Types of accent used in Italian spelling

This part of the paragraph is not really fundamental, although some readers might have noticed how most accents are slanted rightwards (perciò, sarà), while a few others are slanted in the opposite direction (perché).

Modern Italian uses the following accented vowels:

 

rightward or "grave" accents ("wide" sound pronounciation)	à	è	ì	ò	ù
leftward or "acute" accents ("narrow" sound pronounciation)		é

(eventually, see again paragraph 1.1 for the pronounciation of wide "e" and narrow "e").

From the table above, you can see how only e has both forms, while others use a more generic rightwards accent, as a standard. The reason for this difference is that Italian has several words with accent on the last syllable e: some of them have an "wide" sound, and some have a narrow "sound". The few words which end with an accented o, instead, always give this vowel the "wide" pronounciation. So only accented e needs to be specified.
The following words end with a stressed "wide" e:

è	"eh"	he/she/it is
caffè	"kah'ffeh"	coffee
frappè	"frah'ppeh"	fruit-flavoured milk shake

Others instead have a "narrow" sound:

perché	"pehrkeh"	why, because
sé	"seh"	self, one's self

Just as perché, the compound words which contain che (already mentioned above) always have end with a "narrow" e (acute accent).

In very few cases, an accented e may be used within the word, to indicate whether the vowel has a wide or narrow sound:

pèsca (with a wide e)

= peach

pésca (narrow e)

= fishing

Nevertheless, such accent is rarely spelled because the context of the sentence makes it quite clear which of the two makes more sense in the sentence.

Words with stress on the last syllable, but ending with a different vowel, simply use the rightwards accent:

 

già	"jah"	yet, already
lunedì	"lwhnehdyh"	monday
andrò	"ahndroh"	I will go
giù	"jwh"	down

 

When typing these accents with a computer, most non-Italian people might find themselves in trouble because a standard keyboard does not have these letters. You can use the ASCII chart, by entering their code numbers while pressing the Alt key: try yourself, by typing them in the box below.

 

Instead, not all fonts have capital (uppercase) accented letters; Times New Roman and Arial fonts, among the most commonly used, have the following codes: try them out.

 

If your computer or your font does not have such vowels, you can use normal ones followed by an apostrophe:

a'..... e'..... i'..... o'..... u'

A'..... E'..... I'..... O'..... U'.

Many Italian people too use apostrophes in place of accented vowels, but since this is not really very correct, and the two different e 's cannot be told, the use of accented vowels should be preferred, when possible.

GENDER AND NUMBER STANDARD INFLECTIONS

NOTE
in this paragraph, the "English sound" spelling of words shows again which syllable is stressed.

 

Italian language has two main genders: masculine and feminine; a third neutre gender (for plants, non-living objects, general concepts, etc.) occurs only in pronouns, so for the time being simply disregard it.
In English, a vast majority of nouns are neutre (masculine and feminine are only used for human beings or for animals), while articles and adjectives have no gender at all.
In Italian instead, nouns, adjectives and articles too are either masculine or feminine (but never neutre).

An important difference with English is that articles and adjectives have masculine and feminine forms, according to the gender of the noun they are related to.

For nouns, number (i.e. whether the word is singular or plural) works exactly as in English: the singular form is used when referring to one subject and the plural form when referring to two or more. But in Italian, adjectives and articles are number-sensitive too, whereas in English they are not: "the old house" in plural form becomes "the old houses", only the noun changes, while in Italian also the article and the adjective would be turned in plural form.

Here are a few examples. Articles and adjectives will be dealt with throughoutly in a further paragraph, so now try to focus your attention only on their inflections (marked in red colour), which show both their gender and number.

casa (feminine, singular)	"kahsah"	house, home
albero (masculine, singular)	"ahlbehroh"	tree
una casa (feminine, singular)	"wnah kahsah"	a house, a home
un albero (masculine, singular)	"wn ahlbehroh"	a tree
una vecchia casa (feminine, singular)	"uhnah veh'kkyah kahsah"	an old house
un grosso albero (masculine, singular)	"uhn grohssoh ahlbehroh"	a big tree
vecchie case (feminine, plural)	"veh'kkyheh kahseh"	old houses
grossi alberi (masculine, plural)	"grohssyh ahlbehryh"	big trees

