How to Pronounce 'La camicia (f.)': Italian Pronunciation Guide

Q: How do you pronounce la camicia (f.) in Italian?

la camicia (f.) is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /kaˈmi.tʃa/. It means “shirt.” kah-MEE-cha , stress on the middle syllable, ending in a soft "cha" like the end of "gotcha." In IPA: /kaˈmi.tʃa/ .

How do you pronounce "la camicia (f.)" in Italian?

kah-MEE-cha, stress on the middle syllable, ending in a soft "cha" like the end of "gotcha." In IPA: /kaˈmi.tʃa/.

la camicia (f.) /kaˈmi.tʃa/

Three syllables, ca, mi, and cia, though that last part is written with two letters, c-i-a, for one single "cha" sound, not two separate ones.

Listen: la camicia (f.)

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Sound it out

This word uses the same silent-i spelling rule that shows up in "ciao": an i sitting between c and another vowel doesn't get pronounced on its own, it just tells you the c is soft.

ca A hard "kah," hard c before a, same sound as English "car" without the r.

mi A clean, short "mee," the vowel kept tight and forward, not drawn out.

cia One blended "cha" sound, as in "chat." The i is purely a spelling marker here, showing the c is soft rather than adding its own vowel sound.

Hear it in a sentence

La camicia bianca è nell'armadio.

The white shirt is in the wardrobe.

Listen: La camicia bianca è nell'armadio.

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"Camicia" is feminine, so it takes "la" and pulls a feminine "bianca" (white) in the sentence "La camicia bianca è nell'armadio." Notice the adjective follows the noun, the default word order for descriptive adjectives like colors in Italian, rather than coming before it the way English always puts "white" ahead of "shirt."

"Nell'armadio" is the preposition "in" fused with the definite article, "in" + "lo" + "armadio" collapses into "nell'armadio." These prepositional contractions are mandatory in Italian, an English speaker's instinct to keep "in" and "l'armadio" as separate words would read as noticeably foreign.

Where English speakers slip

The most common mistake is pronouncing the i in "cia" as its own syllable, saying "ka-MEE-chee-ah" in four beats instead of three. English readers expect every vowel letter to be heard, but that i is silent, it only exists to soften the c; the whole ending is one quick "cha."

A second slip is hardening the c, saying "ka-MEE-ka" the way "c" before "a" normally sounds in Italian. Here the following i overrides that default and forces the soft "ch" sound instead, the same softening rule that turns "ciao" into "chow" rather than "kow."