LingoDrop
Italian · Pronunciation Guide
How do you pronounce "la borsa (f.)" in Italian?
BOR-sa, stress on the first syllable, with a clipped "or" and no r-coloring on the vowel. In IPA: /ˈbor.sa/.
Two syllables, bor and sa, both short and even, with the first carrying the stress and the second staying a full, unreduced "sah."
Listen: la borsa (f.)
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Sound it out
This one looks almost identical to its English cousin "purse" in meaning and to "bursar" in spelling-adjacent sound, which is exactly what trips people up.
Hear it in a sentence
Ho lasciato la borsa a casa.
I left my bag at home.
Listen: Ho lasciato la borsa a casa.
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"Borsa" is feminine, matched by "la." In "Ho lasciato la borsa a casa," "ho lasciato" is the passato prossimo of "lasciare" (to leave something behind), formed with "avere" plus the past participle, the standard past tense for a completed one-off action like forgetting your bag somewhere.
"A casa" here means "at home," one of a small set of fixed Italian phrases that drop the article where English would keep one, "vado a casa" (I'm going home), "sono a casa" (I'm at home). Learners often want to insert "la" and say "a la casa," but the article-free form is the one Italians actually use in everyday speech.
Where English speakers slip
The main slip is carrying over the English r from "bursar" or "purse," which pulls the tongue back and colors the vowel before it, something English does automatically but Italian never does. In "borsa," the o stays a pure, short sound and the r is a light, fast tap immediately after it, not blended into the vowel.
A second, subtler mistake is voicing the s, sliding toward "BOR-za." Italian s between two vowels can sometimes be voiced in other words, but at the start of a stressed syllable like this one it stays a plain, unvoiced "s," the same sound as the s in English "sun."