LingoDrop
Italian · Pronunciation Guide
How do you pronounce "il mese (m.)" in Italian?
MEH-seh, with a closed "eh" and a plain, unvoiced s — not the buzzy z English speakers might expect between vowels. In IPA: /ˈme.se/.
Two light syllables, me and se, both quick and even, with stress on the first.
Listen: il mese (m.)
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Sound it out
"Mese" uses the closed e — tighter and higher than the open e in a word like "tempo" — and it's another case where the s between two vowels stays voiceless rather than buzzing the way it typically does in English.
Hear it in a sentence
Il mese scorso ho viaggiato molto.
Last month I traveled a lot.
Listen: Il mese scorso ho viaggiato molto.
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"Il mese scorso ho viaggiato molto" places scorso (last) after the noun, the normal position for this kind of time adjective in Italian, unlike English "last month" where the adjective comes first. The same pattern holds for "prossimo" (next), as seen in "la prossima settimana."
"Ho viaggiato" is the passato prossimo, built from avere plus a past participle — the everyday way Italian talks about a finished past action, functioning much like English simple past "traveled" even though it's structurally closer to "have traveled."
Where English speakers slip
The s between the two vowels is the main trap: English routinely voices s into z between vowels, as in "reason" or "phase," so it's natural to say "MEH-zeh." In standard Italian, "mese" keeps that s voiceless throughout.
The e also invites an English-style diphthong, the y-glide that turns "bet" into "bait" territory — saying "MAY-seh" instead of "MEH-seh." Italian e is a pure, single vowel sound from start to finish, with no glide added at the end.