LingoDrop
Italian · Pronunciation Guide
How do you pronounce "volere" in Italian?
voh-LEH-reh, stress on the middle syllable. In IPA: /voˈle.re/.
Three clear, evenly weighted syllables, vo-le-re. Italian gives each one the same length and clarity, where English would compress the last two into something closer to "ler."
Listen: volere
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Sound it out
Like the other modal verbs in this group, the sounds themselves are straightforward once the stress lands in the right place — on the second syllable, not the first.
Hear it in a sentence
Voglio un gelato.
I want an ice cream.
Listen: Voglio un gelato.
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"Voglio un gelato" uses voglio, the io-form of volere, to state a want directly — one of the most common sentence patterns a beginner learns, since volere plus a noun (or another infinitive) is the everyday way to say what you'd like. No politeness marker is needed here; ordering gelato with voglio is completely normal and not considered rude the way a bare "I want" can sound in English.
For a softer, more polite request — asking a waiter for something, for instance — Italian switches to the conditional vorrei ("I would like"), built on the same volere root.
Where English speakers slip
As with potere, the most common slip is stressing the first syllable out of habit, saying "VOH-leh-reh" instead of the correct vo-LE-re. Keep the stress on the second syllable.
The other slip is softening the l the way some English dialects darken an "l" that comes before a consonant or at a syllable's end. Italian l stays light and forward everywhere in the word, including right before the stressed vowel.