The pattern of syllable stress in Italian is not too dissimilar to English. Typically, the stress falls on the penultimate (second last) syllable or the antepenultimate (third last) syllable depending on the type of word.
INFORMAZIONE → information
ANDIAMO! → Let's go!
MANGIO → I eat
DIVERTENTE → fun
BIOLOGICO→ biological
MATEMATICA → math
Anytime that the stress falls on any other syllable, the vowel will have a marked accent above it. In the vast majority of cases, this is usually the last syllable.
There’s the grave accent: à, ì, è, ò, ù
And the acute accent, which is only used for E and is pronounced as a closed vowel: é
Here are some common words with marked accents. Listen to how they are pronounced and practice saying them with the correct syllable stress. See if you can hear the difference between the è (open e) and the é (closed e).
Identità identity
Città → city
Caffè → coffee
Perché → why, because
però → but
Lunedì → monday
Tribù → tribe