Italian distinguishes short and long consonants. This is different from other Romance languages such as French, Spanish and Italian which do not. Here are ten Italian words which are distinguished on the basis of consonant length:
cane (dog) canne (reeds)
capello (hair) cappello (hat)
fato (fate) fatto (fact)
nono (grandfather) nonno (ninth)
palla (ball) pala (shovel)
polo (pole) pollo (chicken)
sera (evening) serra (greenhouse)
seta (silk) setta (sect)
sete (thirst) sette (seven)
tori (bulls) torri (towers)
The examples illustrate that consonant length is distinctive in Italian. However, long consonants only occur word-medially. In other positions of the word, only short consonants can occur.
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