Dividing a word into syllables helps us better understand how to pronounce it correctly and a syllable may end with a vowel or a consonant letter.
Based on the number of syllables, words are divided into:
- Monosillabe/monosyllables: which have only one syllable (è,ma, con, tuoi, dai)
- Bisillabe/two-syllables: which have two syllables(ma-no,pa-dre, fer-ro)
- Trisillabe/trisyllables: which have three syllables (er-ro-re, ve-lo-ce, ma-schi-le)
- Polisillabe/polysyllables: which have more than three syllables (fem-mi-ni-le, gram-ma-ti-ca-le)
Here are some rules for correct syllable division:
1. Each consonant becomes a syllable with the vowel that follows.
- Verità (Ve-ri-tà).
- Venire (Ve-ni-re).
- Sicuro (Si-cu-ro).
2. Double consonants separate.
- Diciotto(Di-ciot-to).
- Offensivo (of-fen-si-vo).
- Accettare (Ac-cet-ta-re).
3. One, two, or more consonant letters form a syllable with the vowel that comes after them.
- Costare (co-sta-re).
- Costruzione (costru-zio-ne).
- Bagaglio (ba-ga-glio).
4. The initial vowel can be a syllable.
- Ago (a-go).
- Amico (a-mi-co).
- Asta (a-sta).
5. Two vowels in a word next to each other form two different syllables.
- Paese (pa-e-se).
- Paura (pa-u-ra).
- Leone (le-o-ne).
6. Diphthongs are not divided.
- Pianta (pian-ta).
- Fiume (fiu-me).
- Guerra (guer-ra).
- Uomo (uo-mo).
7. The cq group always separates.
- Acqua (ac-qua).
- Piacque (piac-que).
- Acquario (ac-qua-rio)
8. The following letter groups never get divided.
A). Ch, Gh, Gl, Gn, Sc, Sch.
- Macchina (mac-chi-na).
- Ghiaccio (ghiac-cio).
- Ciglio (ci-glio).
- Cognome (co-gno-me).
- Scala (sca-la).
- Scherzo (scher-zo).
B). Qu + (a,e,i,o).
- Quadro (qua-dro).
- Quello (quel-lo).
- Quindici (quin-di-ci).
- Quota (quo-ta).
C). (B,C,D,F,G,T,Sb,Sc,Sd,Sf,Sg,St) + R.
- Brutto (brut-to).
- Crudo (cru-do).
- Droga (dro-ga).
- Frigo (fri-go).
- Grande (gran-de).
- Trucco (truc-co).
- Sbrigare (sbri-ga-re).
- Sdraiare (Sdrai-a-re).
- Sfocare (sfo-ca-re).
- Strano (stra-no).