How to Pronounce 'Lavorare': Italian Pronunciation Guide

Q: How do you pronounce lavorare in Italian?

lavorare is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /lavoˈra.re/. It means “to work.” lah-voh-RAH-reh , with the stress on the third syllable, rhyming with "bra." In IPA: /lavoˈra.re/ . Four short, even syllables lead up to that stressed "ra," with no syllable dropped or blurred.

How do you pronounce "lavorare" in Italian?

lah-voh-RAH-reh, with the stress on the third syllable, rhyming with "bra." In IPA: /lavoˈra.re/. Four short, even syllables lead up to that stressed "ra," with no syllable dropped or blurred.

lavorare /lavoˈra.re/

Written as four syllables, la, vo, ra, and re, each one keeps its full vowel sound. English speakers used to compressing longer words (think "lab-ra-tree" for "laboratory") should resist the urge to swallow any of them.

Listen: lavorare

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Sound it out

The spelling is fully phonetic here, every letter earns its own sound, so the real task is placing the stress correctly rather than decoding any hidden rule.

la An unstressed but full open "lah," never reduced to "luh."

vo A closed, rounded "voh," short and clipped, not the diphthong glide English gives "vo" in words like "vote."

ra The stressed syllable, a crisp tapped-r "rah" held slightly longer than its neighbors.

re A short closed "reh" to close out the word, fully pronounced rather than trailed off.

Hear it in a sentence

Lavoro in un ufficio.

I work in an office.

Listen: Lavoro in un ufficio.

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"Lavoro in un ufficio" uses the simple present tense to describe an ongoing state, exactly where English would say "I work," not "I am working." Italian doesn't need a separate progressive form for a fact like where you're employed.

Notice "in un ufficio" takes "in," matching English "in an office," rather than the more location-specific "a" that shows up with named places. It's a small but common preposition choice worth locking in early.

Where English speakers slip

English speakers often stress the first syllable, "LAH-vo-rare," pulled there by the resemblance to "labor." Italian "lavorare" is stressed on the third syllable instead, "la-vo-RA-re," a pattern true of most "-are" verbs regardless of what their English cognate does.

The other frequent error is anglicizing the "vo," turning it into a two-part glide like the "vo" in "vote" (roughly "vou"). Italian "o" stays a single, pure vowel with no drift toward a "w" sound at the end.