LingoDrop
Italian · Pronunciation Guide
How do you pronounce "il padre (m.)" in Italian?
eel PAH-dreh, stress on the first syllable. In IPA: /il ˈpa.dre/. The p at the start is unaspirated — none of the small puff of air an English p usually carries.
Two syllables, pa and dre, with the article il out front and the stress on pa.
Listen: il padre (m.)
Free browser voice. Hear it read by a real native speaker inside the LingoDrop app.
Sound it out
English speakers release an initial p with a light puff of air, easy to feel by holding a hand in front of your mouth while saying "pat." Italian p never carries that puff — it's a cleaner, flatter sound right from the first syllable.
Hear it in a sentence
Mio padre lavora molto.
My father works a lot.
Listen: Mio padre lavora molto.
Free browser voice. Hear it read by a real native speaker inside the LingoDrop app.
"Mio padre lavora molto" drops the article that a possessive would normally need, the same pattern as "mia madre": padre is a singular, unmodified family noun, so mio attaches directly to it with no il in front. "Lavora molto" places the adverb of degree after the verb, matching the English order in "works a lot."
Because the article is absent here, mio is the only signal that this is "my father" rather than "the father" in some general sense — losing track of that possessive changes the meaning of the sentence.
Where English speakers slip
The initial p is the giveaway: English speakers instinctively add a small burst of air before the vowel, a habit called aspiration, because that's how English forms word-initial p. Italian p has no aspiration at all, so "padre" should sound noticeably flatter and softer at the start than the English ear expects.
The final e is also easy to drop by analogy with English words that end in a silent e, like "cadre" (borrowed from French, where the final e really is silent). Italian's final e in padre is always pronounced, a short, clear "eh."