LingoDrop
Italian · Pronunciation Guide
How do you pronounce "più" in Italian?
PYOO, said as one quick syllable — the i glides straight into the u, never landing as two separate beats. In IPA: /ˈpju/.
Written with two vowels, i and ù, but pronounced as a single syllable: the i becomes a fast glide into the u, not a vowel with its own beat.
Listen: più
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Sound it out
The accent mark over the u is doing something specific: it's not adding stress the way it would in a longer word, it's Italian's spelling convention for marking a one-syllable word that ends on a vowel following another vowel, the same pattern seen in "già" and "ciò."
Hear it in a sentence
Voglio più tempo.
I want more time.
Listen: Voglio più tempo.
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"Voglio più tempo" shows the basic comparative pattern: "più" plus a noun means "more of that thing," here "more time." The same word extends to comparing adjectives ("più grande," bigger) and to superlatives with the definite article ("il più grande," the biggest) — one small word covering a lot of comparative ground.
In negative sentences, "più" flips meaning entirely: "non... più" means "no longer" or "not anymore" ("non voglio più," I don't want it anymore), a construction with no single-word English equivalent.
Where English speakers slip
The most common mistake is reading the two vowel letters as two separate syllables, something like "pee-oo," the same instinct that trips up "ciao." In Italian, an unstressed i next to another vowel collapses into a glide rather than keeping its own syllable.
The other slip is skipping the rounding on the u and landing closer to an English "ew" as in "few," which is fronted and less rounded than Italian u. Italian "più" wants the lips actively rounded and pushed slightly forward.