Italian Phonetics Part 4: Accents and Stresses

Some languages have funny little marks and accents. Not Italian! Once in a while there is an accent to tell us to stress the last syllable in a word, but most words won't have any such marks. Speaking of stresses, it can be confusing to know which syllable in a word to stress, so let's hit some rules so we know what to do when words get long!
Script by Patrizia Farina, Professor of Italian at Western Connecticut State University and Purchase College.
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[@bobby_naur]

Its like in english.... pErfect vs perfEct. rEbel vs rebEl. its tricky!

[@flawyerlawyertv7454]

Yes or REcord and reCORD.

[@scptime1188]

Exactly.

[@BonDeRado]

Just a correction: the two kinds of accent do change the pronunciation of E and O, è is the open version, while é is the closed one, and similarly for O.

[@sexymanicou3403]

Is it possible for an Italian word/name to have 2 open e or 2 open o. For example: Mènelitè or Lòtolòti *not actual words

[@spencerwilkesman7948]

@@sexymanicou3403nah

[@francisquinn7904]

Thank you Professor Dave. 👏

[@adeca5052]

grazie mille! This video was very helpful! I am still wondering how I'm supposed to know if a word is a sdrucciole or piane by just looking at it!

[@leekfam7667]

I honestly don’t remember anything after watching this and I just finished it

[@xXPurpleLoliTranceXx]

I remember plenty lol

[@Degjoy]

Why don’t they just always use accents to guide? Currently the only way to know is to learn them off by heart. I suppose it’s much simpler than English spelling which is just nuts

[@schifoso]

Meraviglioso! Oh, and where would the stress point go in that word? ;-)

[@ZauberinNini]

Meravigliòso

[@InfiniteUniverse88]

It's a typical piane word.

[@emmaseay2162]

the way you say "to complicate matters further..." makes it all sound so dire and intense lmaooo

[@alexa51506]

Thanks for your channel it's so helpful. Can you recommend any workbooks where I can practice your lessons, and an app like google translate to hear pronunciation that is more reliable?

[@qqleq]

But te and tè or e and è the sound does change! Also caffè i would say the sound changes compared to for instance donne buffe... No?

[@ProfessorDaveExplains]

Hmm, I wouldn't really say so, it's just about which syllable receives the stress, the phonetics are the same I believe.

[@janeyre82]

Yeah, for the vowels E and O the different kind of stressmark makes a pronunciation difference: the grave accent is used when they're pronounced open as in "caffè" (coffee) "tè" (tea) "canterò" (I will sing) "rondò" (a music genre) while the acute accent is used when the pronunciation is closed, but we generally find it only on the E since the final tonic O is actually always open (and the stressmark is compulsory only on the final vowel): "perché" (why/because) "poté" (he/she could) Sometimes the stressmark is deliberately used on syllables other than the last one, when the position of the tonic accent or the pronunciation itself are ambiguous: that's when we can actually find an O with an acute accent: "àncora" (anchor) "ancóra" (still/yet) "pésca" (fishing) "pèsca" (peach) "motóri" (engines) "motòri" (motor)

[@Addistoday]

you are the best! greetings from Ethiopia!

[@johnmcguire4635]

(The word for third-to-last is antepenultimate)

[@coconutmilch2351]

"and that's all we need to know" lol not quite but thanks anyway

[@elnoruego6854]

its not at all what we need to know, i searched for a video like this to know how to determine where the stress is, not to know what it is!

[@quantumskittles]

Ungrateful

[@tobikrutt]

Hello, thanks for this video. I have a question, though. Although it was nice to know that there are names for the different categories into which words that have the emphasis on different syllables fall, what I was really hoping for was a guide to be able to more accurately know, or at least guess, just by looking at a word that has no accent, which of those categories it falls into. For example years ago when I was learning Spanish I was fortunate enough to learn about the NOSE rule, which makes it super easy to know which syllable to stress in unaccented words. The rule is: The word "NOSE" contains vowels, and the letters N and S. A "nose word" ends in a vowel, N or S--in which case you stress the penultimate syllable. If the word is not a nose word, then you stress the last syllable (unless it has an accent which indicates otherwise, of course.) I'm wondering if there is some relatively simple rule along these lines related to vowel/ consonant placement or letter sequence/combination that can be used as a similar pronunciation cue in Italian. If that's not the case and it's simply a matter of memorization then that would be good to know also, because there are aspects of grammar in any language that simply have to be memorized. But often there are little rules or cues that can help you to guess more accurately most of the time.

