意大利語形容詞

Italian and English differ in their usage of adjectives. Italian descriptive adjectives are usually placed after the noun they modify, and with which they agree in gender and number.

COMMON ITALIAN ADJECTIVES ENDING IN -O

allegro
cheerful, happy

buono
good, kind

cattivo
bad, wicked

freddo
cold

grasso
fat

leggero
light

nuovo
new

pieno
full

stretto
narrow

timido
timid, shy

Adjectives ending in -o have four forms: masculine singular, masculine plural, feminine singular, and feminine plural. Observe how the adjectives nero and cattivo change to agree with nouns they modify.

ENDINGS OF -O ADJECTIVES

SINGULAR
PLURAL

il gatto nero (the black cat, masculine)
i gatti neri (the black cats, masculine)

la gatta nera (the black cat, feminine)
le gatte nere (the black cats, feminine)

il ragazzo cattivo (the bad boy)
i ragazzi cattivi (the bad boys)

la ragazza cattiva (the bad girl)
le ragazze cattive (the bad girls)

Note that when an adjective modifies two nouns of different gender, it retains its masculine ending. For example: i padri e le madre italiani (Italian fathers and mothers).

Although the majority of Italian adjectives have four forms (as in italiano, italiana, italiani, italiane) there are exceptions. Not all Italian adjectives have a singular form ending in -o. There are a number of adjectives that end in -e. The singular ending -e changes to -i in the plural, whether the noun is masculine or feminine.

ENDINGS OF -E ADJECTIVES

SINGULAR
PLURAL

il ragazzo triste (the sad boy)
i ragazzi tristi(the sad boys)

la ragazza triste (the sad girl)
le ragazze tristi (the sad girls)

ITALIAN ADJECTIVES ENDING IN -E

abile
able

difficile
difficult

felice
happy

forte
strong

grande
big, large, great

importante
important

intelligente
intelligent

interessante
interesting

triste
sad

veloce
fast, speedy

There are quite a few other exceptions for forming plural adjectives. For instance, adjectives that end in -io (with the stress falling on that i) form the plural with the ending -ii: addio/addii; leggio/leggii; zio/zii. The table below contains a chart of other irregular adjective endings you should know.

FORMING PLURAL ADJECTIVES

SINGULAR ENDING
PLURAL ENDING



-ca
-che



-cia
-ce



-cio
-ci



-co
-chi



-ga
-ghe



-gia
-ge



-gio
-gi



-glia
-glie



-glio
-gli



-go
-ghi



-scia
-sce



-scio
-sci