A1 · Alphabet and pronunciation
Stress and accents
Usually the second-to-last syllable — and an accent when it is the last.
In English the stress can fall almost anywhere and nothing in the spelling tells you where: photograph, photography, photographic. Italian is far more regular. Most words are stressed on the *second-to-last syllable*: casa, parlare, ragazzo, italiano. Then nothing is written.
When the stress falls on the *last syllable*, an accent is always written: città, caffè, perché, università, però, più. Usually it is the mark you see in à, è, ò; only on the closed e of perché and its relatives does the other one appear: é.
When the stress falls further forward, on the third-to-last syllable, nothing is written again — and that is where you have to be careful: tavolo, macchina, telefono, Napoli. The verb forms in -ano and -ono belong here too: parlano is stressed on the first syllable, not the second.
For a few short words the accent separates two meanings without changing the sound: è (is) and e (and), sì (yes) and si (oneself), là (there) and la (the).
The form
| second-to-last syllable — the normal case | casa, parlare, ragazzo |
| third-to-last syllable — no mark | tavolo, macchina, telefono |
| last syllable — always an accent | città, caffè, perché |
| is — and | è — e |
| yes — oneself | sì — si |
The rules one by one
The form this topic is about
Most words are stressed on the second-to-last syllable.
Il ragazzo vuole mangiare.The boy wants to eat.
When the stress is on the last syllable, an accent is written.
La città è grande, però è tranquilla.The city is big, but it is quiet.
Stress on the third-to-last syllable is not shown in writing.
Il telefono è sul tavolo.The phone is on the table.
The accent separates short words: è means is, e means and.
Luca è stanco e ha fame.Luca is tired and hungry.
How to spot it
- à
- è
- é
- ì
- ò
- ù
Example sentences
Perché non prendi un caffè?Why don't you have a coffee?
Studio all’università di Napoli.I study at the University of Naples.
Loro parlano più lentamente.They speak more slowly.
La macchina è là, dietro la casa.The car is over there, behind the house.
The trap English speakers fall into
Watch out
The accent at the end of a word is not decoration you can leave off. Without it, everyone reads the word with the stress on the second-to-last syllable: citta would come out as CHIT-ta, which is not a word. An English keyboard makes it easy to forget — but if your voice rises on the last syllable, that syllable needs an accent.
Stress at the end of a word needs an accent; otherwise it is not written.
Your turn
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