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Difference between revisions of "Language/Italian/Grammar/Italian-Alphabet"
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{{Italian-Page-Top}} | {{Italian-Page-Top}} | ||
<div class="pg_page_title">Italian Grammar - Italian Alphabet</div> | <div class="pg_page_title">Italian Grammar - Italian Alphabet and Pronunciation</div> | ||
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C'È -> C' stands for "CI": This expression means "there is" | C'È -> C' stands for "CI": This expression means "there is" | ||
== Stress == | |||
In the Italian language stress cannot be guessed by diacritics like in Greek, Spanish or Portuguese. It does not even fall always on a specific syllable like in French (always on the last) or in Icelandic or Finnish (always on the first). Even if the tendence is to pronounce words with the stress on the last but one syllable, many commonly used words do not follow this rule. Plus, when a word ends with more than one vowel, it is always difficult to syllabize correctly. When learning Italian, I suggest you to always mark in written form the stressed vowel and to repeat it out loud once or twice. | |||
According to the stress rule, plurisyllabic words can by divided into 4 types: | |||
- Parole tronche (truncated or oxytone words): words where the stress falls on the last syllable like in English "re-WARD" (a graphic accent must always be written for correct spelling) | |||
* caf-'''fè''', ve-ri-'''tà''', po-'''trò''', co-li-'''brì''', bel-ze-'''bù''' | |||
- Parole piane (flat or paroxytone words): words where the stress falls on the penultimate syllable like in English "MU-sic" (a graphic accent is not required for correct spelling) | |||
* ca-'''de'''-re, pa-'''laz'''-zo, co-'''sto'''-so, a-'''pri'''-le, '''fiu'''-me | |||
- Parole sdrucciole (preparoxytone words): words where the stress falls on the ante-penultimate syllable like in English "CI-ne-ma" (a graphic accent is not required for correct spelling) | |||
* '''de'''-bo-le, '''ca'''-vo-lo, '''for'''-bi-ce, '''bri'''-cio-la, '''nu'''-vo-la | |||
- parole bisdrucciole: words on stress on the fourth syllable counting from the end. The Italian language also has words where the stress falls way back towards the starting syllables and still having other three syllables after them. These words are almost always conjugated verbs, sometimes with pronouns attached in the end (a graphic accent is not required for correct spelling). For example: | |||
* '''me'''-ri-ta-no, '''dan'''-do-glie-lo, '''pro'''-vo-ca-no, mol-'''ti'''-pli-ca-no, cen-'''tu'''-pli-ca-no | |||
As you can see, only troncated words require a graphic accent (acute or gave), but in the middle of a word accents are almost never written, so it is quite difficult to guess where the stress falls in Italian. | |||
== Syllabizing == | |||
The rules to syllabize correctly are very different from one language to the other and are strictly connected to pronunciation and spelling. | |||
In Italan words follow these rules: | |||
* every syllable must have only one vowel core, so it could be composed of | |||
** only one vowel: '''A'''-BI-TA-RE | |||
** consonant(s) + vowel | |||
** vowel + consonant(s) | |||
** consonant(s) + vowel + consonant(s) | |||
== Conclusion == | == Conclusion == | ||