LingoDrop
Italian · Pronunciation Guide
How do you pronounce "un" in Italian?
OON, a tight, rounded u, not the English "uhn." In IPA: /un/.
One syllable, a closed, rounded u followed by n; short and unstressed, leaning straight into the noun it introduces.
Listen: un
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Sound it out
Spelled just like the English "un-" prefix, but the vowel underneath is completely different: Italian u is always the tight, rounded "oo" of "boot," never the neutral "uh" schwa English speakers might reach for out of habit.
Hear it in a sentence
Vorrei un caffè.
I'd like a coffee.
Listen: Vorrei un caffè.
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In "Vorrei un caffè," un is the masculine indefinite article ("a/an") before caffè, and vorrei is the conditional form of volere (to want), used here for politeness, the same function "I'd like" performs in English in place of the blunter "I want"; vorrei + noun is one of the most useful polite-request formulas in Italian.
Un is chosen because caffè is masculine, and unlike il/lo, it doesn't need a special form before words starting with s+consonant or z (that would be uno, as in uno studente); un stays un before caffè and before most other masculine nouns starting with a consonant or vowel.
Where English speakers slip
Pronouncing un with the reduced, nasalized schwa of the English indefinite article "a" is common since the two-letter spelling looks so similar. Italian un keeps its full, rounded u vowel and a clearly pronounced final n, it never reduces the way unstressed English function words do.
Confusing un with uno and using uno reflexively in front of every masculine noun is the other frequent error. Uno is reserved for masculine nouns beginning with s+consonant, z, gn, ps, x, or y, while un is the default form used everywhere else, including before caffè.