LingoDrop
Italian · Pronunciation Guide
How do you pronounce "finire" in Italian?
fee-NEE-reh, with the stress on the middle syllable. In IPA: /fiˈni.re/. Every syllable here is clean and evenly spaced, no blending required.
Three even syllables, fi, ni, and re, each pronounced fully and separately, with the stress on "ni."
Listen: finire
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Sound it out
"Finire" is visually a near-twin of the English word "finish," which is exactly what makes it risky: Italian vowels are always pure and full-value, never the relaxed, shortened vowels English uses in unstressed syllables.
Hear it in a sentence
Ho finito i compiti.
I finished my homework.
Listen: Ho finito i compiti.
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"Ho finito i compiti" is the passato prossimo, Italian's standard past tense for completed actions, built from "ho" (avere, to have) plus the past participle "finito." Unlike many irregular -ire verbs, "finire" forms its participle the regular way, simply swapping the -ire ending for -ito. "I compiti" (homework, literally "the tasks") is plural, matching how Italian nearly always treats homework as a set of individual assignments rather than one uncountable mass, the reverse of English "homework."
Where English speakers slip
Because "finire" looks so much like "finish," English speakers often import English vowel quality, softening the i's toward the short "ih" sound, or clipping the final e the way English silently drops it in words like "fine." Italian keeps both i's as a full, tense "ee" and gives the final e its own light but audible syllable.
There's also a strong pull to stress the first syllable, "FEE-nee-reh," by analogy with English "FIN-ish." Correct Italian stress falls on the second syllable, fi-NI-re.