How to Pronounce 'Possibile': Italian Pronunciation Guide

Q: How do you pronounce possibile in Italian?

possibile is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /posˈsi.bi.le/. It means “possible.” pohs-SEE-bee-leh , with the stress landing on SEE, the second syllable, not the first as the English cognate suggests. In IPA: /posˈsi.bi.le/ .

How do you pronounce "possibile" in Italian?

pohs-SEE-bee-leh, with the stress landing on SEE, the second syllable, not the first as the English cognate suggests. In IPA: /posˈsi.bi.le/.

possibile /posˈsi.bi.le/

Four syllables, pos, si, bi, and le, with stress on the second syllable — a pattern shared by most Italian adjectives ending in -bile, all of which stress the syllable right before that ending.

Listen: possibile

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Sound it out

"Possibile" looks so close to its English cognate that it's tempting to just say the English word with an Italian accent — but the stress falls on a different syllable, and every vowel needs to keep its full Italian value through to the end.

pos A short, unstressed syllable with a doubled s held into the next syllable — a hint of extra length here, since the two s's belong to different syllables but are still pronounced as one long, held sound.

si The stressed syllable: a clear, bright "see" — this is where all the emphasis of the word lands, unlike the English cognate, which stresses its first syllable instead.

bi A short, light "bee," unstressed and quick.

le A final, fully-voiced "leh" — Italian never drops this last vowel the way English silences the e in "possible."

Hear it in a sentence

Non è possibile.

It's not possible.

Listen: Non è possibile.

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"Non è possibile" is a common, all-purpose exclamation of disbelief or refusal in Italian, used far more casually and frequently than its literal translation might suggest — it can mean anything from genuine surprise to a flat, polite "no, that can't happen."

"Possibile" belongs to a large family of Italian adjectives ending in -bile that correspond almost one-to-one with English "-ble" adjectives (terribile/terrible, incredibile/incredible, orribile/horrible) — recognizing the pattern makes dozens of vocabulary words instantly guessable, as long as the stress shift is remembered every time.

Where English speakers slip

The single most common mistake is stressing the first syllable, saying "POS-si-bi-le" to match the English cognate's "POS-si-ble." Nearly every Italian word ending in -bile stresses the syllable immediately before that ending, so the correct pattern is pos-SI-bi-le, with the emphasis clearly on the second syllable.

The other slip is swallowing the final e, treating it the way English silences the e in "possible." Italian's final e here is a real, spoken vowel, and dropping it makes the word sound cut off mid-word to an Italian ear.