What is a diphthong? Diphthongs are special pairs of vowels that are considered to be a single sound. They are found in many Italian words and dictate how words are divided into syllables. In this lesson, we will take a look at all the possible diphthongs in Italian.
Nuovo
Diphthong “uo”
Fieno
Diphthong “ie”
How do you tell diphthongs apart from ordinary vowel clusters? Read on to find the answers to these questions and more in this ultimate guide to the diphthongs in Italian!
Diphthongs in Italian
All types of diphthongs in Italian
Let me start by saying that vowels in Italian can be either weak (i and u) or strong (a, e, and o).
All diphthongs contain either an i or a u vowel + a strong vowel.
In Italian, a diphthong is called ascendente (ascending) if it is formed by either:
- i + u (IA, IE, IO, IU) as in…
Piangere, iena, fiocco, fiuto
To cry, hyena, flake, sniff
- u + a (UA, UE, UI, UO) as in…
Guanto, questo, suino, tuono
Glove, this, swine, thunder
In Italian, a diphthong is called discendente (descending) if it is formed by either:
- strong vowel + i (AI, EI, OI, UI) as in…
Zaino, Pirenei, poi, lui
Backpack, Pyrenees, then, he
- A/E + u (AU, EU) as in…
Baule, reumatismo
Trunk, rheumatism
What about triphthongs in Italian?
A triphthong in Italian is a sequence of three vowels that make up a syllable. They are made up of the vowels i and u + a strong vowel.
You can’t divide a triphthong into two syllables. It’s its own syllable.
For example, here are some words with triphthongs in Italian:
Tuoi, aiuola, suoi, miei, buoi
Your, flowerbed, his, my, oxen
However, these words do not contain triphthongs:
Gennaio, noia, ghiaia.
January, boredom, gravel.
That’s because you need two weak consonants (either 2 i’s or 2 u’s or 1 i and 1 u) to form a triphthong.
AIO has one i. OIA also has one i. The same can be said for AIA.
UOI, however, has both an i and a u. IEI as in miei has two i’s and so on.
And that’s it for the diphthongs in Italian! If you still have any doubts about them, feel free to leave a comment.
What next?
Aiuta Lingookies con un 👍!
Now that you’ve seen the diphthongs 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
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