重音

Stress / Accento Tonico

Usually, Italian words are stressed on the next–to–the–last syllable.

amico friend

foglia leaf

Milano Milan

nipote nephew

padre father

parlare to speak

signorina Miss

studiare to study

telefonare to telephone

uomo man

When the final –e is dropped from a word, as happens with some masculine titles when they are directly followed by a proper name, the position of the stress remains unchanged.

dottore doctor

dottor Nardi Doctor Nardi

professore professor

professor Pace professor Pace

When words are stressed on the last vowel, they always have a written accent over that vowel

cioè namely

città city

perchè because

però however

tassì taxi

università university

venerdì Friday

virtù virtue

It is useful to remember that open e and o occur only in stressed syllables.

automobile automobile

medico physician

nobile noble

telefono telephone

Note: The written accent is used with a few monosyllables in order to distinguish them from others that have the same spelling but a different meaning.

dà gives

da from

è is

e and

là there

la the; it; her

né nor

ne some

sé himself, herself

se if

sì yes

si oneself