Why Italy
Anybody here speaks Italian?
How do I make the difference between a single and double consonants in Italian? For example, pena and penna. It's easy to make a vowel sound longer, but how do you do it with a consonant? I don't know of any other language that uses double consonants. Any tips? I see the quesiton was not clear to one native speaker - what I'm asking is how do you make the difference in pronounciation, how do I make those words that use double consonants sound different from those that don't?
Public Comments
- i'm italian...i don't undertand very well what your question is...but i remember you that,for example,the words "pena" and "penna" have two different means,so it's very important to use the double consonant...
- I'm a native Italian speaker. I can tell you the difference is slight for foreigners, but Italians hear it immediately. For instance, I had a teacher who was half Italian and half Austrialian, so she spoke both Italian and English perfectly. However, it was clear she was more a morthertongue English speaker than an Italian one because of double consonants. As a matter of fact she spoke PERFECT Italian, like me, BUT she pronounced capello and cappello in the same way (both sounded like capello). In brief, two consonants make a "stronger" sound, i.e. pp in cappello sounds something like a "small explosion", while p in capello is the same p sound you have in English words like chapel. The best way to learn how to pronounce double consonants is to listen to a lot of native speakers. It's as hard as it is for Italians to pronounce 'th' in English, so never give up and keep on practising! :)
- Try to say it as they are two or more different words: pen na, cap pel lo, ... Then try to say the same way without any break. For Italian native "th" English sound is absolutlely unusual, like "r", which is anyway easier... [Japanese is very easy, instead, at least in pronunciation! :)] By the way: French and Spanish do also have double consonants...
- si, un'po... I think with the doubles you have to make sure you pronounce them both- like "stanno"- they are (stan- noh)...do you understand?
