dje).
Now try to pronounce the word ghiaccio and then check the correct sounds here!
CHIACCHIERARE (To chitchat)
We know, we probably chose the worst word for you to practice. But once you nail this, you will be able to pronounce literally everything in Italian. Remember the rules that we explained before and try!
Extra tip: the R sound is not “fully” rolled in this word because we have a single r and not a double one. To help you with this sound, while you are pronouncing it try feeling how the tip of your tongue vibrate once off of the roof of your mouth. This is exactly how you will pronounce a singular R in the Italian language.
Check here if you succeed in pronouncing chiacchierare.
CATARIFRANGENTE (Reflector)
This very peculiar word can be tricky for the R sound. Remember the tips we gave you for chiacchierare and go!
Here is how this word is pronounced correctly.
GIOIELLERIA (Jeweler’s)
Diamonds are a girl’s best friends! What a surprise for your sweetheart if you buy them while travelling in Italy. To do so, try to learn and correctly pronounce gioielleria. The tricky part of this word is the combination of many vowels together (after the GIO sound you’re already a master of) and the double L, but as all the double in Italian it’s just over stressing the L.
We are sure you can do it, but just in case here you can find the correct pronounciation.
ESERCIZIO (Exercise)
Our last word is one of the most popular and frequent you will find while learning Italian. Here you have the CI sound (go back to ghiaccio for the pronounciation) followed by the Z one.
How do we pronounce Z in Italian?
It has two pronunciations, one called sonora (“sonorous”, “voiced”), which sounds like “z” and the other called sorda (“deaf”, “unvoiced”), which is pronounced like “ts”. In our esercizio you will go with the voiced Z.
Try to pronounce esercizio and if you feel like you can’t here is a little help.
We suggest you try out your pronunciation exercise in front of a mirror, this way you can observe how your mouth, tongue and teeth interact and never misspell or mispronounce these words again.
Hope you enjoy the list of some of the hardest Italian words to pronounce! Use the preceding tips to help you improve your pronunciation. It will assist you in becoming more aware of proper word usage and how they should be used to convey your thoughts.
