How to Pronounce 'Ricordare': Italian Pronunciation Guide

Q: How do you pronounce ricordare in Italian?

ricordare is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /ri.korˈda.re/. It means “to remember.” ree-kor-DAH-reh , with the stress on the third syllable. In IPA: /ri.korˈda.re/ . Despite the resemblance to English "record," the stress and vowels don't match either English pronunciation of that word.

How do you pronounce "ricordare" in Italian?

ree-kor-DAH-reh, with the stress on the third syllable. In IPA: /ri.korˈda.re/. Despite the resemblance to English "record," the stress and vowels don't match either English pronunciation of that word.

ricordare /ri.korˈda.re/

Four even syllables, ri, cor, da, and re, each pronounced separately, with the main stress on "da."

Listen: ricordare

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Sound it out

"Ricordare" is a classic cognate trap: it looks like English "record," but English has two competing stress patterns for that word (the noun REC-ord and the verb re-CORD), and neither one lines up with where Italian actually puts the stress.

ri A pure, short "ree" to open the word.

cor A hard "k" (c before o) plus "or," shorter and crisper than the drawn-out English "core."

da The stressed syllable, open and full: "DAH."

re A light, unstressed "reh" to close the word.

Hear it in a sentence

Non ricordo il suo nome.

I don't remember his name.

Listen: Non ricordo il suo nome.

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"Non ricordo il suo nome" negates the verb simply with "non" placed directly before it, no auxiliary needed the way English requires "don't." Here "ricordare" is used non-reflexively with a direct object ("il suo nome"), which is one valid pattern; Italian also has a reflexive variant, "ricordarsi di," that requires the preposition "di" before its object, so the two constructions aren't freely interchangeable, this sentence picked the simpler, direct-object version. "Il suo nome" is also worth noting for its built-in ambiguity: "suo" agrees with the masculine noun "nome" it modifies, not with the gender of the person being talked about, so "il suo nome" means "his name" or "her name" equally, only context disambiguates.

Where English speakers slip

Because "ricordare" so closely resembles "record," English speakers often import one of English's two stress patterns, either front-stressing it like the noun "REC-ord" or stressing the second syllable like the verb "re-CORD." Correct Italian stress falls on the third syllable: ricor-DA-re.

There's also a temptation to soften the c in "cor" toward an English "s" sound, as in "certificate" or "cell," but Italian c before o is always a hard "k," with no exceptions.