[@riccardoc1430]

As for words that have three or more syllables, it is not possible to know whether they are piane, sdrucciole or bisdrucciole just by looking at them since the accent is graphically marked just in words tronche. There are no easy rules, unfortunately: you have to memorize the right pronunciation by listening. Most people in the comment section are deluded by this video, but he couldn't really say anything more about the stress (accento tonico) in Italian. For example, the word comico: must it be pronounced as "còmico" or "comìco"? Well, you can't know this information just by looking at the word, you just have to remember that this word must be pronounced as "còmico".

[@So-langue-le1dq]

I had the exact question. Basically, no rule. We must memorize them 😄

[@blackletter2591]

So that's just labels. How do we know which one a word falls into?

[@himanshurathod6472]

Sir make video on different types of force.

[@ProfessorDaveExplains]

force? check out my modern physics playlist, they're all in there.

[@jyrodummy-oi9bn]

As indonesian this was incredibly easy to adapt

[@flawyerlawyertv7454]

Wow amazing 👏

[@MattSoverns]

How do you know when a word is a sdrucciole or bisdrucciole?

[@juliahintz4897]

Hi, a little confused about how for sdrucciole, you've said the stress is on the third to last syllable but then highlight the first in red? Orally it sounds also like you're putting emphasis on the first syllable.

[@clement2780]

why italian does not consistently use accent marks?

[@russellsharpe288]

I don't wish to be picky but the picture you put up for nocciolo "hazelnut tree" looks much more like an oak tree with acorns. Excellent series btw!

[@alejrandom6592]

"I don't wish to be picky"

[@tim_koch14]

You're right, there's a "quercia" on the picture, not a "nocciola". Still a good explanation.

[@alexa51506]

Ay, yay, ay, Really, lol?

[@alexa51506]

@@alejrandom6592 lol

[@matthewgliatto7339]

So how do you pronounce Garoppolo? (Jimmy G of the 49ers)

[@ProfessorDaveExplains]

i tried to spell it out phonetically and it looked ridiculous, but the second syllable would be stressed

[@matthewgliatto7339]

Oh, wow, thank you. I’ve been curious about the pronunciation of his name ever since he became famous

[@adrianomeis]

Gràppolo.

[@diegone080]

What is garoppolo

[@evapixel7222]

I still don't know how do we tell tho

[@Hakorai]

Why the one dislike?

[@flawyerlawyertv7454]

:/

[@pera_peric]

Thanks! Are you a native speaker?

[@ProfessorDaveExplains]

Well yes and no, my parents are Italian immigrants so I learned the language through them and going back to Italy every summer, but I grew up in America!

[@pera_peric]

@@ProfessorDaveExplains Wow, thanks for replying so quickly! Sounds native enough to me:)

[@Lindellification]

❤

[@ignaciorodriguez2271]

ancora = more ???

[@ProfessorDaveExplains]

or anchor, depending on which syllable is stressed.

[@gamingactivity]

lil bet hard cuz am not italian

[@meganleopold682]

Wow. So what you're saying is you just have to learn where to put the stress. There is zero way to know without knowing. Okie dokie.

[@ЕкатеринаКостюк-о5ж]

The hazelnut tree looks like an oak

[@hoklamlai25]

Second

[@13.07]

third here!!!

[@tobiaszczarnota7879]

3:10 WTF!?!?!?!

[@carb_8781]

what

[@rajithabommasamudram9790]

First to comment

[@paulakhs]

You don’t pronounce ‘grave’ as if were a hole in the ground. Duh 🙄

[@paulakhs]

Professor my arse lol

[@clement2780]

âêîoôû?

[@clement2780]

ï ë ǒěẽ

[@elnoruego6854]

We did not learn how to accent nor stress italian words, only what accents are, what a terrible video.

[@ProfessorDaveExplains]

Well I explain it quite clearly so you should probably watch again.

[@elnoruego6854]

@@ProfessorDaveExplains You explained it very clearly, albeit superficially. As reflected in many other comments as well; what clearly should follow this information is why they are stressed like that, and how to determine it.

[@ProfessorDaveExplains]

Why they are stressed like that? Because that's where the accent is. How to determine it? Look for where the accent is. I have no idea what you're saying.

[@elnoruego6854]

@@ProfessorDaveExplains In short, Its not terrible really, but you write in your description "lets look at some rules" and then really look at one rule. You say for example that some verbs have the bisdrucciole, but you never mention that almost every verb has a predictable pattern for basically all of these terms, and to top it off you say that thats all you need to know about italian phonetics, which is absurd. If this were to be a introductory video or a recount of the basics, then sure. The way things are stated in the video seems to be really really general and do not answer the questions that were advertised.