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

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

la primavera (f.) is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /pri.maˈvɛ.ra/. It means “spring.” pree-mah-VEH-rah , stress on the third syllable, with an open "eh" as in "bed." In IPA: /pri.maˈvɛ.ra/ . All four syllables stay short, even, and fully voiced.

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

pree-mah-VEH-rah, stress on the third syllable, with an open "eh" as in "bed." In IPA: /pri.maˈvɛ.ra/. All four syllables stay short, even, and fully voiced.

la primavera (f.) /pri.maˈvɛ.ra/

Four syllables, pri-ma-ve-ra, stressed on the third. English speakers who know the borrowed word "prima" (as in "prima ballerina," stressed PREE-ma) sometimes carry that stress pattern in here — Italian "primavera" moves the emphasis further along the word instead.

Listen: la primavera (f.)

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Sound it out

"Primavera" is a single word in Italian, but the borrowed English term "prima" (used in phrases like "prima donna") sits right inside it and tempts English speakers to front-load the stress the way that loanword does. Treating "primavera" as one unbroken word with its own stress point, on "ve," avoids that trap.

pri An unstressed, short "ee" sound, quick and light, not the stressed "PREE" it becomes in the borrowed English word "prima."

ma An unstressed, open "mah," said briefly before the stress arrives on the next syllable.

ve The stressed syllable, with an open "e" (<span class="ipa">ɛ</span>) as in "bed" — this is where the whole word's emphasis lands.

ra A short, clear closing "rah," with a light tapped r.

Hear it in a sentence

In primavera tutto è verde.

In spring everything is green.

Listen: In primavera tutto è verde.

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"In primavera tutto è verde" ("In spring everything is green") uses in with no article before the season, the same bare time-expression pattern seen with in inverno — spring, like winter, drops the article when it follows in to mean "during this season," even though the same noun would take an article as the subject of a sentence ("La primavera è bella," Spring is beautiful). Tutto ("everything") functions as a pronoun here and takes a singular verb, just as it does in English.

Where English speakers slip

The most common mistake is misplacing the stress toward the front of the word, saying "PRI-ma-ve-ra," influenced by the borrowed English term "prima" (as in "prima ballerina"), which is stressed on its own first syllable. Italian "primavera" is one word with its stress squarely on the third syllable, "ve," regardless of how the shorter English loanword behaves.

The second slip is closing the stressed e too far, saying "VAY" instead of the correct open "VEH." This vowel is open, with the jaw dropped further than for a closed e, closer to the vowel in "bed" than the one in "vein."