LingoDrop
Italian · Pronunciation Guide
How do you pronounce "la stella (f.)" in Italian?
STEL-lah, with the double l held. In IPA: /ˈstɛlla/. The e is open, and the "st" at the start stays perfectly clean.
Two syllables, stel and la, split across the doubled l, which gets held across the syllable break rather than clipped short.
Listen: la stella (f.)
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Sound it out
The opening "st" is worth isolating on its own: Italian keeps it a plain, unaspirated cluster, s and t both fully pronounced with nothing added between them, never drifting toward the "sht" sound that creeps into some English and German pronunciations of similar clusters.
Hear it in a sentence
Le stelle brillano di notte.
The stars shine at night.
Listen: Le stelle brillano di notte.
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"Le stelle brillano di notte" switches to the plural, "stelle," following the regular feminine pattern of -a to -e. "Di notte" means "at night," using "di" plus a bare noun with no article for a time expression, the same pattern behind "di giorno" (by day), a construction that doesn't map directly onto English "at."
"Brillano" is the third-person plural of "brillare" (to shine), agreeing with the plural subject "le stelle."
Where English speakers slip
Some English speakers, especially those influenced by German or by an exaggerated "correct" pronunciation of "st" clusters, add a slight "sh" glide before the t, saying something closer to "shtella." Italian "st" stays a plain, clean cluster with no added sh sound at all.
The other common slip is shortening the double l to a single l, "STE-la." That's not a minimal pair with another word here, but it does throw off the word's weight and rhythm, and native ears will register it as a mispronunciation.