Italian Adjectives describe the qualities of something and they are placed most of the time after the subject.

 

Let’s make some examples:

• Una persona noiosa (a boring person)
• Un libro orrendo (an awful book)
• Un ragazzo impacciato (a clumsy guy)

See also our list of the top 100 Italian adjectives.

How to use Italian adjectives

When you find yourself in Italy enjoying a sunny afternoon and you want to “fare bella figura” (give a good impression), you must remember that adjectives always agree in gender and number with the noun they are attached to.

The rules to obtain masculine/feminine and singular/plural forms are similar to the ones we already studies when we reviewed Italian nouns. Most of the adjectives in masculine end with –o for the singular and –i for the plural. Adjectives in feminine end with –a for the singular and –e for the plural. If the adjective ends with –e, its form is the same both for both the masculine and feminine singular and even for the plural.

When we have two nouns in the same sentence sharing the same adjective, then it must always be in the plural form as in the following examples:

• Il gattoe il cane sono neri (the cat and the dog are black)
• La lavatricee la lavastoviglie sono nuove (the washing machine and the dishwasher are new)

Grades of Italian adjectives

Adjectives can have different grades, known as superlativo relativo and superlativo assoluto. In fact, we can underline that a quality of a subject is more or less than the quality of the other one, or that both elements are just equal. In this case there are some extra words that come in handy.

Superlativo relativo

It indicates that a person or an object has the greatest or least degree of a specific quality, compared to that of other people or object.

 

 

• Andrea è il più alto tra i nostri amici (Andrea is the tallest among our friends)
• Il nuovo iPhone è costoso come quello vecchio (the new iPhone is expensive just us the old one)
• Quel film è più brutto di questo (that movie is more awful than this one)
• L’ultimo album è meno amozionante del primo (the last album is less moving than the first one)

Superlativo assoluto

This form indicates that a person or an object has the greatest or the least degree of a quality, but without being compared with that of other people or objects.

• Andrea è elegantissimo (Andrea is very elegant)
• La neve è freddissima (the snow is very cold)
• Il caffè è cortissimo (the coffee is very short)
• Le maestre sono severissime (the teachers are very severe)

Irregular Superlative forms

• Questa è la soluzione migliore (this one is the best solution)
• Casa mia è la più grande di questa città (my house is the biggest one of this city)

 

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