How to Pronounce 'Sei': Italian Pronunciation Guide

Q: How do you pronounce sei in Italian?

sei is pronounced with the stress described below. In IPA it is written /sɛi/. It means “six.” SEH-ee , said as one smooth, falling diphthong, not two separate beats. In IPA: /sɛi/ .

How do you pronounce "sei" in Italian?

SEH-ee, said as one smooth, falling diphthong, not two separate beats. In IPA: /sɛi/.

sei /sɛi/

Written and counted as one syllable, even though it visibly contains two vowel letters. The e and i glide together into a single diphthong rather than forming two distinct syllables.

Listen: sei

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Sound it out

The two vowels here aren't a spelling accident, they represent a genuine Italian diphthong, a single syllable that starts on one vowel quality and glides toward another. Getting the glide direction and starting vowel right is the whole task.

s A plain, unvoiced "s," as in "sun," at the very start of the word.

ei A falling diphthong that starts on an open "eh" (as in "bed") and glides quickly toward a short "ee," all in one syllable, close to the vowel sound in English "hey" but starting more open.

Hear it in a sentence

Torno alle sei.

I'll be back at six.

Listen: Torno alle sei.

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"Alle sei" follows the same time-telling pattern as "sono le tre": the preposition "a" (at) combines with the feminine plural article to give "alle," agreeing with the unspoken "ore" (hours), so "torno alle sei" literally means "I return at the six [hours]."

Worth knowing: "sei" is also the informal second-person singular of "essere," meaning "you are" (as in "tu sei molto gentile"). The two are complete homophones, spelled and pronounced identically, so only the surrounding sentence tells a listener whether someone's stating a time or describing "you."

Where English speakers slip

The most common mistake is separating the two vowels into distinct syllables, saying something like "SEH-ee" in two clearly divided beats instead of one smooth glide. Italian "ei" here behaves as a single diphthong, closer in rhythm to the English word "say" than to two stacked vowels.

The other slip is starting the diphthong on a closed "ay" rather than an open "eh," reaching for the English vowel in "say" from the very first instant. Italian "sei" starts more open, closer to the vowel in "bed," and only glides toward "ee" partway through, giving it a noticeably different quality at the onset than its English near-equivalent.