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Italian · Pronunciation Guide
How do you pronounce "parlare" in Italian?
par-LAH-reh, stress on the second syllable. In IPA: /parˈla.re/.
Three even syllables, par-la-re, each pronounced fully — English cognates might tempt you to front-load the stress, but Italian puts it on la.
Listen: parlare
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Sound it out
English words descended from this exact verb family — "parlor," "parley," "parlance" — all stress their first syllable, which makes them a false guide to where the stress actually falls in Italian parlare.
Hear it in a sentence
Parli italiano?
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Listen: Parli italiano?
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"Parli italiano?" uses parli, the informal tu-form of parlare, to ask a casual, direct question about someone's language skills — exactly the kind of thing a learner might be asked, or might ask someone else, when the topic of Italian comes up. No subject pronoun (tu) is needed; the verb ending already makes clear who's being addressed.
Parlare is also the direct ancestor of the English words "parlor" (originally a room for conversation) and "parley" (a talk between opposing sides) — both borrowed through French from this same Latin-rooted verb.
Where English speakers slip
Because parlor and parley stress their first syllable in English, it's tempting to say "PAR-la-reh" instead of the correct par-LA-re, with stress on the second syllable.
The other common slip is using the English approximant "r," which never touches the roof of the mouth, in place of Italian's tapped r, a single quick flick of the tongue — especially noticeable right at the start of the stressed syllable in par-.