Practice the CHI and CI sounds - The tricky Italian sounds.

In this new video I wanted to give you an extra exercise to have you practice a little bit more the  tricky CH sound that many of you have difficulty reading and writing out when you hear it. Towards the end of this video I have created a fun exercise… so check it out and practice with me!

If you have Italian origins you might easily have a last name that ends with a CHI… just like mine… my last name is MACCHI and the pronunciation is MACCHI not MACCI…

So maybe your last name is BIANCHI or MARCHI… I have met a lot of Italian Americans with this last name and I have to tell you that unfortunately you have been mispronouncing your name! Yup sorry guys! It is not Bianci (soft ci) or Marci (soft ci)… but the Italian pronunciation is BIANCHI or MARCHI with a strong hard K sound.

If you have a friend with this last name share the video with them… let see what they say! :)

There is another video on my channel with a super detailed explanation of this sound… if you are interested in checking that out click on the link here or you can also check out my full course on pronunciation available on my website! Find the direct link here:

Pronunciation Course (read the info): https://www.italianlanguagehub.com/Italian-Pronunciation

(super secret: you subscribe to the free course you get a super super nice discount on this pronunciation course… but keep it a secret… :) )

Remember that this is CHI sound is actually a hard sound /K/ so different to the soft CI sound…

your options here are

CHI

The pronunciation is the same as with the english word “Key” or the first sound of the name “Kim”

CHE

In this case the sound is pronounced like the english word “Chemistry” it’s a hard CHE sound.

So whenever you see the H you immediately need to think that there is a change in the way the syllable is pronounced.

Without the H it’s a soft sound… like in the word CINA (china) or CENA (dinner)… can you hear it? it’s soft… CI … CE like in the English word Chips… or in the word Check

So CHI or CHE - strong hard K sounds !

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YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/GiuliaMacchiTheLanguageCoach