LingoDrop
Italian · Pronunciation Guide
How do you pronounce "male" in Italian?
MAH-leh, two clean syllables — nothing like the English word it happens to be spelled identically to. In IPA: /ˈma.le/. Stress falls on the first syllable, with the second held just as clearly.
Two syllables, ma and le, both fully pronounced — the final e never disappears the way it would in the unrelated English word "male," which looks the same on the page but shares no sound with it.
Listen: male
Free browser voice. Hear it read by a real native speaker inside the LingoDrop app.
Sound it out
The whole challenge with this word is visual: it's spelled exactly like the English word "male," but Italian "male" means "badly" and is pronounced completely differently, in two open syllables rather than one closed one.
Hear it in a sentence
Mi sento male.
I feel sick.
Listen: Mi sento male.
Free browser voice. Hear it read by a real native speaker inside the LingoDrop app.
"Male" is the adverbial opposite of "bene," and like "bene" it modifies a verb rather than describing a noun, which is why it never takes gender or number endings. In "Mi sento male," the reflexive verb "sentirsi" (to feel) combines with "male" to form a set phrase that specifically means feeling physically unwell or sick, not just emotionally bad — that nuance comes from the idiom as a whole, not from translating word by word.
Because "male" pairs so tightly with "sentirsi," it's the go-to phrase for describing everyday ailments, from a headache to nausea, in casual and polite speech alike.
Where English speakers slip
Because this word is spelled identically to the English word "male," English speakers reflexively read it with the English long-a diphthong, saying something like "MAYL" in one syllable. Italian "male" has nothing to do with that word — it's two syllables, "MAH-leh," with a pure open "ah" where English readers expect a glide.
A second, smaller slip is dropping the final "e" the way English speakers drop silent endings (as in "site" or "date"). In "male" that e is fully voiced, giving the word its second syllable — leave it off and you're left with something closer to the French "mal" than the Italian word.