Learn about new Italian consonants
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| Hi everyone. |
| Welcome to The Ultimate Italian Pronunciation Guide. |
| In this lesson, you'll learn 2 Italian consonant sounds. |
| r, ts |
| These consonant sounds do not appear in English, so they'll likely be new to you. |
| Be sure to practice them because these are unique sounds of Italian which learners often get wrong! |
| Are you ready? |
| Then let's get started! |
| The first consonant is... |
| r |
| Roma (Rome) |
| quattro (four) |
| (voiced alveolar trill) This is also known as a rolled R, or rolling your R's. Lightly contact the gums directly behind your top teeth with the tip of your tongue and try to direct just enough air through it so that the opening opens and closes rapidly -- as if fluttering or vibrating. It almost sounds like a rapid "D" sound. |
| r |
| "You should feel the pressure behind the gums and at the tip of your tongue. To get a feel for this sensation, think for a moment that you're in the arctic -- it's sooo cold, ""brrrrrr!"" |
| That noise that you make is a similar to the sensation of the rolled R." |
| Listen to a few more examples. |
| ferro (iron) |
| arrivederci (good bye) |
| ripercorrere (to retrace) |
| One useful trick, is to repeat the words butter "butter" or "ladder" really *really* quickly. Eventually, you'll produce the rolled R sound. |
| Yet another trick, is to think of olden day movies. Do you remember how Dracula first introduced himself? Like DO-RA-CU-LA. Try to say it like this multiple times. You want to focus on the D and R sound in the word "dracula". This *very* quick transitioning from the D to the R can sometimes allow you to prononuce the rolled R sound. |
| Okay, let's break this sound down. |
| r, r (slowly) |
| r, r (slowly) |
| Keep practicing this sound. You'll get there eventually! |
| The final consonant for this lesson is... |
| ts |
| grazia (grace) |
| pozzo (well) |
| "(voiceless alveolar sibilant affricate) This consonant sound is like a combination of a T and an S sound. |
| It starts off as a t sound, but ends with an s sound. |
| Here's a great tip. You can produce this sound by saying the word 'cats'. |
| So one useful trick is to bounce off of the ending when trying to pronounce this consonant sound." |
| ts, ts (slowly) |
| ts, ts (slowly) |
| Well done! You just learned 2 new Italian consonants. |
| r, ts |
| You've now learnt all of the sounds that could possibly be pronounced in Italian! |
| How difficult were they to learn? Please comment and share your thoughts. |
| See you in the next Ultimate Italian Pronunciation Guide lesson! |
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