LingoDrop
Italian · Pronunciation Guide
How do you pronounce "c'è" in Italian?
CHEH, one syllable, with a soft "ch" sound and an open e. In IPA: /tʃɛ/. Despite the apostrophe, this is a single clean beat, not two.
Written with an apostrophe joining two shrunk words, ci plus è, but spoken as a single syllable, since the i drops out entirely before the following vowel.
Listen: c'è
Free browser voice. Hear it read by a real native speaker inside the LingoDrop app.
Sound it out
"C'è" is a contraction of "ci" (there) and "è" (a form of "essere," to be), and Italian elides the i of "ci" before another vowel. What's left is just the soft ch onset plus è's open e, one clean beat, not the two syllables the apostrophe might suggest.
Hear it in a sentence
C'è un problema.
There is a problem.
Listen: C'è un problema.
Free browser voice. Hear it read by a real native speaker inside the LingoDrop app.
"C'è un problema" is the singular existential form of esserci (there to be), used here with the indefinite article "un" before "problema." The plural counterpart is "ci sono" (there are), an entirely different verb form, not just a tweak to "c'è."
English maps "there is" and "there are" onto the same basic phrase with only the verb changing, so this split into two distinct Italian forms depending on number is a common source of confusion when translating directly.
Where English speakers slip
The most common mistake is pronouncing the apostrophe as if it restores a hidden syllable, saying something like "chee-EH" instead of the correctly blended single "cheh." The elision here is a real sound change, not just a spelling convention.
The other slip is reaching for "c'è" when the plural "ci sono" is actually needed, since English "there is/are" doesn't distinguish number on the existential phrase the way Italian does.