Giachetti’s Quick Pronunciation Guide
Here’s how to sound Italian! Just follow Rob Giachetti’s handy guide. We all love to hear Italian and, of course, want desperately to not butcher it in public with our English language accents! With Rob’s help, we’re well on our way to being mistaken for native wherever we go in fair Italia.
Thank you, Rob for doing this guide and for tweaking our cheat sheet as well!
a = ah
ch = k (always)
ci = chee
ce = cheh
sci = she
ca and co are always like casa and company
ie = yeh
gli = lee (but very guttural)
gi = j (always!)
gn acts like a tilde in Spanish.
(maybe Oscar Meyer can help you, it helps me! B-O-L-O-G-N-A boh lone yah!)
ga and go are like garden and gopher.
Try it out!
the name Giordano -> Jor dahn oh.
or the name Giachetti -> Ja ket tee
or the new Ferrari Scaglietti -> Fehr rah ree Scahl yeht tee
some chicken cacciatore -> catch ah tor reh.
some chiacchierare (chit-chatting) -> keyahck key ehr ahr eh
risotto -> rih soht toh (not: ree sew toe)
gnocchi -> nyawk key (not: no key)
One thing gli Americani tend to do, is make a “t” sound into a “d” sound. Like the name Renato, we tend to make it into Renado. It is natural for us to make this change, however, it is a big deal to an Italian and it will point you out as a foreigner - especially if you want to go out for some “gelado” after dinner.
Italians rarely drag out the endings of words like we do here. If you do it in Italian, you’ll give yourself away as an American!
Forse (maybe) pronounced “for seh” - An Italian ear probably will hear an American say forsayyyy.
Remember that double letters must be pronounced, as in pene and penne (peneh vs. penn neh) - never ever order pene pasta at a restaurant!
Accents make a big deal too: dove (where) vs. dov’e` (where is).
Ci vediamo a Perugia! (see you in Perugia)
Roberto
PS. Don’t forget to roll all your “r”s! ;)