Vowel "E" in Italian: OPEN or CLOSE Sound? (ITALIAN PRONUNCIATION)
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- Опубліковано 5 вер 2024
- This Italian lesson will focus on the pronunciation of the vowel E that in Italian can have a close or open sound. I’ll show you some general rules for when you say it in a way rather than the other; at the end of the video I’ll give you some words that are written the same way but have different meaning depending on how you say the “E”
--------------------------- SUMMARY OF THE LESSON -------------------------
The vowel E in Italian can be “aperta” (open sound) or “chiusa” (close sound).
(1:05) The “E” is generally “aperta” in the following case:
- After the vowel “I” e.g piede = foot
- Before the consonants “nd”, “ns”, “nt”, “nz” e.g. gente = people
- Before another vowel (a, i, o, u) e.g. torneo = tournament
- Words ending in “ello”, “ella”, “elle”, “elli” e.g sorelle = sisters
- Foreign words e.g. hotel
(5:35) Here you go instead when the vowel “E” gets a close sound:
- Words ending in “mento”, “mente”, “menti”, “menta” e.g. lentamente = slowly
- Words of one syllable e.g. re = king
- When there’s an accent on the “E” e.g. perchè = because
- Words ending in “essa”, “ezza”, “etto”, “etta” e.g. dottoressa = female doctor
- Words ending in “eso”, “ese”, “esa”, “esi” e.g. paese = town
(8:53) **Watch out for these words: PESCA, LEGGE, ESSE, RE, VENTI, COLLEGA
Watch the video to find out more
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Very helpful, thank you! 😊
I really like the format where you say a group of words individually, then you repeat them.
For me, one additional thing that might make it even better would be to alternate the pairs of words that differ only by open vs closed e several times in a row, so can really focus on the difference. Like “pesca pesca pesca pesca”, alternating between open and closed each time.
This is great! Guardavo molti video su questo topico perche in uno sistema di pronunciare greco antico Εε epsilon e pronunciato come e chiusa mentre Ηη eta e pronunciato come e aperta, ed ho studiato un po' d'italiano quindi e piu facile per me imparare questo per italiano. (L'altri video non hanno tanti esempi.)
I agree with some of the comments below, and I think I speak for all English speakers when I say the difference betwen the two Italian "e" sounds is very subtle, difficult to distinguish and to reproduce properly. I have lived in Italy for 35 years and still find it difficult to pronounce the two sounds, but most of all it's difficult to distinguish between the two sounds when people are speaking. After all these years, I was hoping I'd be able to find something on UA-cam that would explain the difference better, in linguistic terms. A list of words doesn't help, even if they are pronounced out loud. Also explanining one sound is "open" and the other is "closed" means very little to me! A native Italian knows exactly what "open" and "closed" mean in this context, but native English speakers don't have these sounds. It would be great to see a video which explains how to shape your mouth and tongue properly to produce the two sounds correctly. Grazie mille!
I found these lists very helpful, because I've watched several videos on HOW to pronounce open e and closed e, but I hadn't found anything until now that explained WHEN to use one or the other. Even though I, too, sometimes have a hard time telling the difference (some words more than others), this video answered a lot of my questions. Grazie signora!
Love your explanations…. You’re a fantastic teacher, thank you Ambra!
Thank you so much! 😊
Grazie per questo video. Hai spiegato tutto molto chiaro. :)
Ciao Mia, grazie mille per aver guardato il video 😊
Grazie
Grazie a te Bharath!
Grazie!
How do we pronounce molto BENE? it is [bεne] or [bene]?😇
Ciao! Ambra. Grazie (e aperta in grazie?) per i tuoi video. Forse sarebbe utile sapere se ``e`` è chiusa od aperta nelle coniugazioni dei verbi.
Yikes! I’m having a really hard time hearing the difference.
It can be a bit hard to hear it at first ... is there any word, in particular, you find it difficult?
I don't hear the difference at all :(
Don’t you mean the e is open BEFORE nd,ns, nt, nz. Not After?
Apologies! My mistake ... in words like "polenta" (poˈlɛnta) and "gente" (dʒɛnte), the letter E is open before the consonants "nt"
Buona sera mia maestra come va
Ciao Hussain, tutto bene?
If the pronunciation of "e" differs from one Italian region to another, I think it is no use bombarding us with such a long list of rules.