Italian Pronunciation Masterclass

Do you struggle with Italian pronunciation? Would you like to sound more like a native, and stop sounding like a foreigner after saying one word?

This course is entirely in English, and therefore can be taken with a very basic understanding of Italian. Nonetheless, check it out even if you are more advanced. It might make you hear some mistake that you did not know about!

As surprising as it sounds, Italian pronounciation is actually extremely simple, compared to English. Letters sound the same, regardless of where they are in a word, with very few exception to the rule. In English, things are quite hard: think of how many sounds the letter i can have, for example.

So, why does Italian students find pronouncing Italian properly so hard?

I have been teaching Italian for years, and I believe that the reason is not that Italian pronunciation is tricky. Rather, students focus on the wrong things (Marco, I cannot roll my Rs!), and have a very hard time hearing what they say wrong.

Just like in everything, there is a 80-20 rule: if you learn to pronounce vowels right, and a few more sounds such as C and G, you are very close to being all set. Not rolling the R is not the issue; vowels are. And they are not hard to pronounce correctly. It is just about hearing how we say them, and repeating, and repeating, and repeating.

In this course, I will try to point you in the right direction. There is not much to say about Italian pronunciation, as it turns out: just pointing out its rules, and where most people fail to say things the correct way. Everything else is actually just simple practice.

In this course, I will lay out all the core rules that you need to know, and also tell you a little something about how things change in different cities and countries. The many regional differencies make it hard sometimes -but some things are the same everywhere, and some other things are always mistakes.

GOAL: Learn Italian pronunciation. Regardless of your level, this course aims at substantially improving your Italian speaking abilities.

What you will learn:

• Syllables, and how we pronounce accents. Learn that Italians don’t sing when we speak!
• Italian vowels, the most criminally overlooked topi in Italian pronunciation
• The two Es and the two Os
• Consonants, with focus on C, G and S
• Digrams: gl, sc, gn
• Doubles: how to tell when and why they are
• Yes, we will talk about the dreaded R!