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How do adjectives work in Italian?

By: Luna Checchini Fri Aug 30 2024
Italian
Adjectives

Just like nouns in Italian, adjectives usually have different endings depending on whether they’re singular or plural, feminine or masculine. Unlike English, they are usually positioned after the noun. In this post, we’ll review how to make adjectives agree with nouns and adjective order. Let’s take a look!

Table of Contents

    How do adjectives work?

    Adjectives work to describe a noun. First, let’s review: what’s an adjective? It’s a word used to describe things, persons, animals, actions, places, ideas, etc. Adjectives can be used for any type of description: colors, feelings, categories, possession, quantity, and more. If there’s anything you need to describe, there’s an adjective available at your fingertips. For example: il muro bianco(the white wall), l’ottima pizza(the excellent pizza).

    How to make adjectives agree in Italian?

    To make adjectives agree in Italian, you need to make sure they have a form that reflects the gender and number of the noun to which they refer. That is, adjectives and other parts of a sentence need to change their endings in order to “match” the noun. Let’s “count down” the different adjective endings with the...endings countdown!

    Adjectives with 4 endings

    This type of adjective can have 4 different endings: -o, -a, -i and -e. Let’s see when to use them.

    Ending
    Gender/number
    Example

    -o

    Masculine / singular

    Ho un maglione morbido.

    I have a soft sweater.

    -a

    Feminine / singular

    Hai una giacca leggera.

    You have a light jacket.

    -i

    Masculine / plural

    Questi pantaloni sono grandi.

    These trousers are big.

    -e

    Feminine / plural

    Le camicie sono rosse.

    The shirts are red.

    One thing that learners of Italian often struggle with, is that the noun and the adjective don’t necessarily have the same ending — please remember that we don’t care about having matching endings, we just care about gender and number: in the example above, maglione is masculine singular, just like morbido, and so they both match in gender and number.

    To refresh your memory on the gender and number of Italian nouns, check out these articles: How to distinguish masculine and feminine nouns in Italian? and How to make nouns plural in Italian?

    Adjectives with 3 endings

    This type of adjective can end in: a, i, or e.

    Ending
    Gender/number
    Example

    -a

    Masculine / singular

    Mio fratello è pessimista.

    My brother is pessimistic.

    -a

    Feminine / singular

    Tua figlia è ottimista.

    Your daughter is optimistic.

    -i

    Masculine / plural

    Sono ragazzi arrivisti.

    They’re upstart boys.

    -e

    Feminine / plural

    Le fan sono entusiaste.

    The fans are enthusiastic.

    Group “3” doesn’t include many adjectives, and most of the adjectives ending in -sta belong to this group.

    Adjective with 2 endings

    This type of adjective can end in: e or i.

    Ending
    Gender/number
    Example

    -e

    Masculine / singular

    Chi è l’attuale presidente?

    Who is the current president?

    -e

    Feminine / singular

    Questa storia è terrificante!

    This story is terrifying!

    -i

    Masculine / plural

    Sto leggendo articoli interessanti.

    I’m reading interesting articles.

    -i

    Feminine / plural

    Negli USA ci sono città enormi.

    In the US there are huge cities.

    Most adjectives belong to the “4 ending” and “2 ending” groups, so if you memorize these rules, you’ll be able to make adjectives agree in most cases...not too bad, right?!

    But what about the last group? Well, there’s a handful of adjectives that are invariable: they have the same form in the singular, plural, masculine, and feminine. Some adjectives for color belong to this group, along with all adjectives borrowed from other languages:

    Adjectives with 1 ending

    This type of adjective has only one ending, meaning they don’t change!

    Adjective
    Gender / number
    Example

    blu

    blue

    Masculine
    singular

    Amo il mare blu.

    I love the blue sea.

    Feminine
    singular

    Posso usare la penna blu?

    Can I use the blue pen?

    Masculine
    plural

    Giovanna ha i capelli blu!

    Giovanna has blue hair!

    Feminine
    plural

    Dove sono le chiavi blu?

    Where are the blue keys?

    light

    fat-free

    Masculine
    singular

    Non mi piace il formaggio light.

    I don’t like fat-free cheese.

    Feminine
    singular

    Devo comprare la mozzarella light.

    I must buy the fat-free mozzarella.

    Masculine
    plural

    Mia mamma non cucina gli spaghetti light.

    My mom doesn’t cook fat-free spaghetti.

    Feminine
    plural

    Oggi mangio le lasagne light.

    Today I’m eating fat-free lasagna.

    beige

    beige

    Masculine
    singular

    Guarda il cappotto beige!

    Look at the beige coat!

    Feminine
    singular

    I documenti sono nella cartella beige.

    The documents are in the beige folder.

    Masculine
    plural

    Non ho pantaloni beige.

    I don’t have beige trousers.

    Feminine
    plural

    Voglio vendere le scarpe beige.

    I want to sell the beige shoes.

    After reading about these rules, you may want to learn some more adjectives in order to practice and enrich your vocabulary. I usually recommend studying adjectives in context, divided into different topics, like adjectives related to food, sports, work, school, etc. Check out these tables and exercises to try and memorize some of them!

    What’s the adjective order in Italian?

    The order of adjectives is different in Italian — they can come after the noun or before. In English, adjectives almost always come before the noun:

    • The American movie

    • The excellent company

    In Italian, that’s not always the case:

    • Il film americano

    • L’ottima compagnia

    So, how do we decide where to put the adjectives? Most of the time, it doesn’t really matter. Generally, adjectives go after the noun in Italian, but they can also be placed before the noun without affecting its meaning:

    Una ragazza simpatica / una simpatica ragazza

    a nice girl

    Un dibattito interessante / un interessante dibattito

    an interesting debate

    However, there are a few rules to keep in mind:

    • The word abbastanza has two meanings: “quite” and “enough.” Adjectives always follow abbastanza when used as “quite,” but they can precede or follow it when used as “enough”:

      • Il mio cane è abbastanza vivace.

        My dog is quite lively.

      • Oggi non sono felice abbastanza! / Oggi non sono abbastanza felice!

        Today I’m not happy enough!

    • Color and nationality adjectives always follow the noun:

      • il computer viola

        the purple computer

        lo spettacolo francese

        the French show

    • When using more than one adjective, as a rule of thumb, remember that subjective information usually precedes the noun, while objective information follows it:

      • subjective informationobjective information

        l’incredibile atleta statunitense

        the incredible US athlete

      • subjective informationobjective information

        la deliziosa acqua frizzante

        the delicious sparkling water

    We can see how the order of the adjectives, in these examples, is the same as in English — when in doubt, use multiple adjectives in the same order as you would in English, but keep the noun in the middle!

    Multiple adjectives can also follow the noun, separated by commas or e(and):

    • l’oceano immenso e blu

      the huge (and) blue ocean

    • la ditta storica, italiana e multinazionale

      the historical Italian multinational company

    In a nutshell, putting the adjectives after the noun is the safest bet, but there are also a few that change meaning depending on their position. Find out more about the adjectives that change meaning here and then practice them with this exercise!

    Summing up

    In conclusion, let’s keep in mind that:

    • Adjectives agree with the nouns to which they refer in number and gender;

    • Adjective endings can be chosen by remembering to which of the four groups they belong;

    • Adjectives are generally placed after the noun except for the few that change meanings depending on their position.

    And most importantly, relax! Enjoy speaking the language spontaneously, Italians will appreciate the effort even when you make mistakes!

    Downloadable Resources

    Elevate your language-learning journey to new heights with the following downloadable resources.

    How do Italian adjectives work~Adjectives placement TableHow do Italian adjectives work~Activities 1

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