Hello everybody,

I'm studding Italian and I listen to the audio cd and read the words at the same time and i see that a lot of letters aren’t pronounced.
Like for example: sassofono she pronounce it as sasofono and batttuta is batuta.

Is this a bad cd or is this right?

And if any body knows a link to a site with the Italian alphabet on it (audio)

Thank you.

Good question Lione. I think as English and even Spanish speakers we don't hear those double consonants as native Italian speakers do.

Pronouncing Double Consonants in Italian

I've always been told by my Italian teachers and have read over and over agian that double consonants need to be pronounced twice.

Per esempio/For example: "Quanti anni(AHN-nee) hai?"—How old are you? sounds like an innocent question posed by someone just learning the Italian language. But it can be a real conversation stopper, leading to guffaws, laughter, and embarrassment, when mispronounced. That's because many beginners pronounce anni (years) as ani (anuses). Speaking Italian doesn't have to leave you tongue-tied, though.

Many Italian words have double consonants. They occur in any part of the word, but never as the first or last letters. The English language also has several words with double consonants, such as bookkeeper, cattle, and tattle. In Italian, though, double consonants sound stronger than in English. English speakers typically stumble when pronouncing double consonants in Italian since there are so few instances in English that require pronouncing both consonants. Italian uses double consonants as an important part of the pronunciation of the language.

Say It With Meaning
Not sure how to pronounce double consonants in Italian? Try pronouncing it twice or holding it for an extra beat. Listen to a native Italian and asking them to pronounce word pairs such as papa/pappa until you can hear the difference. English phrases such as "bus stop" and "bad dog" approximate the sound of double consonants in Italian. Failing to make the distinction can lead to misunderstanding or worse.

To add to the confusion, one characteristic of certain Italian dialects is the pronouncing of words as if some of the single consonants were doubled. Technically termed raddoppiamento fonosintattico, it typically occurs in specific phonetic context.

Double Trouble
To avoid asking for a bowl of your father (papa) at the local trattoria instead of bread soup (pappa), be aware of these word pairs of single/double consonants whose entire meaning changes depending on whether a particular consonant is doubled:

agio—ease, comfort aggio—premium
ano—anus anno—year
casa—house cassa—crate, box
eco—echo ecco—here
gramo—miserable grammo—gram
nono—ninth nonno—grandfather
note—note notte—night
pala—shovel palla—ball
papa—father pappa—bread soup
pena—pain penna—pen
rosa—rose rossa—red
sbafo—scrounging sbaffo—smear
sera—evening serra—greenhouse
sete—thirst sette—seven


Split Up The Twins
Wondering how Italian words with consonant geminates (letter pairs) are divided into syllables? It's a split decision: Double letters always break into separate syllables. For example: addosso: ad-dos-so; ferro: fer-ro; mamma: mam-ma; soqquadro:soq-quad-ro.

Not Just Consonants
Double vowels occur infrequently in Italian, but there are a few instances. The vowels are pronounced the same as single vowels, but in these cases a longer sound should be heard: cooperare (to cooperate); zii (uncles); veemenza (vehemence); pompeii.

Besides individual Italian vocabulary words with double letters, the 1st person plurals of certain verb tenses also have double consonants:

future/futuro conditional/condizionale
andremo (we will go) andremmo (we would go)
lavoreremo (we will work) lavoreremmo (we would work)

This was also something that I found very difficult to master when I first learned about it. Villa is right though, you need to be careful to pronounce those double consonants...otherwise there can be some real embaressing moments. To further the point that Italian and Spanish are close, similar things can happen in Spanish as well if words are not pronounced properly.

__________________
Dimmi con chi vai e ti dirò chi sei.

Per esempio: Italian Dimmi(DEEM-me)(tell me), dammi(DAHM-me)(give me), you would have in Spanish Dime(DEE-meh), dame(DAH-meh). So it's easy for a Spanish speaker to reconize these words but you got those double letters in Italian you don't have in Spanish.

Other examples Giacomo?

¿Cuantos años tienes? vs. ¿Cuántos anos tienes? lol

When I tell the kids about that one in school they are rolling on the floor.

__________________
Dimmi con chi vai e ti dirò chi sei.

The funny thing is that even though native speakers of English have trouble believing it, Italian is probably easier to pronounce than English. In Italian, there are five vowel sounds:

1. A (ah)

2. E (eh)

3. I (eeeeeh)

4. O (oh)

5. U (ooooh)

These vowels are almost never silent as they can be in English (except in some dialects of Italian) and they really don't change how they sound.

Consider these English words with the letter "I". Say them out loud and see how the "I" changes sound.

smile
sit
sight

This type of change in pronunciation almost never occurs in Italian. Also In Italian you don't have all the difficult rules such as "PH" sounding like "F" or "O" sounding like "W" as in the word "One" or Silent "P" as in "pneumonia."

__________________
Dimmi con chi vai e ti dirò chi sei.

[QUOTE=Giacomo;28234]The funny thing is that even though native speakers of English have trouble believing it, Italian is probably easier to pronounce than English. In Italian, there are five vowel sounds:

1. A (ah)

2. E (eh)

3. I (eeeeeh)

4. O (oh)

5. U (ooooh)

"These vowels are almost never silent as they can be in English (except in some dialects of Italian) and they really don't change how they sound."

Here again we see that the Italian vowels sound just like the Spanish vowels.

Also the Italian "t" and "d" sound the same as Spanish "t" and "d." Put your tongue right behind your front teeth. While English t and d you put your tongue on the roof of your mouth.

Roll your "r's" like Spanish "r's." Roma, arriverderci, e cosi via.

Thank you both for your help. This really helps me.

You're welcome Lione and don't hesitate to ask for help.

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Dimmi con chi vai e ti dirò chi sei.