SOUND “GN” IN ITALIAN: ARE YOU SAYING IT RIGHT?

How do you pronounce the sound “GN” in Italian? Do you say it the same way you do in English? 

The answer is … NO!

The sound “GN” in Italian can be tricky, mostly because you don’t say it the same way you do in English.

So how do you pronounce it? 

In this lesson, you’ll learn everything you need to know about it.

This is what we’re going to cover:

• First you’ll see the pronunciation of “GN” in Italian and how it’s different from the English one 
• Then we’ll go through some examples of very common words where you can find this sound. I’m going to include an exception, just to make this lesson a little more exciting!
• Finally we’ll look at another popular Italian sound, “NI“, that can create some confusion 

So keep on reading and boost your Italian pronunciation!

HOW TO SAY THE SOUND “GN” IN ITALIAN

In general, the Italian pronunciation is not complex, if compared to the English one.

However, there are certain sounds that can be tricky, mainly because you don’t have them in your native language. “GLI” and “GN” are an example of these. 

Anyway, you just need to get familiar with the way Italians pronounce them and listening to native speakers can really help with that.

I’ve made an entire lesson to the sound GLI in Italian, so make sure you review it if you haven’t already.

Today instead we’ll focus on how to say “GN” in Italian, going through some common words with this sound.

You’ll also learn the difference between “GN” from “NI”, that can cause some confusion even among native speakers!

So let’s start 🙂

SOUND “GN” IN ITALIAN: HOW IT DIFFERS FROM THE ENGLISH ONE?

The way you pronounce the sound “GN” in Italian is different from the English one. 

In English, you say “GN” as two separate letters: for example, in the word “recognize”, where the G has a hard sound and it’s pretty disconnected from the N. 

Instead, when you find these two letters in Italian, you need to say it as if they were one sole sound. 

GN in Italian is a nasal sound [ɲː] and to reproduce it, you need to put your tongue on the palate.

If you speak Spanish, think of GN as the letter ñ.

Listen to the audio below and try to replicate the same sound.

EXAMPLES OF WORDS WITH THE SOUND GN IN ITALIAN

The letters “GN” are always followed by a vowel.

Note that there’s no “I” in between the letters “GN” and the vowels A, E, O or U.

ITALIAN WORDS WITH “GNA“

1. MONTAGNA (mountain)
2. SPUGNA (sponge)
3. LASAGNA (typical Italian dish)
4. COMPAGNA (female mate or partner)
5. CAMPAGNA (countryside)

EXAMPLES WITH “GNE“

1. MONTAGNE (mountains)
2. SPUGNE (sponges)
3. LASAGNE (plural of lasagna)
4. COMPAGNE (female mates)
5. CAMPAGNE (countrysides)

SOME WORDS WITH “GNI“

1. BAGNI (bathrooms)
2. BISOGNI (neeeds)
3. COMPAGNI (male mates)
4. OGNI (every)
5. MAGNIFICO (magnificent)

ITALIAN NAMES WITH “GNO“

1. BAGNO (bathroom)
2. BISOGNO (need)
3. COMPAGNO (male mate or partner)
4. SOGNO (dream)
5. RAGNO (spider)

EXAMPLES WITH THE SOUND “GNU“

Words with the sound GNU are less common than the previous ones.  

1. OGNUNO (everyone)
2. PIAGNUCOLARE (to whine)

EXCEPTION TO THE SOUND “GN” IN ITALIAN

In principle, you don’t see the letter “I” between the “G” and the vowels in the following sounds: GNA, GNE, GNO, GNU.

However, as always, you can find exceptions to this rule. Luckily they’re not many. So for now you can just remember one of the most common ones, that is the word COMPAGNIA. 

This differs from the term COMPAGNA because it has an “I” in between the “G” and “A”. Besides, as you can imagine, they have a different meaning.

Indeed, COMPAGNIA can be a company/organization, but can also refer to a group of people/friends doing something together (companionship). On the other hand, you use the term COMPAGNA to talk about your female mate or your female partner (the male is COMPAGNO).

ITALIAN SOUNDS “GNI” AND “NI”: DON’T GET CONFUSED!

You now know how to pronounce the sound “GN” in Italian and you’ve seen that it’s not the same as in English.

However there’s another tricky sound in Italian that you need to be aware of and that’s “NI”.

The difference between the sounds “GNI” and “NI” is so little that sometimes even native speakers can mix them up!

So don’t worry too much if you get confused at the beginning. 

The more you add words to your Italian vocabulary, the more it will get natural to recognize them.

Anyway, how can you not get confused between “GNI” and “NI”, if their sound is so close?

I’d like to give you a general rule on when you can expect the “NI” instead of “GNI”.

We’ve seen before that typically the sound “GNI” is not followed by a vowel (with just few exceptions like the word COMPAGNIA).

So if you hear a vowel after the -I, then you write -NI in place of -GNI.

Out of curiosity, in most of the cases, the nouns with the letters NI derive from Latin.

You can find some examples below. 

1. NIENTE (nothing)
2. RIUNIONE (meeting)
3. GENIO (genius)
4. ANTONIO (Italian male name)
5. CAMPANIA (Italian region)

CONCLUSION

We’re finally at the end of this lesson, but before you go, let’s recap on what you’ve learnt today:

• You don’t pronounce “GN” in Italian the same way you do in English
• “GN” in Italian has a nasal sound
• To reproduce it, you need to put your tongue on your palate
• In general, you find the letters “GN” followed by only one vowel (A, E, I, O, U) 
• Examples: MONTAGNA, LASAGNE, BAGNI, BISOGNO, OGNUNO
• However there can be exceptions to this rule, like in the word COMPAGNIA
• Careful with the sounds GNI and NI, that are very close and can create some confusion
• Typically, if in a word you hear a vowel after the -I, then you write -NI in place of -GNI

That was all for today, but you can also read the following lessons that can help you to improve your Italian pronunciation: 

HOW TO PRONOUNCE THE SOUND “GLI” IN ITALIAN

BASIC RULES TO PRONOUNCE ALMOST EVERY WORD IN ITALIAN