Unlike English, Italian uses accent marks on some words to indicate how those words should be pronounced. When are they mandatory? Is there more than one type of accent mark?
In this lesson, you’re going to see how to use and pronounce words with gli accenti grafici, accent marks in Italian.

Iniziamo! Let’s get started!
Why do we have accent marks in Italian?
Accent marks are used to indicate the stress position of an Italian word. Normally, the stress of an Italian word falls on one of its last three syllables.
This means that a number of words carry the stress on the last syllable. These words, like tè, tea, are called parole tronche, “truncated words”. Accent marks in Italian help you to find these parole tronche so that you can pronounce them correctly.
Tè
Tea
Other examples of parole tronche, where the stress is on the last syllable, are…
Città, né, finì, più
City, neither, s/he finished, more

Now, there are two types of accent marks in Italian:
- accento acuto (´), acute accent
- accento grave (`), grave accent
You will always use an accento grave on the vowels A, I, O and U, and also on the stressed open E vowel (brush up on your Italian vowels here) in the final position.
You will always use an accento acuto on a stressed closed E vowel in the final position.
In the previous examples, you may have heard that tè and né both carry the stress on their final -e, but the quality of the sound is slightly different. Let’s listen to these words again.
Tè, né
Tea, neither

Tè has an open E sound, so the accent mark leans to the left (grave accent).
Né, on the other hand, has a closed E sound, so the accent mark leans to the right (acute accent)!
When you see an acute accent, you will know that the word is stressed on the last syllable and that the vowel E will must be pronounced as if it were closed.
Don’t worry too much about written acute/grave accent marks. As long as you write down any mark, it doesn’t really matter where the slant is, unless you’re publishing a book. Almost no one follows this writing formality in everyday writing, and Italian forums and websites are filled with perchè.
The same goes for capital letters with an accent mark. Nobody will bat an eye if you write E’ with an apostrophe instead of È, but if you’re publishing a book, make sure you never use an apostrophe with capital letters carrying an accent mark.
Now, when is it mandatory to put the accent mark on an Italian word? Let’s move on.
Accent marks in Italian are mandatory for…
All monosyllabic words featuring two vowels or a diphthong (i/u + vowel).
Già, giù, più, può
Yeah, down, more, it can
Qui and qua are exceptions. NEVER write quì or quà.
All polysyllabic words with the stress on the last syllable (you will have to memorize these, but almost all English words ending in -ty like “city” and “velocity” end in -tà in Italian).
Velocità, lavorerò, tribù
Speed, I will work, tribe

Compound words that end with a monosyllable.
Quaggiù, trentatré
Down here, thirty-three
On very specific monosyllabic words that are indistinguishable from others.
è (is) | e (and) |
sì (yes) | si (reflexive pronoun) |
sé (itself) | se (if) |
tè (tea) | te (you) |
né (neither, nor) | ne (clitic pronoun) |
lì (there) | li (them) |
là (there) | la (feminine article “the”) |
dà (s/he gives) | da (from) |
dì (day) | di (of) |
Lunedì, martedì, mercoledì, giovedì, venerdì, sabato, domenica
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday

Accent marks in Italian are recommended for…
Homographs, especially in professional writing (publishing houses, newspapers etc.) and when they can cause confusion, such as sùbito (immediately) and subìto (past participle of to suffer).
Ho sùbito aperto la porta.
I opened the door immediately.
Ho subìto una tremenda sconfitta.
I suffered a tremendous defeat.
Another common homograph is prìncipi (princes) and princìpi (principles).
I due prìncipi sono andati a caccia.
The two princes went hunting.

Quali sono i princìpi della termodinamica?
What are the laws (principles) of thermodynamics?
For any other common Italian word, you don’t need any accent marks at all.
And that’s it for the accent marks in Italian! If you still have any doubts about them, feel free to leave a comment.
What next?
Now that you’ve seen the accent marks in Italian, you might want to keep learning Italian online with these free Italian resources:
- Useful Italian Words Series
- Common Italian Phrases Series
- Italian grammar lessons and tricks
- Italian idiomatic expressions
Or you might also want an excellent offline Italian grammar resource to take with you at all times (Amazon).
Title: Italian All-in-One For Dummies
Language: English / Italian
Publisher: For Dummies
Pages: 672
Learn to speak Italian like a native? Easy.
Italian All-in-One For Dummies appeals to those readers looking for a comprehensive, all-encompassing guide to mastering the Italian language. It contains content from all For Dummies Italian language instruction titles, including Italian For Dummies, Intermediate Italian For Dummies, Italian Verbs For Dummies, Italian Phrases For Dummies, Italian Grammar For Dummies, and Italian For Dummies Audio Set.
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