Vowels in Italian language
Just a random post collecting some stuff about vowels (not all the rules though - check the masterpost for all of them, link below)
Italian has 5 vowels (a, e, i, o, u) and 7 different sounds (a, i, u only have one, while e and o have two each, according on the accents).
In general: a sounds very open (like in "add"), i sounds like a long/double English "e" (e.g. "sheep") and u generally sounds like a double English "oo" (e.g. "bootcamp". If the English sounds sometimes remember more a "yu" sound, remember Italian doesn't: it's a "yu withouth the y at the beginning").
Vowel e and o can have either an open or a closed sound. In general, when you don't see any stress on the vowel, the sound is closed (there can be exceptions, but it's okay to learn this). An open vowel e sounds like the first e in "elephant"; a closed e sounds more like the "e" sound you make in "chaotic". An open o sounds kinda like the starting sound you make to pronounce "awesome" while the closed one can be similar to the one in "gone". (As for the "u" sounds, isn't very easy to give you examples of pronunciations).
You can check the grammar masterpost and the old posts about Italian alphabet and vowels to read this more in detail. You can also check the tag #audio audios on this blog or search "audio" in the search bar: you'll find loads of audios and videos I recorded and posted (I didn't even remember some of them LOL)
Very often in Italian one single vowel can change the whole meaning of a word.
Let's see a few examples:
dire = to say
dare = to give
certo = sure
corto = short
scoraggiare = to discourage
scoreggiare = to fart
(idiomatic and onomatopoeic, mostly used for kids: "fare put/prut" = to make/do "put/prut", meaning with these two words the sound of the fart)
lettore = reader
letture = readings
lettere = letters
(in the latter tbh the accent moves on the first vowel so when you read them it has a different sound -lettòre, lettùre, lèttere-, but still...)
figlio = son
foglio = paper
There are some more examples in this masterpost (look at the links near the letters SW = similar words), feel free to check them!