 

GENDER AND NUMBER INFLECTIONS FOR NOUNS

Masculine and feminine inflections follow this general pattern:

MASCULINE INFLECTIONS singular:......o plural:......i

FEMININE INFLECTIONS singular:......a plural:......e

Therefore, according to this table:

tavolo (masc.)	"tahvohloh"	table
tavoli	"tahvohlyh"	tables
porta (fem.)	"pohrtah"	door
porte	"pohrteh"	doors
vaso (masc.)	"vahsoh"	vase
vasi	"vahsyh"	vases
capra (fem.)	"kahprah"	goat
capre	"kahpreh"	goats
martello (masc.)	"mahrtehlloh"	hammer
martelli	"mahrtehllyh"	hammers

 

No nouns or adjectives end in u, so this vowel should not create a problem.

There are also several nouns and adjectives whose singular form ends with e: they can be either masculine or feminine. Their plural always ends with i, regardless of gender:

 

BOTH MASCULINE AND FEMININE singular:......e plural:......i

Here are a few examples:

cane (masc.)	"kahneh"	dog
cani	"kahnyh"	dogs
ape (fem.)	"ahpeh"	bee
api	"ahpyh"	bees
rete (fem.)	"rehteh"	net
reti	"rehtyh"	nets
mare (masc.)	"mahreh"	sea
mari	"mahryh"	seas

 

The two patterns shown up to this point should be considered the standard ones, and should be practised throughoutly.
Some further examples:

 

palla (fem.)	"pahllah"	ball
palle	"pahlleh"	balls
uccello (masc.)	"w'tchehlloh" (English "tch")	bird
uccelli	"w'tchehllyh"	birds
mese (masc.)	"mehseh"	month
mesi	"mehsyh"	months

A typical problem for beginners is that if a noun or an adjective ends with e, it may be either a feminine plural (according to the first pattern), or a masculine or feminine singular (according to the second pattern).
In the same way, a noun or an adjective ending with i is surely plural, but it might be either masculine or feminine. This situation is only apparently confusing, as other parts of the sentence (articles, adjectives, verb tenses, etc.) will make gender difficult to be mistaken.

GENDER AND NUMBER INFLECTIONS FOR ADJECTIVES

Adjectives follow the same two patterns as nouns, so:

 

bello (masculine)	"behlloh"	nice, handsome
plural: belli	"behllyh"
bella (feminine)	"behllah"	nice, beautiful
plural: belle	"behlleh"
alto (masculine)	"ahltoh"	tall, high
plural: alti	"ahltyh"
alta (feminine)	"ahltah"	tall, high
plural: alte	"ahlteh"
grande (masculine & feminine)	"grahndeh"	big, huge, large
plural: grandi (masculine & feminine)	"grahndyh"
divertente (masculine & feminine)	"dyhvehrtehnteh"	funny, amusing
plural: divertenti (masculine & feminine)	"dyhvehrtehntyh"

 

Since the gender and number of both noun and adjective must always match, combinations can be:

 

brutta casa (fem.)	"bruh'ttah kahsah"	ugly house
brutte case	"bruh'tteh kahseh"	ugly houses
nuovo albero (masc.)	"nwohvoh ahlbehroh"	new tree
nuovi alberi	"nwohvyh ahlbehryh"	new trees
piccola ape (fem.)	"py'kkolah ahpeh"	small bee
piccole api	"py'kkoleh ahpih"	small bee
brutto colore (masc.)	"brw'ttoh kohlohreh"	ugly colour
brutti colori	"brw'ttyh kohlohryh"	ugly colours
grande nave (fem.)	"grahndeh nahveh"	big ship
grandi navi	"grahndyh nahvyh"	big ships
fedele servitore (masc.)	"fehdehleh sehrvyhtohreh"	faithful servant
fedeli servitori	"fehdehlyh sehrvyhtohryh"	faithful servants

 

2.2   GENDER AND NUMBER STANDARD INFLECTIONS PARTICULAR CASES

NOTE
in this paragraph, the "English sound" spelling of words shows again which syllable is stressed.

