Hi Omer, as Stuart pointed out I think this is something you learn along the way. There are different types of words in Italian depending on which syllable is stressed: • Parole tronche (or ossitone): Words stressed on the last syllable liquidità, così, interpretò • Piane (or parossitone): Words stressed on the penultimate syllable caténa, farfallìna, piàno • Sdrucciole (or proparossitone): Words stressed on the third to last syllable fabbricàrono, èpico, invisìbile • Parole bisdrucciole (very rare): Words stressed on the fourth from last syllable assottìgliameli, ricòrdatela • Trisdrucciole (just as rare): Words stressed on the fifth from last syllable òccupatene

Thanks, Stuart. I wish dictionaries addressed this issue though...

I think this is just something you pick up over time, I don’t think there are any rules necessarily. However it’s worth noticing that the stress changes based on tense and conjugation as well Ascoltàre Io ascòlto Tu ascòlti Lui/lei ascòlta Noi ascoltiàmo Voi ascoltàte Loro ascòltano Abitàre Io àbito Tu àbiti Lui/lei àbita Noi abitiàmo Voi abitàte Loro àbitano You see that in noi and voi the stress is no longer on the same vowel, and then jumps back for loro. There’s also something similar when we we use the imperfect; Ascoltàvo Ascoltàvi Ascoltàva Ascoltavàmo Ascoltavàte Ascoltàvano Abitàvo Abitàvi Abitàva Abitavàmo Abitavàte Abitàvano That should help somewhat, and if you’re fairly new to italian I’d recommend that when you learn a new verb you practice saying aloud all the different conjugations like that (at least in the present tense) so that you start getting used to the cadence. The best piece of advice that I ever got from my italian teacher was that there’s always music in the Italian language. Try to use that as your guide! EDIT: I think it can be accepted as a rough guide that usually in Italian words the stress falls on the second last syllable, however as you’ve demonstrated above this isn’t always true. I also don’t think it’s that helpful to think of it that way.