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Just to set the record straight, this week’s Language Nugget isn’t about sleeping, Italian style 😉 Rather, we’ll be talking about the pronunciation of what I call the Hot Z. Just as the letter S can be tricky in Italian [read about the Sneaky S], Z is another one that tends to catch people off guard.
In Italian, Z can have a hard, buzzy sound similar to the English Z (which I’ll cover in another post, but generally it’s when Z is the first letter of a word). The ‘Hot Z’, as I have nicknamed it, is pronounced /ts/, like the sound of a drop of water hitting a hot surface. You hear it in English words like pots, lots, and shots. It’s not hard to pronounce – it’s just a matter of remembering to do it right when you come across it.
The challenge is that, left unchecked, your default language brain will try to convince/cause you to say it like the buzzy-sounding Z you’re used to in English. Like with all pronunciation landmines, each one by itself is just one small sound, but altogether, how you say all those little sounds can make you sound more or less natural and decrease or increase your understandability. So, for these reasons, they do deserve your time and effort.
Alright, let’s have a look at how the Hot Z shows up in Italian-
99% of the time (possibly more), the letter Z inside of a word is pronounced /ts/. If you’re an English speaker, you already say it correctly whenever you say pizza. (Of course, because it’s a double Z, you need to hold the sound twice as long, /peets-sah/). Think of double Z words as having extra sizzle – pazzo, pozzo, pizzo, cozza, razza, mazzo – sizzle, sizzle, sizzle!
Other common Hot Z words in Italian are stanza, silenzio, attenzione, informazione, stazione, and piazza. If you struggle to pronounce the Z in these words as /ts/, you’re not alone. It’s one of the more common pronunciation landmines. So how do you overcome it? Easy – practice, practice, practice – to retrain your brain – it takes time and focus, but it’s by no means rocket science… You got this 😉
I recommend ‘collecting’ Hot Z words in a list you create and practice regularly – call it your ‘Hot Z practice list,’ revisit it often, say the words aloud, and before you know it, you’ll begin to automatically see/say a Z inside of an Italian word as the sizzly /ts/ sound that it is!
Final mystery: You may have noticed I said that 99% of words follow this pronunciation rule… So what about the 1%, and how will you figure it out? Add a section to your list called “Rebels that don’t follow the Hot Z rule,” so that as you’re learning this, you’ll take these into account, too. And don’t worry about it too much – there are so few of them that the only ones that I can think of right now are pranzo, mezzo, and grezzo.
– Are you saying it correctly?? Listen to the mini podcast of this Language Nugget to hear and practice saying these words right!
Leave a comment! What’s your take on the Hot Z sound? Have you seen it before, and does it ever trip you up? Do you know any other Hot Z words? Any other Hot Z rebels? Let me what other Italian pronunciation landmines you’d like me to cover. Love to hear your comments!
Very helpful, Jodina! Thank you!
Grazie Paula! I’m really having fun with this new series and so happy to know it’s helpful 🙂
Keep practicing!