Pure vowels and stress

Italian has five clear vowels that never glide or fade: say every one fully, including the last. Most words stress the second-to-last syllable; an accent mark (città, perché) moves the stress to the end.

English vowels glide (no → “noh-oo”) and unstressed ones shrink to “uh”, so pomodoro sounds like “pom-uh-dor-uh”.

Hear the difference: