LingoDrop
Italian · Pronunciation Guide
How do you pronounce "la parola (f.)" in Italian?
pa-RO-la, stress on the middle syllable, with an open "o." In IPA: /paˈrɔla/.
Three syllables, pa, ro, and la, with the stress on the middle one. All three stay fully voiced and evenly spaced, none of them rushed.
Listen: la parola (f.)
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Sound it out
A regular word to sound out letter by letter, the main things to watch are the tapped r, the open quality of the stressed o, and making sure the stress lands in the middle rather than drifting to the front.
Hear it in a sentence
Come si pronuncia questa parola?
How do you pronounce this word?
Listen: Come si pronuncia questa parola?
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"La parola" means "word," in the sense of a unit of language, and the example, "Come si pronuncia questa parola?" ("How do you pronounce this word?"), uses the impersonal "si" construction rather than addressing a specific "you." Literally, the sentence reads something like "how does this word pronounce itself," a passive-flavored, generic phrasing Italian reaches for constantly when giving instructions or asking general questions, where English defaults to "you" ("how do you pronounce...").
"Questa" ("this") agrees in gender and number with "parola," feminine singular, matching the pattern any Italian demonstrative or adjective follows when it modifies this noun.
Where English speakers slip
English "parlance," "parlor," and "parley" all share a root with "parola" and all stress their first syllable, which pulls English speakers toward PA-ro-la. Correct Italian stress falls on the middle syllable, pa-RO-la, and getting this wrong is one of the more noticeable non-native patterns for this word.
The r also tends to pick up English's retroflex quality by analogy with those same cognates, curling the tongue back the way "parlor" does. Italian r here is a single fast tap of the tongue tip, with no lingering coloration on the vowels around it.