Italian → English
English uses 43 sounds. You already own 19 of them from Italian. The other 24 are the work — and 20 of those are the dangerous kind: close enough to something you already say that you will substitute them without hearing yourself do it.
The silent swaps
Your mouth has something close enough to reach for. These survive for years precisely because they sound right to you — the fix is hearing the difference first, not trying harder.
the move: palatal → velar
English: sing · written "ng", "n before k"
Your /ɲ/ is the one in gnocchi (gnocchi).
the move: labiodental → dental
English: think · written "th"
Tongue between the teeth, no voice.
Your /f/ is the one in fame (hunger).
the move: labiodental → dental
English: this · written "th (function words, between vowels)"
the, this, that, they, mother, breathe.
Your /v/ is the one in vino (wine).
the move: alveolar → postalveolar
English: measure · written "s (measure)", "si (vision)", "ge (beige)"
Your /z/ is the one in sbaglio (mistake).
the move: close → near-close
English: sit · written "i", "y", "e (unstressed)"
Your /i/ is the one in vita (life).
the move: open → near-open
English: cat · written "a"
Between /ɛ/ and /a/; mouth wide.
Your /a/ is the one in casa (house).
the move: close → near-close
English: book · written "oo (book)", "u (put)", "oul (could)"
Your /u/ is the one in luna (moon).
the move: longer
English: see · written "ee", "ea", "e_e", "ie"
Your /i/ is the one in vita (life).
the move: longer
English: law · written "or", "aw", "au", "al"
Your /ɔ/ is the one in cosa (thing).
the move: longer
English: food · written "oo", "u_e", "ew", "ou (soup)"
Your /u/ is the one in luna (moon).
the move: unrounded
English: cup · written "u", "o (son, love)", "ou (young)"
Your /ɔ/ is the one in cosa (thing).
the move: open-mid → open
English: hot · written "o", "a after w"
American: /ɑ/.
Your /ɔ/ is the one in cosa (thing).
the move: trill → approximant
English: red · written "r", "rr", "wr"
Silent after vowels in British English (car /kɑː/); pronounced in American.
Your /r/ is the one in Roma (Rome).
the move: it glides, yours would hold still
English: make · written "a_e", "ai", "ay", "ei (eight)"
Your /e/ is the one in sera (evening).
the move: it glides, yours would hold still
English: time · written "i_e", "igh", "y", "ie (pie)"
Your /a/ is the one in casa (house).
the move: it glides, yours would hold still
English: boy · written "oi", "oy"
Your /ɔ/ is the one in cosa (thing).
the move: it glides, yours would hold still
English: house · written "ou", "ow"
Your /a/ is the one in casa (house).
the move: it glides, yours would hold still
English: hair · written "air", "are (care)", "ear (bear)"
American: /ɛr/.
Your /e/ is the one in sera (evening).
the move: close-mid → mid, front → central
English: about · written "any unstressed vowel"
The commonest English vowel. banana = /bəˈnɑːnə/.
Your /e/ is the one in sera (evening).
Words you may say identically
Two or more English sounds landing on one sound of yours. Until the ear separates them, the mouth cannot — which is what the ear trainer is for.
Genuinely new
Nothing in Italian sits close to these. They sound foreign in your mouth — which is the good news: you can hear that you are not saying them yet.
house
Closest thing you own: — but labiodental → glottal.
near
American: /ɪr/.
Closest thing you own: — but it glides, yours would hold still, close → near-close.
car
Closest thing you own: — but open-mid → open, unrounded, longer.
home
American: /oʊ/.
Closest thing you own: — but it glides, yours would hold still, close-mid → mid, front → central.
Rhythm and pitch
The layer spelling never records, and the one that makes a correct sentence still sound foreign.
| Italian | English | |
|---|---|---|
| Rhythm | Syllable-timed + long consonants | Stress-timed |
| Stress | Contrastive. The default is the second-to-last syllable, and the accent is only written when the stress falls on the LAST one (città, perché). Words stressed on the third-from-last (àncora, prìncipi) are common and unmarked — the dictionary is the only way to know. | Contrastive, and unmarked in writing — the single most common cause of not being understood. Dozens of noun/verb pairs differ only in where the stress goes, and every unstressed vowel collapses to /ə/. |
What you have that English doesn't
11 sounds with no job in English. They are not mistakes — but they are where an accent leaks in, because a sound you own is easy to use when a hard one is due.
The honest caveat
This is a prediction from the shape of two sound systems, not a recording of you. It says what your inventory makes likely — it cannot know that your Italian has a regional variety that already owns one of these, or that you learned English from someone whose accent you copied. A teacher listening to you beats it. Use it to know what to listen for.
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