Accent Marks, Stress, and Intonation in Italian - Advanced Italian Step-by-Step (2016)

Advanced Italian Step-by-Step (2016)

Accent Marks, Stress, and Intonation in Italian

Learning the accents and where to place the stress on a word is very important and makes it easier to know how to say words in Italian. The accent marks in Italian are added to a letter to differentiate it from another one with a similar sound.

There are four orthographic accent marks in Italian:

images

Of these four accents, only the first two are the most commonly encountered: the grave and the acute accents.

In contemporary Italian, it is mandatory to mark the accent only in the following categories:

• With words of two or more syllables that end with a vowel that is stressed: bontà, libertà, città, carità, and però

• With some monosyllable words that could be pronounced as a word with two syllables: più, giù, già, ciò, and so on

• With some monosyllables that need to be recognized from other words:

images

The number tre (three) is not accented, but when it is a compound tre is accented, so we have trentatrè (33), quarantatrè (43), and so on. The pronoun me is also not accented, but in the word nontiscordardimè (forget-me-not), it is accented.

Stress

The stress placed on words within a sentence is called sentence stress, which is the relative emphasis given to certain syllables in a word. It is typically signaled by increased loudness, vowel length, and changes in pitch.

The terms stress and accent are sometimes considered the same thing, and they can be when the accent or the stress is on a single-syllable word (, , etc.) or on the end of a two or more syllable word (città, povertà, etc.). There are some guidelines to follow to learn where to place the stress on a word. Keep in mind, however, that these are guidelines since people from one part of Italy sometimes pronounce the same word with emphasis on a syllable that differs from the way it is pronounced in another part of the country.

When you are trying to learn how to stress different syllables in Italian, one of the best things that you can do is listen to native Italians. They do it naturally. Nothing is forced. However, you may not have this luxury.

The Golden Rule for Placing Stress

This does not hold up in all situations by any means, but for the most part, the stress is placed on the second-to-last syllable: bambino, cantare. When the stress is on the last syllable, an accent mark is mandatory on the last letter of the word: perché, bontà, and so on. Knowing this is going to help you with the proper pronunciation of quite a few words in the language. Many words are pronounced with the stress on the third-to-last or fourth-to-last syllable. There is no rule governing the placement of the stress in these cases. As you develop an ear for the language, you will learn which pronunciation sounds better. Here are some examples:

images

Some words have a different meaning depending on the position of the accent (stress). The accent, however, is not used. The correct pronunciation of the word is understood only by the context of the phrase. Take a look at the following examples:

images