LingoDrop
Italian · Pronunciation Guide
How do you pronounce "il passaporto (m.)" in Italian?
eel pahs-sah-POR-toh, stressed on the third syllable. In IPA: /il pas.sa.ˈpɔr.to/. The double s in the middle is genuinely held longer than English "passport" ever holds its s, despite the matching double spelling.
Written as four syllables, pas-sa-por-to, with the doubled s stretched across the first two — hold that hissing sound noticeably longer than you would in English before moving on to the stressed "por."
Listen: il passaporto (m.)
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Sound it out
English "passport" already spells its s with two letters, but doesn't actually pronounce it any longer than a single s — Italian "passaporto" is the opposite: the double s is a real, audible difference in length, and skipping it is one of the more common English-speaker habits to unlearn here.
Hear it in a sentence
Non dimenticare il passaporto.
Don't forget your passport.
Listen: Non dimenticare il passaporto.
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"Non dimenticare il passaporto" is a negative informal command, and Italian builds negative imperatives differently from positive ones: instead of a true imperative form, it uses "non" plus the infinitive ("non dimenticare," literally "not to forget"), a construction that has no direct English equivalent since English just adds "don't" in front of the same imperative form used for positive commands.
Notice there's no possessive "tuo" (your) in the Italian sentence — "il passaporto" alone is enough, because Italian frequently relies on the definite article instead of a possessive when ownership is obvious from context, where English almost always inserts "your."
Where English speakers slip
The double s is the detail most likely to get lost, because English "passport" spells the s twice but pronounces it as a single, short sound. Italian "passaporto" actually lengthens the s — say it long enough that you can feel a brief pause on the hiss before the vowel continues.
The other trap is the stressed "por": English "portable" and "import" both use a closed, rounded vowel there, but Italian "por" is open, closer to the vowel in "paw" than in "go," and collapsing that openness makes the stress sound weaker than it should.