LingoDrop
Italian · Pronunciation Guide
How do you pronounce "vuoto" in Italian?
VWAW-toh, with VWAW rhyming with "law," the v and u blending into a quick "w" before that open vowel, and a short "toh" to finish. In IPA: /ˈvwɔ.to/.
Written with two vowels side by side, u and o, but they collapse into a single syllable, vuo, before the second syllable to — the u becomes a quick "w" glide rather than a separate beat.
Listen: vuoto
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Sound it out
Like "pieno," "vuoto" runs on Italian's glide rule, except here it's u rather than i that shrinks down to a consonant-like sound in front of another vowel.
Hear it in a sentence
La bottiglia è vuota.
The bottle is empty.
Listen: La bottiglia è vuota.
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The example uses "vuota," the feminine form, to agree with "la bottiglia" (the bottle) — the same pattern seen with "freddo/fredda": the dictionary form "vuoto" swaps its final o for an a to match a feminine noun.
"Vuoto" and "pieno" are natural opposites and tend to get learned as a pair; noticing that both words use the same glide pattern (pie-no, vuo-to) is a useful shortcut for remembering how Italian handles vowel clusters generally.
Where English speakers slip
The most common mistake is pronouncing the u as a separate syllable, saying "voo-OH-toh" in three beats instead of two. As with the i in "pieno," this u is a glide, not a standalone vowel — it should blend into the following o almost like a consonant.
The other slip is closing the first o into a tighter sound, saying something like "VWOH-toh" instead of the correct open "VWAW-toh." Listen for the more open, jaw-dropped quality compared to a word like "nome," which uses the closed o instead.