 

This page deals with nouns and adjectives which behave according to the two standard patterns dealt with in the previous paragraph, but need a further discussion.
You do not need to learn all these forms now, though it would be better if you simply read this paragraph, and came back to it from time to time, until you become familiar with all cases.

The nouns and adjectives dealt with in this page end with the special clusters discussed in paragraph 1.2: their plurals too have to "compromise" with phonetics, so this brings a few changes to their inflections.

 

NOUNS ENDING WITH...CO,...CA,...GO,...GA

These nouns and adjectives add an h to their plural form.
Should this not happen, the sound of consonant c and g would change.

 

singular	English sound	plural	English sound
...co	...koh	...chi	...kyh
...ca	...kah	...che	...keh
...go	...goh	...ghi	...ghyh
...ga	...gah	...ghe	...gheh

As said above, the plural form without an h would change the "hard" sound of c and g to a "soft" sound (...co would become ...ci, sounding like English ...chyh, ...ga would become ...ge sounding like English ...jeh, etc. etc.).
So letter h is needed, to keep the "hard" sound.

 

buco	"bwkoh"	hole
buchi	"bwkyh"	holes
fico	"fyhkoh"	fig
fichi	"fyhkyh"	figs
chirurgo	"kyhrwrgoh"	surgeon
chirurghi	"kyhrwrghyh"	surgeons
lago	"lahgoh"	lake
laghi	"lahghy"	lakes
formica	"fohrmyhkah"	ant
formiche	"fohrmyhkeh"	ants
sega	"sehgah"	saw
seghe	"sehgheh"	saws
mucca	"mw'kkah"	cow
mucche	"mw'kkeh"	cows

 

There are very few exceptions to the above-mentioned rule, but one of them is important:

 

singular	English sound	plural	English sound
amico	"ahmyhkoh" = friend	amici	"ahmyhchyh" = friends

The feminine form of the same word, instead, follows the general rule:

 

singular	English sound	plural	English sound
amica	"ahmyhkah" = friend	amiche	"ahmyhkeh" = friends

 

Obviously, nothing special happens when words end in ...ce or ...ge:

 

singular	English sound	plural	English sound
luce (feminine)	" lwcheh " = light	luci	" lwchyh " = lights
legge (feminine)	" leh'jjeh " = law	leggi	" leh'jjyh " = laws

 

NOUNS ENDING WITH...CIO,...CIA,...GIO,...GIA

These nouns and adjectives usually drop vowel i in the plural form.
In the singular form, vowel i is not actually pronounced, as it is only needed to give consonants c and g a "soft" sound (these clusters sound like English ...choh,...chah,...joh,...jah).
In the plural inflections, the i is no longer needed to keep this "soft" sound, therefore it is dropped.

 

singular	English sound	plural	English sound
...cio	...cho	...ci	...chyh (with English "ch" sound)
...cia	...cha	...ce	...cheh (with English "ch" sound)
...gio	...joh	...gi	...jyh
...gia	...jah	...ge	...jeh

Leaving vowel i, the sound would not change (for example, both ...ge and ...gie sound like English ...jeh).

 

calcio	"kahlchoh"	kick
calci	"kahlchyh	kicks
lancia	"lahnchah"	spear
lance	"lahncheh"	spears
orologio	"ohrohlohjoh"	clock, watch
orologi	"ohrohlohjyh"	clocks, watches
loggia	"loh'djah"	lodges, balconies
logge	"loh'djeh"	lodge, balcony

 

Also for this case a few exceptions exist, but they are not so important at this stage.

