How to Pronounce 'Aiutare': Italian Pronunciation Guide

Q: How do you pronounce aiutare in Italian?

aiutare is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /a.juˈta.re/. It means “to help.” ah-yoo-TAH-reh , with the stress on the third syllable. In IPA: /a.juˈta.re/ . The opening "ai" is two separate sounds, not the English diphthong it looks like.

How do you pronounce "aiutare" in Italian?

ah-yoo-TAH-reh, with the stress on the third syllable. In IPA: /a.juˈta.re/. The opening "ai" is two separate sounds, not the English diphthong it looks like.

aiutare /a.juˈta.re/

Written as four syllables, a, iu, ta, and re, with "iu" collapsing into a single glide-plus-vowel "yoo" sound, and the main stress falling on "ta."

Listen: aiutare

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Sound it out

The opening two letters, "ai," look like they should form one English-style diphthong (as in "aisle" or "aid"), but in Italian they stay separate: the a is its own syllable, and the i immediately turns into a "y" glide leading into the following u.

a Its own short, open syllable: "ah," not gliding into anything that follows.

iu The i becomes a quick "y" glide sliding straight into "oo," forming "yoo" in a single beat.

ta The stressed syllable, loud and clear: "TAH."

re A light, unstressed "reh" to close the word.

Hear it in a sentence

Ti aiuto io.

I'll help you.

Listen: Ti aiuto io.

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"Ti aiuto io" places the object pronoun "ti" (you) before the verb, standard Italian word order, while pushing the subject pronoun "io" (I) to the very end for emphasis. That reordering signals contrastive stress, something closer to "I'll help you" with a slight emphasis on "I," as in "I'll help you (even if no one else will)." A neutral version of the same sentence would simply be "ti aiuto," with "io" dropped entirely, since the verb ending already marks the subject.

Where English speakers slip

The most common mistake is treating "ai" as a single English-style diphthong, the vowel sound in "aisle" or "aid," producing something like "AY-oo-tah-reh." In Italian the a stays a pure, separate "ah" and does not glide into the i at all.

There's also a strong pull to stress the first syllable, "AI-u-tare," the way English stresses similarly-shaped words. Correct Italian stress falls on the third syllable, aiu-TA-re.