Italian Pronunciation, Video 3: Quirks of Italian's Spelling System

This is the third of a 4-part series on Italian pronunciation. The goal is to get familiar with the sounds of Italian and the IPA symbols. You'll then be able to learn them faster, either through your own studies or through my pronunciation trainers. More links below:
Flashcard Designs for Teaching Yourself Pronunciation: blog.fluent-forever.com/gallery/
My Pronunciation Trainers: fluent-forever.com/product/fl...
Anki Language Learning: ankilanguagelearning.com
More Anki Decks, including Italian Pronunciation: speakada.com
Reddit's Anki Language Learning Community: / ankilanguagelearning
A super detailed discussion of the IPA: • Pronunciation Tutorial...

[@Verbalaesthet]

Okay, I've been learning a lot of languages but this is the easiest so far. I feel I can almost do it just from watching your 3 videos. The difficult bits are so minor and few that I can focus all my attention on them. Thanks for the tutorials!

[@FluentForeverApp]

We're happy you found the videos helpful!

[@purebodyhome3085]

This is just...awesome. So helpful and SO PUMPED to start the trainer. I wish I found this 2 years ago on my Italian journey. Grazie mille amico!

[@rukakoaye5368]

this video is just perfect

[@pirangeloferretti3588]

In Northern Italy you can easily get away without any syntactic doubling, local native speakers just don't use it. Sometimes even the 'gn', 'gl', 'sc' sounds are not doubled in the North, but it depends on the area or even the person, anyway everybody would understand you. The open and closed 'e' and 'o' are hugely variable from region to region, usually people will understand you anyway, although you may sound a little unusual to them.

[@user-jf4wl7id8l]

I am thakful to find those pronounciation videos.THANK YOU!

[@ramzy-6566]

Thank you so much for amazing video.

[@747Aerophilia]

Amazing! Thanks!

[@roccoinvadelapolonia]

"è poi" is not correct, it should have been "e poi" if you want to translate it with "and then". If you say "È poi" you should translate it with "is then" and.. It doesn't make any sense lol

[@brainman67]

+___mindtheSab Hey do you know what "farti" means?

[@roccoinvadelapolonia]

+brainman67 The meaning of "farti" is "I want to make you do something". For example, "voglio farti vedere una cosa" is translated in "I want to show you something".

[@brainman67]

___mindtheSab Ok thank you so much

[@LombaM6]

Good example of Italian phonetics. I'd like to point out that the accent is not a standard Italian accent, it resembles regional southern Italian. E.g. if you want to learn English, Scottish is probably not the most representative form of English pronouncement (although, nothing wrong with it).

[@Greenplastics]

veramente a me il classico accento stereotipato italiano usato dagli stranieri, ricorda molto accenti come il bolognese o il toscano. non sarebbe neanche strano, visto che in toscana gli inglesi hanno case e ci vanno a vivere dopo la pensione.

[@frindtlevente]

When you discussed the letters 'c', 'g' and 'sc', you said that the rules for the "hard" - "soft" pronunciations are "obnoxious". Did you mean 'ubiquitous'?

[@Emile.gorgonZola]

Levente Frindt No. They're obnoxious.

[@R41N3LLGaming]

Consonant doubling for the soft C's and G's is impossible, since they are affricates. The first phoneme of the affricate is instead doubled. e.g.: [ddʒ], not [dʒː]

[@brainman67]

+RainXCIX than you would say them twice right?

[@R41N3LLGaming]

brainman67 If the soft G's were doubled then it would sound like the and in the word "Orange juice".

[@brainman67]

RainXCIX Yeah makes sense

[@MarcinKralka]

Yeah, I was confused at first when it was clear it wasn't pronounced like that, but it made more sense later, where I figured it out.

[@flaviospadavecchia5126]

I don't think I've ever heard anyone say "giubba" like ever hahaha

[@francescoimparato78]

more rules have been forgotten...

[@romanski5811]

Which ones?

[@BruceBainsford]

'guibba' is not a blouse, it is a jacket.

