Mangio tutto tranne il pesce.

In Italian, the subject pronoun is often omitted because the verb ending already shows who is doing the action.

Here, mangio means I eat. The -o ending tells you it is first person singular.

So:

• Mangio = I eat
• Io mangio = I eat

Both are correct, but io is usually only added for emphasis, contrast, or clarity.

For example:

• Mangio tutto. = I eat everything.
• Io mangio tutto, lui no. = I eat everything, he doesn’t.

Mangio comes from the infinitive mangiare, meaning to eat.

It is the present tense, first person singular:

• io mangio = I eat

This tense can mean:

• I eat
• I am eating
  depending on context

So mangio is a very common present-tense form.

Here, tutto means everything.

It is being used on its own as a pronoun, not as an adjective before a noun.

Compare:

• Mangio tutto. = I eat everything.
• Mangio tutti i panini. = I eat all the sandwiches.

So:

• tutto = everything / all of it
• tutti = all, masculine plural
• tutte = all, feminine plural
• tutta = all, feminine singular

In this sentence, tutto is the correct form because the idea is everything, not all + plural noun.

Tranne means except.

It is a preposition and is followed directly by the thing being excluded:

• tranne il pesce = except fish
• tranne Maria = except Maria
• tranne questo = except this

It is a very common and natural word in Italian.

Other words with a similar meaning are:

• eccetto
• salvo
• fuorché

But tranne is one of the most straightforward choices for everyday Italian.

Italian often uses the definite article where English does not, especially with nouns used in a general sense.

So il pesce here means fish in a general category, not necessarily the fish in a specific situation.

This is very natural in Italian.

Compare:

• Mi piace il pesce. = I like fish.
• Non mangio la carne. = I don’t eat meat.

English often drops the article in these cases, but Italian frequently keeps it.

Yes, pesce is singular here, but it has a generic meaning.

Italian often uses the singular to talk about a category or substance in general, especially with food.

So:

• il pesce = fish, as a type of food in general

If you said i pesci, that would more often suggest fish as individual animals or different fish.

Compare:

• Mangio il pesce. = I eat fish.
• Guardo i pesci nell’acquario. = I look at the fish in the aquarium.

Yes, absolutely.

Adding io makes the subject explicit:

• Mangio tutto tranne il pesce.
• Io mangio tutto tranne il pesce.

Both are correct.

The version without io is more neutral and more typical in everyday Italian.
The version with io may sound more emphatic, for example if you are contrasting yourself with someone else:

• Io mangio tutto tranne il pesce, ma mia sorella mangia anche quello.
  = I eat everything except fish, but my sister eats that too.

Yes, although the original order is the most neutral and natural.

Standard order:

• Mangio tutto tranne il pesce.

You could also say:

• Tranne il pesce, mangio tutto.

This gives more emphasis to tranne il pesce.

You may also see a comma in writing:

• Mangio tutto, tranne il pesce.

That punctuation slightly highlights the exception, but the meaning stays the same.

A simple pronunciation guide is:

MAHN-jo TOOT-to TRAN-ne il PESH-she

A few useful details:

• mangio: the gi sounds like the j in jam
• tutto: the tt is doubled, so hold it slightly longer
• tranne: the nn is also doubled
• pesce: sc before e sounds like sh

So pesce sounds like PESH-she, not PES-ke.

Yes, that is also correct, and it is very common.

• Mangio tutto tranne il pesce. = I eat everything except fish.
• Mangio di tutto tranne il pesce. = I eat all kinds of things except fish / I eat pretty much everything except fish.

Di tutto often gives a slightly more idiomatic sense of all sorts of things or a bit of everything.

Both are natural, but the original sentence is perfectly standard.