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Old April 24, 2008, 12:01 PM
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Rusty Rusty is offline
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Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: USA
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Most Italian words are accented on the penultimate syllable, just like in Spanish. There are plenty of words, however, that look like they should be accented on the same syllable as their Spanish equivalent, but they are not. And the Italians only place an accent in the words that have an accent on the last syllable (or on homophones in order to distinguish them). The accent has to be memorized for all other words!

A Spanish speaker has an advantage over an English speaker trying to learn Italian, because they already know, or will be able to deduce, which syllable receives the accent in most of the words, especially the cognates.
For example, these pairs are accented in the same syllable:
difficile (difíchile) = difícil
possibile (posíbile) = posible
cattolico = católico
epoca = época
comodo = cómodo

Here are some Italian words that are accented on the last syllable (these are also accented on the last syllable in Spanish - note that the grave accent mark is used instead of the acute accent that is used in Spanish):
città (chitá) = ciudad
difficoltà = dificultad

One 'gotcha' for a Spanish speaker is the infinitive ending in -ere. Although most will be accented on the second-to-last syllable (and are therefore accented on the same syllable as the Spanish equivalents ending in -er), there are many unaccented exceptions that have to be learned:
vendere (véndere) = to sell
vivere (vívere) = to live
scrivere (scrívere) = to write
correre (córrere) = to run
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