[@Emile.gorgonZola]

scienza coscienza conoscenza

[@benjo972]

where did you get those rules form?? nobody here say Come vva? (double v) Dove ssei?? double s.. they sound a lot like "fiorentino, or "toscano" which anyway is a dialect and not standard italian

[@flaviospadavecchia5126]

We do have a standard that is determined by "La Accademia della Crusca". As for the "raddoppiamento" after some double-consonant words like "come" and "dove", it used to be standard, but it's kind of fallen out of use. Nonetheless, some dictionaries still showcase it. When in doubt, you can always refer to this online dictionary: www.dipionline.it/dizionario/ Italians like me would also benefit from that website...

[@nanonani4219]

but that's still the correct way to pronounce them

[@benjo972]

maffammi il piacere, double f

[@lifelessfigure]

È una regola importante della pronuncia presente nel toscano e quindi nell'italiano standard e deriva direttamente dalla ritmica e della musicalità del latino. Nel nord spesso fate l'errore di non pronunciare correttamente "dove VVai" o "chi SSei", ma in alcune parole l'utilizzo della regola è talmente importante da essere rimasto anche nella forma scritta (eCCome, ePPure, laDDove, chiCCeSSia ecc.)

[@elisaamato1624]

it isn't always true that what you say is exactly what you write.. and you definitely don't have to double the sounds in come VVVVVA? Dove SSSSei? who told you that? 😂 Double only when it's written double that's it

[@davidedomenichini5622]

I agree with you! This is a southern accent, NOT standard italian. Southern actors have to correct this aspect of their pronunciation.

[@elisaamato1624]

Davide Domenichini Ok ma...siamo tutti e due italiani,perché parlare in inglese?😂 comunque è vero tutti associano l'italiano all'accento del sud, non so perché...che nervoso, gli altri italiani non esistono per loro?😦😀

[@weibinren92]

Elisa Amato it's not a southern itian feature, it's a standard italian feature, the one that you also find in central Italy, the fact that northern italian doesn't do the raddoppiamento fonositattico doesn't make it legit when speaking standard italian

[@lifelessfigure]

È una regola importante della pronuncia presente nel toscano e quindi nell'italiano standard e deriva direttamente dalla ritmica e della musicalità del latino. Nel nord spesso fate l'errore di non pronunciare correttamente "dove VVai" o "chi SSei", ma in alcune parole l'utilizzo della regola è talmente importante da essere rimasto anche nella forma scritta (eCCome, ePPure, laDDove, chiCCeSSia ecc.)

[@flaviospadavecchia5126]

"If you can say a word, you can write it down", well, not always true. Since, unfortunately Italians also make spelling mistakes. For example, why does the word "scienza" need an "i"? Etymology! Does every Italian speaker innately know that? Nope. Same for "coscienza", but not "conoscenza". Weird, huh? How about po' vs Po; da vs dà, si vs sì etc etc...

[@weibinren92]

Flavio Spadavecchia yeah, he missed a point about silent i's after palatal consonants and before e, so scienze, accompagniamo etc. are tricky ones

[@weibinren92]

also orthographic accents are quite random in italian

[@flaviospadavecchia5126]

I mean, they all have a reason! We only write orthographic accents if the stress falls on the last sillabe of a word that's at least two syllables. In monosyllabic sillables we written the accent to define meaning: si (itself), sì (yes); da (from), dà (gives); te (you), tè (tea), etc

[@weibinren92]

Flavio Spadavecchia yeah, only for differenciating different word, but still there is no strict rule, like the 3rd person sing. form of fare 'fa', why doesn't it have accent when it can be confused with the adverb, while you'll put an accent in the 3rd person form of dare, all I'm trying to say is that tha italian orthography is not as straightforward as you might think, but not yet as messy as the english one

[@flaviospadavecchia5126]

Yeah, you're right with that example. My understanding is that those two meanings of "fa" are used very differently, so it would be hard to confuse them. But yeah, Italians mess up those kinds of orthography all of the time hahahah

[@jefferylude7445]

you speak so fast for what? You tongue has married a turbo??

[@FluentForeverApp]

Hello there! Don't worry, you can use the playback speed setting in the KZbin player to slow down the video.

[@user-mw1dc6ix9l]

Is not even fast, bruh