Stress / Accento Tonico

Usually, Italian words are stressed on the next–to–the–last syllable.

amico	friend
foglia	leaf
Milano	Milan
nipote	nephew
padre	father
parlare	to speak
signorina	Miss
studiare	to study
telefonare	to telephone
uomo	man

When the final –e is dropped from a word, as happens with some masculine titles when they are directly followed by a proper name, the position of the stress remains unchanged.

dottore	doctor
dottor Nardi	Doctor Nardi
professore	professor
professor Pace	professor Pace

When words are stressed on the last vowel, they always have a written accent over that vowel.

cioè	namely
città	city
perchè	because
però	however
tassì	taxi
università	university
venerdì	Friday
virtù	virtue

It is useful to remember that open e and o occur only in stressed syllables.

automobile	automobile
medico	physician
nobile	noble
telefono	telephone

Note: The written accent is used with a few monosyllables in order to distinguish them from others that have the same spelling but a different meaning.

dà	gives
da	from
è	is
e	and
là	there
la	the; it; her
né	nor
ne	some
sé	himself, herself
se	if
sì	yes
si	oneself