LingoDrop
Italian · Pronunciation Guide
How do you pronounce "su" in Italian?
SOO, one clean, rounded vowel with no glide before or after it. In IPA: /su/.
One syllable, one vowel — short and rounded, said in a single breath with no lead-in sound.
Listen: su
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Sound it out
The spelling maps directly onto the sound here; the only adjustment is trimming the small glide English speakers often add before this vowel.
Hear it in a sentence
Metti la borsa su quella sedia.
Put the bag on that chair.
Listen: Metti la borsa su quella sedia.
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"Metti la borsa su quella sedia" uses "su" in its core spatial sense: on top of a surface. Paired with the imperative "metti" (put), the sentence is a simple, direct instruction — the kind of command form used casually with someone you'd address as "tu."
"Su" also fuses with the definite article the way "con" does ("sul tavolo," on the table, from "su" + "il"), and it extends metaphorically to topics ("un libro su Roma," a book about Rome) — the example shows only its most literal, physical use.
Where English speakers slip
English speakers sometimes insert a faint "y" glide before the vowel, a holdover from how words spelled with "su-" are pronounced in some varieties of English (older "suit" pronunciations, for instance). Italian "su" has no glide at all — the s moves straight into a pure "oo."
The other slip is letting the vowel run long or add an off-glide at the end, turning one clean syllable into something closer to "soo-uh." Italian "su" stops the moment the vowel is made, with no fade.