 

 

NOUNS ENDING WITH...CÌO,...CÌA,...GÌO,...GÌA

Although these clusters look very similar to the previous ones, you will notice that vowel i has an accent: this means that this vowel carries the stress of the word (for example, in the word magìa = magic the word is pronounced "mah jyh ah").
In the case previously discussed, ...CIO, ...CIA, etc. make one syllable, and vowel i is merely phonetic (not actually heard). In this case instead, clusters are made of two syllables, so i carries the stress, and is perfectly heard.
Here is an example showing two nouns which apparently end in a similar way: Grecia (Greece) and farmacia (chemist shop)

syllables in Grecia (previous group) are Gre + cia (with stress on Gre)
syllables in farmacia (this group) are far + ma + ci + a (with stress on ci)

Take note that accented vowels are not often used in spelling, not even in these cases, so farmacia is spelled with an ordinary i. But accented vowels are allowed all the same: since they are a useful help for readers not familiar with Italian language, these pages will often show them in case of uncertain pronounciation.

In the plural form, masculine nouns keep a double i, while feminine ones turn last vowel into e, as for any other standard plural.

 

singular	English sound	plural	English sound
...cìo	...chyhoh	...cìi	...chyhyh (with English "ch" sound)
...cìa	...chyhah	...cìe	...chyheh (with English "ch" sound)
...gìo	...jyhoh	...gìi	...jyhyh
...gìa	...jyhah	...gìe	...jyheh

In this way, the plural inflection does not affect vowel i, which also keeps carrying the stress, as in the singular form.
In a more general sense, this rule is used for any word whose last part sounds like ...ìo or ...ìa.
For example: rinvìo (postponement); armonìa (harmony); etc.

 

rinvìo	"rynvyhoh"	postponement
rinvìi	"rynvyhyh"	postponements
addìo	"ah'ddyhoh"	farewell
addìi	"ah'ddyhyh	farewells
ronzìo	"rondzyhoh"	buzzing
ronzìi	"rondzyhyh	buzzings
bugìa	"bwjyhah"	lie
bugìe	"bwjyheh"	lies
follìa	"fohllyhah"	craze
follìe	"fohllyheh	crazes
armonìa	"ahrmohnyhah"	harmony
armonìe	"ahrmohnyheh"	harmonies

Both ending vowels should be heard when pronouncing these nouns.

 

NOUNS ENDING WITH...SCIO AND...SCIA

These nouns behave like the ones ending with ...cio and ...cia discussed above: plurals simply drop the phonetic i, which is no longer needed.

 

singular	English sound	plural	English sound
...scio	...skoh	...sci	...shyh (English "sh" sound)
...scia	...skah	...sce	...sheh (English "sh" sound)

So simply drop an i in the plural form.

 

fascio	"fahshoh" (English "sh" sound)	bundle (of twigs or branches)
fasci	"fahshyh (English "sh" sound)	bundles
ascia	"ahshah" (English "sh" sound)	axe
asce	"ahsheh" (English "sh" sound)	axes

 

NOUNS ENDING WITH...SCÌO AND...SCÌA

These nouns differ from the previous ones because their vowel i carries the accent.
This again depends on syllables; for example fruscìo (hissing) is made of: fru + sci + o (sci is stressed).

There are not many of them, but they behave as the group of words ending with cìo, etc., discussed above.

 

singular	English sound	plural	English sound
...scìo	...shyhoh (English "sh" sound)	...scii	...shyhyh (English "sh" sound)
...scìa	...shyhah (English "sh" sound)	...scie	...shyheh (English "sh" sound)

So they too simply keep the i in the plural form (masculine will have i twice).

 

fruscìo	"frwshyhoh" (English "sh" sound)	hissing
fruscìi	"frwshyhyh" (English "sh" sound)	hissings
scìa	"shyhah" (English "sh" sound)	trail
scìe	"shyheh" (English "sh" sound)	trails

 

NOUNS ENDING WITH...GLIO AND...GLIA

Again, in clusters ...glio and ...glia vowel i is not actually pronounced, but simply used to obtain a Spanish "ll" sound (see paragraph 1.2 for more details).

 

singular	English sound	plural	English sound
...glio	...lloh (Spanish "ll" sound)	...gli	...llyh (Spanish "ll" sound)
...glia	...llah (Spanish "ll" sound)	...glie	...lleh (Spanish "ll" sound)

So masculine plurals drop one i (which otherwise would be double), while feminine plurals keep it.

