Last week Geoff wrote a silly blog about tè (tea), which played on the fact that some Italian words change their meaning depending on whether they use an accent or not, e.g. tè (tea), te (you). Let’s have a look at a few more words that fall into this category, plus some other cases in which we need to use an accent.
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1. We use the accent to distinguish between two monosyllabic words which otherwise are written in exactly the same way:
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è = is; e = and: la rosa è profumata e rossa (the rose is scented and red)
dà = he/she gives; da = from: il sale dà più sapore al cibo (salt gives more flavour to food); Luca viene da Genova (Luca comes from Genova)
dì = day (old fashion or poetic); di = of: un bel dì vedremo levarsi un fil di fumo … (one lovely day we’ll see a thread of smoke rising … from Madama Butterfly by Puccini)
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| CLICK ON THE IMAGE ABOVE TO LISTEN TO ‘UN BEL DÌ VEDREMO’ |
là = there; la = the (definite article fem sing), her/it (direct object pronoun fem sing): la gatta è là sulla sedia (the cat is there on the chair)
lì = there; li = them (direct object pronoun masc. plural): dove sono i giornali? li ho messi lì sul tavolo (where are the newspapers? I’ve put them there on the table)
né … né = neither … nor; ne = of it/them: non ho visto né l’una né l’altra (I haven’t seen neither one nor the other); di uova ce ne sono tre (eggs … there are three of them)
sé = himself/herself; se = if: l’ha fatto da sé (he did it by himself); se vai al mercato mi compri delle mele? (if you go to the market could you buy me some apples?)
sì = yes; si = one/you (impersonal pronoun) or himself/herself/themselves: hai capito come si usa l’accento? (have you understood how the accent is used? lit, how one uses the accent) penso di sì (I think so, lit. I think yes)
tè = tea; te = you (sing, informal) … see Geoff’s blog: Senza Tè
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| UNA TAZZA DI TÈ … PER TE, GEOFF |
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2. We also use the accent in truncated words, i.e. words ending with a stressed vowel to indicate the correct pronunciation, e.g.:
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andrò = I will go (future tense)
caffè = coffee
città = city/town
perché = why/ because
perciò = therefore
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| UN BEL PERO … PERÒ LE PERE SONO TROPPO DURE |
però = but N.B. without the accent this becomes pero (with the stress on ‘pe-‘) which is a pear tree.
università = university
virtù = virtue
Obviously, this is not an comprehensive list, but it should give you an indication of how important it is to use the accent in Italian.
Find out more about accents in Part 2
Comments:
Gugone:
Very helpful. Will you soon do another on the difference between the acute and grave accents? Why città but perché ?
Serena:
@Gugone Salve Gugone, I’ll soon do a post on the different accents.
Saluti da Serena
Richard:
Is there a difference in pronunciation between vowels with an accent versus vowels without?
Serena:
@Richard Salve Richard!
In everyday written Italian, we only use the accent on truncated words, i.e. when the stress falls on the last letter of the word, e.g. però, perché, sarà. For example, in “pero” (= pear tree, there’s no accent), we pronounce with the stress on pe-. On the other hand “però” (= but, with the accent) is pronounced with the stress on -ro.
Occasionally you can find words that carry the accent in the middle of the word. This is optional and is used to distinguish homographic words, e.g. prìncipi (= princes) vs. princìpi (=principles)
Finally, only on dictionaries, you’ll find the vowel E marked with either the acute or the grave accent to determine whether it’s an open or closed sound, but don’t worry about that, the great majority of the Italian population doesn’t know the difference. We tend to have a more open sound in the North of Italy and a closed one in the South.
Saluti da Serena