LingoDrop
Italian · Pronunciation Guide
How do you pronounce "il fratello (m.)" in Italian?
eel frah-TEL-loh, stress on the middle syllable, open e as in "bet." In IPA: /il fraˈtɛl.lo/. The double l is held noticeably longer than a single English l.
Three syllables, fra, tel, and lo, with the article il out front and the stress on tel.
Listen: il fratello (m.)
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Sound it out
Two things to watch here: the stressed e is open, the same vowel quality as English "bet," not the tighter, closed e some other Italian words use, and the doubled l has to be held for a beat longer than a single l — English doesn't normally hold consonants like this, so it takes deliberate effort.
Hear it in a sentence
Mio fratello vive a Roma.
My brother lives in Rome.
Listen: Mio fratello vive a Roma.
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"Mio fratello vive a Roma" drops the article in front of mio fratello, the same family-noun pattern seen with padre and madre. It also shows a here in its "location" sense: Italian uses a with cities (vivere a Roma) but in with countries and regions (vivere in Italia), a distinction English collapses into a single "in."
"Vive," from vivere, is the plain present tense for an ongoing state, matching the English present simple "lives" rather than a progressive form.
Where English speakers slip
The doubled ll is the easiest thing to shorten into a single, quick English-style l, since English doesn't treat consonant length as meaningful the way Italian does. Holding the l a beat longer is what actually signals "fratello" rather than a word with a single l.
The stressed e is also often turned into an English-style diphthong, drifting toward the "ay" of "late," instead of staying a short, pure open [ɛ]. Italian vowels don't add that off-glide, so the vowel should stop cleanly where it starts.