 

figlio	"fyhlloh" (Spanish "ll" sound)	son
figli	"fyhllyh" (Spanish "ll" sound)	sons
scoglio	"skohlloh" (Spanish "ll" sound)	sea rock
scogli	"skohllyh" (Spanish "ll" sound)	sea rocks
figlia	"fyhllah" (Spanish "ll" sound)	daughter
figlie	"fyhlleh" (Spanish "ll" sound)	daughters
foglia	"fohllah" (Spanish "ll" sound)	leaf
foglie	"fohlleh" (Spanish "ll" sound)	leaves

 

NOUNS ENDING WITH...GLÌO AND...GLÌA

Another case of nouns with accented i, belonging to the penultimate syllable and carrying the stress.

 

singular	English sound	plural	English sound
...glìo	...llyhoh (Spanish "ll" sound)	...glìi	...llyhyh (Spanish "ll" sound)
...glìa	...llyhah (Spanish "ll" sound)	...glìe	...llyeh (Spanish "ll" sound)

Very few words have this ending, but the rule is the same as for similar cases discussed above: vowel i is kept in both masculine and feminine plurals.

 

bisbiglìo	"bysbyhllyhoh" (Spanish "ll" sound)	wispering
bisbiglìi	"bysbyhllyhyh" (Spanish "ll" sound)	wisperings

 

NOUNS ENDING WITH...GNO AND...GNA

These do not require a special discussion: as any other noun, masculine plural is ...gni and feminine plural is ...gne.
Always remember that cluster gn sounds like Spanish ñ.

 

singular	English sound	plural	English sound
ragno (masculine)	" rahñoh " = spider	ragni	" rahñyh " = spiders
compagna (feminine)	" kohmpahñah " = partner	compagne	" kohmpahñeh " = partners

 

NOUNS ENDING WITH...GNÌO AND...GNÌA

Again, these few nouns have an accented vowel i, because it belongs to their penultimate syllable (which carries the stress). The pattern is quite similar to the ones discussed before:

 

singular	English sound	plural	English sound
...gnìo	...ñyhoh (Spanish "ñ" sound)	...gnìi	...ñyhyh (Spanish "ñ" sound)
...gnìa	...ñyhah (Spanish "ñ" sound)	...gnìe	...ñyheh (Spanish "ñ" sound)

Therefore, both genders keep the i (masculine will have two).
Actually, no common nouns or adjectives exist in the masculine form, and only one common noun exists in feminine gender:

 

compagnìa	"kohmpahñyhah" (Spanish "ñ" sound)	company
compagnìe	"kohmpahñyheh" (Spanish "ñ" sound)	companies

 

Take your time to become familiar with these inflections: once you master them, you should be able to cope with the great majority of Italian nouns and adjectives.
Don't let the following paragraph scare you! Non-standard inflections might be a bit difficult to memorize, but they represent a minority: most nouns belong to the two general patterns.
For this reason, you can memorize paragraph 2.3 little by little, while carrying on with further topics, but I suggest you should browse it, to have an idea of what non-standard inflections can look like.

2.3   GENDER AND NUMBER NON-STANDARD INFLECTIONS

Although most nouns and adjectives have a standard inflection, there are some words which follow different patterns. As said at the end of paragraph 2.1, they might not be easy to learn at once, but there is no need of doing so: simply read this page, try to understand how and why these inflections differ from the standard ones, and memorize them little by little, as you study further paragraphs.

 

NOUNS WITH A LATIN NEUTRE PLURAL

A few nouns indicating either objects or concepts which are commonly given a high consideration (i.e. some parts of the human body) have a standard masculine singular (....o) but a peculiar plural ending with ....a (which is the original Latin neutre plural inflection of the word); in modern Italian, though, this particular plural form has changed gender, and is feminine:

 

osso (masculine, singular)	"ohssoh"	bone
ossa (feminine, plural)	"ohssah"	bones
dito (masculine, singular)	"dyhtoh"	finger
dita (feminine, plural)	"dyhtah"	fingers
braccio (masculine, singular)	"brah'tchoh"	arm
braccia (feminine, plural)	"brah'tchah"	arms
gesto (masculine, singular)	"jehstoh"	human act, deed
gesta (feminine, plural)	"jehstah"	human acts, deeds

