La parola “amica” ha tre sillabe.

Because parola is a feminine noun in Italian, so it takes the feminine singular definite article la.

• la parola = the word
• il libro = the book (masculine example)

In Italian, articles must agree with the gender and number of the noun.

Because the sentence is talking about the word amica itself, not using it in its normal meaning.

In English, we often do the same thing:

• The word friend has one syllable.

In Italian:

• La parola amica ha tre sillabe.

Writers often use quotation marks or italics for this, but the important idea is that amica is being mentioned as a word.

Ha means has. It is the third-person singular form of the verb avere (to have).

So:

• la parola ... ha tre sillabe = the word ... has three syllables

This is a very common use of avere in Italian.

Because Italian expresses this idea the same way English does: a word has a certain number of syllables.

So Italian says:

• ha tre sillabe = has three syllables

Using è (is) would not sound natural here.

Because tre is the Italian word for three, and sillabe is the plural of sillaba.

• una sillaba = one syllable
• due sillabe = two syllables
• tre sillabe = three syllables

Since there are three of them, the noun must be plural: sillabe.

Because sillaba is a feminine noun. Feminine nouns ending in -a usually form the plural in -e.

So:

• sillaba → sillabe

Compare:

• casa → case
• pagina → pagine

If it were a regular masculine noun ending in -o, the plural would often be -i instead.

It is divided as:

a-mi-ca

So it has three syllables:

1. a
2. mi
3. ca

That is why the sentence says ha tre sillabe.

The stress is on the second syllable:

a-MI-ca

So the pronunciation is roughly ah-MEE-kah.

This is common in Italian: many words are stressed on the second-to-last syllable.

A simple English-friendly approximation is:

ah-MEE-kah

A few details:

• a sounds like ah
• mi sounds like mee
• ca sounds like kah
• the c before a is a hard k sound

So amica is pronounced ah-MEE-kah.

Because in Italian, after verbs like avere, a number usually comes directly before the noun.

So:

• ha tre sillabe = has three syllables

You do not need an article there. This works much like English.

Yes. You could write:

La parola amica ha tre sillabe.

That is still understandable. Marking amica with quotation marks, italics, or bold just makes it clearer that you are talking about the word itself.

In this sentence, yes, parola clearly means word.

More generally, parola can also be used in some extended senses, depending on context, but for a beginner the main meaning to remember is:

• parola = word

So La parola amica... means The word amica...

It is capitalized only because it is the first word of the sentence.

If the phrase appeared in the middle of a sentence, it would normally be:

• la parola

So the capital letter is just normal spelling, not a special grammar point.