"Lui mangia riso."

[danbruno]

The slower sound clip sounds really weird. Almost like 'ariso'. Wasn't sure if it was supposed to be just riso or il riso.

[BethK]

I couldn't hear it either way, but on listening to the slower one I went with "il riso," and was marked wrong. It really sounded like "elriso."

[TiagoMoita_PT]

The emphasis should be on "ri", not "so"

[brunobruck]

Why not "Lui mangia il riso" since it seems that the article is mandatory in italian?

[mmgriffith1]

I agree with the previous comments regarding the clip sounding like 'il riso'

[GregorioRG]

But WHY is "il riso" incorrect? Would it not be "lui mangia la mela?"

[TiagoMoita_PT]

In this case, probably because it's referring to rice in general, not rice he's at this moment eating. I think (not sure) you could say "Lui mangia il riso", if it's the latter example, but at any rate, comparing rice and apples is not a very good comparison, since rice isn't quantifiable. Hope this helps.

[jackpady]

How are we supposed to know what the context is? It seems it's a lucky guess as to whether to include the article or not, even more so with the questionalble speech synthesis.

[gfmuffin]

"Riso" is pronounced more hurriedly, less comprehensibly here.