LingoDrop
Italian · Pronunciation Guide
How do you pronounce "il giorno (m.)" in Italian?
JOR-noh, with "gi" making one soft "j" sound, as in "jump." In IPA: /ˈdʒor.no/.
Two syllables, gior and no, with "gio" blending into a single beat since the i is purely a spelling signal, not a sound of its own.
Listen: il giorno (m.)
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Sound it out
This follows the exact same rule as "ciao," just with g instead of c: an i wedged between g and another vowel doesn't get pronounced, it only tells you the g is soft. Once you know that, "giorno" reads almost exactly as it sounds.
Hear it in a sentence
Che giorno è oggi?
What day is it today?
Listen: Che giorno è oggi?
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"Che giorno è oggi?" drops any subject pronoun for "it" — Italian doesn't need a dummy subject the way English needs "it is," because the verb ending already carries that information. Literally the sentence reads "what day is today," with no equivalent of "it" anywhere.
"Giorno" itself covers both "day" as a 24-hour period and "day" as in daylight hours, which is why "buongiorno" works as a greeting through the daytime — it's wishing someone a good day in both senses at once.
Where English speakers slip
English "gi" can go either way — hard as in "gift," soft as in "giant" — so readers sometimes guess wrong and use a hard g, saying "GOR-noh" instead of "JOR-noh." Italian "gi" before a vowel is always soft, with no exceptions to weigh.
The r also tends to pick up English's heavy, retroflex quality, the kind that curls the tongue back and colors the vowel before it, the way "or" sounds in American "born." Italian r is a single light tap, and the vowel before it should stay short and clear rather than blending into an r-colored sound.