Sometimes these names have two plural forms, one feminine of Latin origin (as explained above), and one masculine (regular) with a similar though "less noble" meaning. This concept will be discussed again at the end of this paragraph.
By now, try to memorize this important noun with a fully irregular gender:

 

mano (feminine despite the...o, singular)	"mahnoh"	hand
mani (feminine despite the...i, plural)	"mahnyh"	hands

NOUNS ENDING WITH ...tore

The ...tore ending usually indicates a human action or activity (in a very generic sense).
Curiously, a few English words of Latin origin still have similar inflections (i.e. actor - actress, master - mistress, etc.):

 

guidatore (masculine)	"gwydahtohreh"	driver, conductor (masculine or feminine)
guidatrice (feminine)	"gwydahtryhcheh"
attore (masculine)	"ah'ttohreh"	actor (masculine)
attrice (feminine)	"ah'ttryhceh"	actress (feminine)
pittore (masculine)	"py'ttohreh"	painter (masculine)
pittrice (feminine)	"py'ttryhceh"	painter (feminine)
nuotatore (masculine)	"nwohtahtohreh"	swimmer (masculine or feminine)
nuotatrice (feminine)	"nwohtahtryhceh"
mentitore (masculine)	"mentyhtohreh"	lier (masculine or feminine)
mentitrice (feminine)	"mentyhtryhceh"

NOUNS WHOSE FEMININE INFLECTION IS ...essa

They belong to several categories, which cannot be specifically classified, but a few guidelines could be:
noble ranks, some professional activities, some nouns whose masculine ends in ...one.
Also in this case, some English feminine nouns have kept the Latin root.

 

barone (masculine)	"bahrohneh"	baron (masculine)
baronessa (feminine)	"bahrohnehssah" (notice the accent)	baroness (feminine)
duca (masculine)	"dwkah"	duke (masculine)
plural duchessa (feminine)	"dwkehssah" (accent shift again)	duchess (feminine)
studente (masculine)	"stwdehnteh"	student (masculine or feminine)
studentessa (feminine)	"stwdehntehssah"
dottore (masculine)	"doh'ttohreh"	doctor (masculine or feminine)
dottoressa (feminine)	"doh'ttohrehssah"
presidente (masculine)	"prehsyhdehnteh"	president (masculine or feminine)
presidentessa (feminine)	"prehsyhdehntehssah"
leone (masculine)	"lehohneh"	lion (masculine)
leonessa (feminine)	"lehohnehssah"	she-lion (feminine)

Besides the accent shift on the penultimate syllable (because this feminine inflection brings one additional syllable to the word), note how in the duca - duchessa example, an h has been added to keep the strong sound of the cluster ca ("ka") turning into che ("ke"); simply ce would have sounded like English "che".

NOUNS OF GREEK ORIGIN

Some nouns of Greek origin end in a in both masculine and feminine forms; originally, most of them did not have a feminine form, therefore the same inflection is now used also for feminine.
What you could call a politically correct inflection! :)
They indicate human activities.
But in the plural form, they behave according to the standard inflections (see previous paragraph 2.2).

 

atleta (masculine and feminine, singular)	"ahtlehtah"	athlete (masculine and feminine)
atleti (masculine plural)
atlete (feminine plural)
eremita (masculine and feminine, singular)	"ehrehmytah"	hermit (masculine and feminine)
eremiti (masculine plural)
eremite (feminine plural)
idiota (masculine and feminine, singular)	"yhdyohtah"	idiot (masculine and feminine)
idioti (masculine plural)
idiote (feminine plural)

The same inflection also occurs in a number of nouns with masculine gender only:

monarca (= monarch);
schema (pronounced " skeh ma" = scheme);
problema (= problem);
programma (= program);
pentagramma (= pentagram);
stemma (= crest); and few more.

These inflections are typically of Greek origin.
Their plurals are regular (schemi, programmi, stemmi, etc.)

NOUNS WHOSE MASCULINE AND FEMININE HAVE DIFFERENT MEANINGS

A few nouns have different meanings when changing from masculine to feminine. They can be organized in different groups, according to the relation between the meaning of the two forms: