Italian Adjectives
Learning the Italian Adjectives is very important because its structure is used in every day conversation. The more you practice the subject, the closer you get to mastering the Italian language. But first we need to know what the role of Adjectives is in the structure of the grammar in Italian.
Italian Adjectives are words that describe or modify another person or thing in the sentence.
Grammar Tips:
While in English an adjective doesn’t change
when the noun changes, in Italian an adjective should agree in gender and number with the noun. For
example:
a) Masculine to feminine example:
Questo è mio figlio piccolo (this is my
little son) becomes: Questa è mia figlia piccola (this is my little daughter)
As you can see from the example above, the
adjective comes after the noun and also takes the feminine
form.
b) Singular to plural example:
Questo è il mio gatto bianco (this is my
white cat) becomes: questi sono i miei gatti bianchi (these are my white cats).
As you can see from the example above, the
adjective comes after the noun and also takes the
plural form.
Here are some examples:
| English Adjectives | Italian Adjectives |
| adjectives | aggettivi |
| a green tree | un albero verde |
| a tall building | un edificio alto |
| a very old man | un uomo molto vecchio |
| the old red house | la vecchia casa rossa |
| a very nice friend | un amico molto caro |
As you can see from the example above, the structure of the Adjectives in Italian has a logical pattern. Locate the Adjectives above and see how it works with the rest of the sentence in Italian.
List of Adjectives in Italian
Below is a list of the Adjectives, Colors, Shapes, Sizes in Italian placed in a table. Memorizing this table will help you add very useful and important words to your Italian vocabulary.
| English Adjectives | Italian Adjectives |
| colors | colori |
| black | nero |
| blue | blu |
| brown | marrone |
| gray | grigio |
| green | verde |
| orange | arancione |
| purple | viola |
| red | rosso |
| white | bianco |
| yellow | giallo |
| |
| sizes | dimensioni (or) misure |
| big | grande |
| deep | profondo |
| long | lungo |
| narrow | stretto |
| short | breve (or)corto (or)basso |
| small | piccolo |
| tall | alto |
| thick | spesso |
| thin | sottile |
| wide | ampio |
| |
| shapes | forme |
| circular | circolare |
| straight | dritto |
| square | quadrato |
| triangular | triangolare |
| |
| tastes | i gusti |
| bitter | amaro |
| fresh | fresco |
| salty | salato |
| sour | acido |
| spicy | piccante |
| sweet | dolce |
| |
| qualities | qualità |
| bad | cattivo |
| clean | pulito |
| dark | buio |
| difficult | difficile |
| dirty | sporco |
| dry | secco |
| easy | facile |
| empty | vuoto |
| expensive | costoso |
| fast | veloce |
| foreign | straniero |
| full | pieno |
| good | buono |
| hard | duro (or)difficile (difficult) |
| heavy | pesante |
| inexpensive | economico |
| light | luce |
| local | locale |
| new | nuovo |
| noisy | rumoroso |
| old | vecchio |
| powerful | potente |
| quiet | tranquillo |
| correct | corretto |
| slow | lento |
| soft | morbido |
| very | molto |
| weak | debole |
| wet | bagnato |
| wrong | sbagliato |
| young | giovane / giovani |
| |
| quantities | quantità |
| few | pochi |
| little | poco |
| many | molti |
| much | molto |
| part | parte |
| some | alcuni |
| a few | qualche |
| whole | tutto (or)completo, totale |
Adjectives, Colors, Shapes, Sizes have a very important role in Italian, therefore they need very special attention. Once you're done with Italian Adjectives, you might want to check the rest of our Italian lessons here: Learn Italian. Don't forget to bookmark this page.