How to Pronounce 'L'occhio (m.)': Italian Pronunciation Guide

Q: How do you pronounce l'occhio (m.) in Italian?

l'occhio (m.) is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /ˈɔkkjo/. It means “eye.” OK-kyo , a hard "k" sound, never the "sh" you might expect from English words like "pistachio." In IPA: /ˈɔkkjo/ .

How do you pronounce "l'occhio (m.)" in Italian?

OK-kyo, a hard "k" sound, never the "sh" you might expect from English words like "pistachio." In IPA: /ˈɔkkjo/.

l'occhio (m.) /ˈɔkkjo/

Written as two syllables, oc and chio, and that's exactly how it's said, no extra syllables hiding in the spelling. The doubled c is held slightly longer than a single one, and the i glides straight into the final o.

Listen: l'occhio (m.)

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Sound it out

Two spelling features to watch: cch before i or e is always a hard k sound in Italian, never "ch" or "sh," and the i in the final "chio" is a real glide into the o, not a silent letter.

oc An open "o" as in "cot," carrying the stress, cut off crisply before the doubled consonant.

chio The doubled c plus h gives a firm, held "k" sound, as in "key," never "ch" or "sh." The i then glides quickly into a final o, so this whole ending lands as one syllable, "kyo."

Hear it in a sentence

Ha gli occhi verdi.

She has green eyes.

Listen: Ha gli occhi verdi.

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"L'occhio" is the eye, and the example, "Ha gli occhi verdi" ("She has green eyes"), shows the irregular plural: "occhio" becomes "occhi," not "occhii," dropping the final o and the glide along with it. It also shows a pattern typical of Italian body-part descriptions: "gli occhi" takes the definite article rather than a possessive, where English needs "her eyes." Because "avere" (to have) already establishes whose eyes are meant, the article does the job a possessive would in English.

"Verdi" simply agrees in gender and number with "occhi," masculine plural, following it directly, the regular position for a descriptive adjective in Italian.

Where English speakers slip

The ending "-chio" closely resembles the English word "pistachio," which most English speakers pronounce with a "sh" sound, pi-STASH-ee-oh or pi-STAH-shoh. That analogy misleads people into softening the cch in "occhio" toward "sh" as well. Italian cch before i is always a firm, hard k, as in "key" or "kit," with no softening at all.

There's also a temptation to split "chio" into two syllables, "kee-oh," since English readers expect the i to carry its own vowel sound. Here it's a glide into the following o, compressing the ending into a single syllable, "kyo," not two.