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Gli accenti scritti
Accents may look strange to anyone whose native language doesn’t have any, but they are extremely important in Italian. Leaving off the accent on a word is a spelling mistake, and may cause confusion.
There are two different Italian accents – detailed lessons coming soon.
| Accent | Found on | What it does | Per esempio… | ||
| ` | grave |
a, i, u e, o |
Indicates that stress is on final syllable Indicates stress + closed vowel pronunciation |
città caffè |
city coffee |
| ´ | acuto acute |
a, i, u e, o |
Indicates that stress is on final syllable Indicates stress + open vowel pronunciation |
cosí perché |
so why, because |
Please note: In the very small bit of research I’ve done so far, Italian accents seem to be a divisive topic. I am going to address this in detail, particularly the question of whether the acute accent is – or should be – found at the end of words like cosí. Even Italians don’t all agree, but I will do my very best to find the writing system considered correct by the greatest number of people.
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Ciao! I’m Laura K Lawless, creator, writer, editor, and CLO (Chief Lawless Officer) of this free online Italian learning site. Lawless Italian is an official Lawless Languages site.
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