Let’s talk about some other common Italian words containing written accents. In case you missed the lesson in which we started talking about accents, read it here.

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The accent on the u at the end of più (more) tells us that the accent of the word doesn’t fall on the i, which is where it would naturally fall.

Più gli ingredienti sono freschi e più è buono.

The fresher the ingredients are, the better it is.

Caption 16, Andromeda - in - Storia del gelato

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A similar-looking word is pio (pious) where the accent does fall on the i, and indeed there is no accent on any letter.

È pio, eh di, di nome e di fatto.

He's Pio [pious], uh in, in name and in fact.

Caption 48, Il Commissario Manara - S1EP1 - Un delitto perfetto

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In the same manner, ciò  (that, what) has an accent on the o to tell us the accent is not on the i where it would normally fall.

È uno che di fronte a una bella donna

He's someone who, faced with a beautiful woman,

si dimentica di ciò che è giusto e ciò che è sbagliato.

forgets what's right and what's wrong.

Caption 28, Il Commissario Manara - S1EP3 - Rapsodia in Blu

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All the days of the week except il sabato (Saturday) and la domenica (Sunday) have an accent on the i at the end: lunedì (Monday), martedì (Tuesday), mercoledì (Wednesday), giovedì (Thursday), venerdì (Friday). In fact, dì is another word for "day" (normally giorno).

Un bel dì vedremo.

One beautiful day we'll see.

Caption 13, Anna presenta - Madama butterfly di Giacomo Puccini

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Without the accent on the i, it's di (of).

Eppure io non ho mai smesso né di aspettarlo né di amarlo.

Nonetheless I never ceased to wait for him or to love him.

Caption 11, Anna presenta - Madama butterfly di Giacomo Puccini

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Similarly, da (of, from, to, at) has no accent, but when we conjugate the third person singular of the verb dare (to give), we use an accent to distinguish it from da: dà.

Invito Sigrid, una mia studentessa a farvelo sentire,

I invite Sigrid, a student of mine, to let you hear

in modo da mettere in evidenza appunto ogni sillaba

it in order to highlight, precisely each syllable

che dà il nome alle note.

that gives its name to the notes.

Captions 37-39, A scuola di musica - con Alessio

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Remember that except for e, where the accent may be either grave (è) or acute (é) to distinguish between an open (è) or closed (é) e, all the accents will be “grave,” that is, going down from left to right (à, ì, ò, ù). 

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Try learning these words one by one, making the accent part of the word as you learn it. Needless to say, taking advantage of the Yabla games, from multiple choice to Scribe, will help you nail it.