Italian Syllable Counter
Count syllables in Italian. Detects diphthongs, hiatus, and double-consonant boundaries.
Counts Italian syllables with diphthongs and gemination.
| Word | Syllables | Breakdown |
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Italian syllabification rules
Italian has seven vowel phonemes but only five vowel letters (a, e, i, o, u) plus accented forms (à, è, é, ì, ò, ó, ù). Like Spanish, Italian syllables center on a vowel nucleus, with diphthongs and triphthongs (uoi in buoi) collapsing into one nucleus.
Two adjacent strong vowels (a, e, o) form a hiatus and split into separate syllables: pa·e·se, tea·tro (the ea here is hiatus). A weak vowel (i, u) plus a strong vowel forms a diphthong: fie·no, cuo·re, au·to.
Italian's signature feature is gemination — doubled consonants in spelling that are phonologically long. Doubled consonants always split across syllables: bel·la, mam·ma, cap·pel·lo. The clusters cc, gg, zz behave the same way: fac·cia, leg·ge, piz·za. The breakdown shown here puts the syllable boundary in the middle of any doubled consonant cluster.