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Adjectives modify a noun, or in other words, they provide more information about/ describe a noun. In Italian, adjectives must agree in number and gender with the noun they modify.
There are two groups of adjectives:
Adjectives that end in -o have four forms (masculine, feminine, singular, plural):
Adjectives that end in -e have only singular and plural forms:
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Here are some common adjectives:
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alto tall
grande big; great lungo long largo wide pieno full vecchio old anziano elderly grasso fat bello beautiful/handsome bravo capable/ well-behaved buono good / kind caro / costoso expensive caldo hot divertente fun / enjoyable facile easy |
basso short
piccolo small corto short stretto narrow / tight vuoto empty nuovo new giovane young magro thin brutto ugly cattivo bad /naughty [cattivo] bad / negative economico cheap (price) freddo cold noioso boring difficile difficult |
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ATTENZIONE
* When an adjective modifies two nouns of different gender, it retains the masculine ending: Ex: I ragazzi e le ragazze italiani the Italian boys and girls * The colours rosa, viola, and blu are invariable - they do not change:
You may have noticed from the examples above that in Italian, unlike English, adjectives typically follow the noun they modify; however, adjectives can also precede the noun they modify. Adjectives that follow a noun are stronger or more emphatic than adjectives that precede a noun.
It is important to note that some adjectives, such as grande, bello, alto, nuovo, vecchio, buono, diverso, povero, caro... actually change their meaning depending on their placement: ex: Un grande palazzo a grand/great palace Un palazzo grande a big palace Un vecchio amico an longtime friend Un amico vecchio a friend who is old Un povero uomo a miserable man (poor) Un uomo povero a poor man (lacks money) |
Pratica!
