Popular foods: Popular Italian food

💬 Double consonants matter in Italian: panna has a long nn, so say it more firmly than a single n. The same goes for cotta, with a clear doubled tt.

💬 In gnocchi, gn is pronounced like the ny in (canyon), and chi gives a hard k sound: (NYOK-kee). The same hard-k pattern appears in chianti.

💬 Caprese means "from Capri," so it's an adjective being used as the dish name. You'll see the same pattern in food names like insalata russa or bistecca fiorentina.

💬 Double consonants matter here too: mozzarella has a strong zz and ll, not a quick single sound. In Italian, changing a double to a single consonant can make the word sound wrong or like a different word.

💬 di + oliva stays separate, but d' is just di shortened before a vowel: d'oliva = di oliva. You'll see the same shortening in un bicchiere d'acqua.