Common pronunciation challenges for Italian learners of English

I often get asked which words are commonly mispronounced, so let's start there.

actually, bought, cause, certificate, clothes, colleague, comfortable, cough, development, effort, email, focus, government, home, hotel, interesting, law, mother, notice, organised, pause, pronunciation, racism, said, saw, suffix, tastes, timetable, work

How useful is this list, though? Especially since the reality is that I could list hundreds or even thousands of words here. Surely, it's more useful to look at why these are mispronounced, which could help us improve pronunciation in a broader sense.

Every language has its own sound system, and when learners take on a new language, the patterns of their first language (L1 language) can influence the way they speak. In this blog, we focus specifically on pronunciation challenges for Italian learners of English. It's all about understanding the differences between the two languages and how your L1 influences your English.

Important! You may feel that as long as you are understood, your pronunciation doesn't really matter too much. However, the truth is that while studying pronunciation is great for improving your spoken English, it can offer an even bigger opportunity for improving listening comprehension. As we go on, you'll see why.

Before we start, though, let's just take a moment to remind ourselves what is meant by pronunciation. Of course, the first thing we think of is individual sounds within words (phonemes), but don't forget that there's also syllable stress, word stress, intonation, strong and weak sounds, and natural linking.

Phonemes that don't exist in Italian

Some English sounds have direct equivalents in Italian and rarely cause confusion. Others are absent, which can lead to pronunciation and comprehension difficulties.

Diphthongs: English has many diphthongs, which Italian does not. Even when learners are able to perceive the concept of diphthongs, they are likely to pronounce both elements equally, while in English, the first element is usually stronger. For example, the vowel sound in coin should emphasise the first element /ɔɪ/.

Monophthongs also present challenges for Italian learners. Long vowels /ɜː/ and /u:/ and short vowels /ɪ/, /æ/, /ʌ/ and the schwa /ə/ may be mispronounced because they don’t correspond directly to Italian vowels. The schwa in particular often goes unnoticed, but in English it occurs frequently in unstressed syllables and is absolutely key to natural rhythm when speaking and to listening comprehension.

Consonants not in Italian: /θ/ as in think, /ð/ as in mother, /ʒ/ as in measure, /ŋ/ as in sing, and /h/ as in hat. Initial /w/ can also be tricky.

Voicing distinctions: Italian learners may struggle to differentiate voiced and unvoiced sounds. For instance, they might say zip instead of sip because the distinction between /s/ and /z/ is not automatic.

Tip for teachers: Use minimal pairs and listen carefully to students’ speech. Recording short phrases or sentences can make these differences more obvious.

Stress-timed vs syllable-timed languages

English is a stress-timed language, which means that the rhythm of speech is based on stressed syllables rather than on each syllable being the same length. Italian, on the other hand, is syllable-timed, in which every syllable receives roughly equal weight.

Italian learners may expect to hear every syllable clearly pronounced in English. In listening tasks, this can make fast or natural speech feel overwhelming. Awareness of this difference allows you to make real breakthroughs in listening comprehension and helps you feel less overwhelmed when listening. When we understand how English works, we are able to focus on catching the stressed words (content words) rather than trying to catch every syllable. English, by design, is supposed to be this way. The ears hear the content words and the brain pieces together the sentence.

Relationship between pronunciation and spelling

English has deep orthography, meaning that the link between letters and sounds is inconsistent. Italian has a shallow orthography: letters map closely to sounds. Italian learners may feel frustrated or even indignant that English letters aren’t pronounced as expected. For example, the letter 'r' is always pronounced in Italian, so mistakes occur in words like bird.

Vowel changes with stress

Vowel sounds in English can change depending on the word stress. For example, in photograph, the first “o” is pronounced /əʊ/, but in photographer, it changes to /ə/. Learners may not be aware of these shifts, which can affect both pronunciation and listening comprehension.

Intonation

English uses intonation to distinguish types of sentences. Yes-no questions (closed) typically have a rising intonation, while WH questions (open) often fall at the end. Italian learners may rarely notice this distinction, which can affect both speaking naturalness and listening comprehension.

Final thoughts

Studying these patterns is a valuable investment for both teachers and learners. Start with awareness, keep exercises practical, and build gradually. The results will be clear in both understanding and communication.

If you’d like to explore this further, consider some one-to-one sessions with me.

One-to-one lessons for teachers of English

Don't forget - individual sounds are just one part of the story. There's so much more to pronunciation.