Italian pronunciation generator: hear every double consonant

Type any Italian word or sentence and hear it read aloud, double consonants and all. Free, no sign-up.

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How to pronounce Italian words

For longer Italian audio and more voices, see Italian text to speech. To spell out an English word by sound, use the phonetic spelling generator.

Type Italian

Type or paste up to 500 characters of Italian, or pick a sample. Write final accents, as in città and perché: they mark the stress.

Press play

Listen to the whole phrase, then pick a sample to hear one hard sound on its own.

Say it back

Repeat the phrase aloud, then play it again and listen for the sounds you missed.

Italian sounds that trip up learners

Italian vowels are easy for English speakers. The consonants are where words change meaning.

Double consonants

A double consonant is held longer, and the length changes the word. Pala is a shovel and palla a ball; nono is ninth and nonno grandfather.

pala [ˈpa.la] · palla [ˈpal.la] · nonno [ˈnɔn.no]

Gli

Gli is close to the lli in million, said with the middle of the tongue flat against the palate.

figlio [ˈfiʎ.ʎo] · famiglia [faˈmiʎ.ʎa]

Gn

Gn is the ny in canyon, held a little longer.

gnocchi [ˈɲɔk.ki] · bagno [ˈbaɲ.ɲo]

C and g before e and i

Before e or i, c is ch and g is j. An h keeps them hard, so chi sounds like key.

ciao [ˈtʃa.o] · chiesa [ˈkjɛ.za] · gelato [dʒeˈla.to]

Sc before e and i

Sc before e or i is sh.

pesce [ˈpeʃ.ʃe] · scienza [ˈʃɛn.tsa]

Custom Italian pronunciation for developers

Brand names in Italian text can be said the Italian way or the English way. A pronunciation dictionary picks one, so Nike is always naik, or always nike, in every request.

A pronunciation dictionary is a list of words and how to say each one. Cartesia swaps every match for its sounds-like spelling before the text is read, on sonic-3 and newer.

Get an API key Read the pronunciation guide

pronunciation-dictionary.json

// Create the dictionary once, through the API or the Playground.
[
  { "text": "Nike", "pronunciation": "naik" }
]

// Then pass its ID with each text-to-speech request.
{
  "model_id": "sonic-3",
  "language": "it",
  "pronunciation_dict_id": "<your dictionary ID>"
}

Pronunciation in other languages

All languages

Arabic pronunciation

ع and ح, the heavy consonants and long vowels, read aloud from Arabic script.

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Chinese pronunciation

The four tones, tone changes and retroflex sounds, in a Mandarin voice.

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French pronunciation

Nasal vowels, liaison and the French r, in a Parisian or Canadian French voice.

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German pronunciation

Umlauts, ich and ach, and z, in a Standard German voice.

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Japanese pronunciation

Kanji and kana read aloud, with long vowels and small tsu, in Standard Japanese.

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Korean pronunciation

Plain, tense and aspirated consonants and the sound changes between syllables.

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Polish pronunciation

Sz and ś, cz and ć, rz and ł, and the nasal ą and ę.

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Portuguese pronunciation

Nasal ão, the Brazilian t and d, and the r, in a Brazilian voice.

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Spanish pronunciation

Rolled r, ñ and the jota, in a voice from Mexico or Spain.

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Italian pronunciation FAQs

How do you pronounce Italian words correctly?

Say every vowel, including the last one, hold double consonants longer, and learn the c, g and sc rules before e and i. Then type the word into the generator above and compare your version with the audio.

Is there a free Italian pronunciation tool?

Yes. The generator on this page reads any Italian text up to 500 characters aloud, free and with no account.

How do you pronounce gnocchi?

[ˈɲɔk.ki], roughly NYOK-kee. Gn is the ny in canyon, and the double cc is held a little longer. The ch is hard, like a k.

How do you pronounce bruschetta?

[brusˈket.ta], broo-SKET-tah. In Italian, ch before e is a hard k, so it is never broo-SHET-ah.

Can I download the Italian audio?

Yes, with a free Cartesia account. Make an MP3 or WAV of the same text in the Cartesia Playground, or request it from the text-to-speech API.

Can Cartesia read longer Italian text?

Yes. Cartesia's text-to-speech model speaks 44 languages. For Italian voiceovers and apps, see the Italian text to speech page.

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