12

Learning Objectives
  • Understand the role of adjectives in a sentence.
  • Learn how to use Italian adjectives.
  • Expand your vocabulary with some frequent descriptive adjectives.

What is an adjective?

Adjectives are modifiers of nouns. They are words that give us additional information on someone or something. Descriptive adjectives will provide information related to the physical aspect or to the personality of the noun (e.g. a large room, a funny cat).

In Italian, they need to work in agreement with the noun they are describing. We establish this bond by changing the ending of the adjective to match gender and number of the corresponding noun.

You simply have to follow the same pattern you learned for nouns:

  Desinenze
Singolare Plurale
Maschile – o        ⇒        – i
Femminile – a        ⇒        – e
Masch./Femm. – e        ⇒        – i

There are only two types of adjectives, and they can be recognized by the ending of the masculine singular form:

  1. Adjectives ending in o, like biondo, have 4 possible endings.
  Singolare Plurale
Maschile il bambino biondo i bambini biondi
Femminile la bambina bionda le bambine bionde

 

  1. Adjectives ending in e, like intelligente, have 2 possible endings.
  Singolare Plurale
Maschile il ragazzo intelligente i ragazzi intelligenti
Femminile la ragazza intelligente le ragazze intelligenti

Esercizio 25

Complete the following charts:

  Singolare Plurale
Maschile lo studente pigro
Femminile

 

  Singolare Plurale
Maschile il professore gentile
Femminile

 

  Singolare Plurale
Maschile
Femminile la bambina allegra

 

Esercizio 26

Study Italian descriptive adjectives on Quizlet, and complete 3 activities.

Esercizio 27

Find the opposites of the following adjectives.

Esempio:     Ricco       povero    

Grande       _____________________

Buono       ____________________

Bello       _____________________

Stupido       _____________________

Lungo       _____________________

Alto       _____________________

Giovane       _____________________

Divertente       _____________________

Simpatico       _____________________

Pigro       _____________________

Fortunato       _____________________

Freddo       _____________________

Facile       _____________________

Economico       _____________________

Disgustoso       _____________________

Scomodo       _____________________

Esercizio 28

Study the names of colors on Quizlet, and complete 3 activities. Don’t forget to sign in!

Notes about colors: Colors can be used both as descriptive adjectives and nouns, e.g. la macchina rossa (adjective), il rosso (noun) è bello. Some colors, when used as adjectives, will be invariable: rosa, viola, lilla, fucsia (these are also names of flowers), blu, magenta, beige, oro, argento and bronzo.

Esercizio 29

Turn these sentences into their plural form.

Esempio:    Una piccola casa bianca    ⇒    Due piccole case bianche. 

Una piccola automobile verde.

_______________________________

Una grande casa gialla.

_______________________________

Una ragazza intelligente e simpatica.

_______________________________

Uno studente bravo e studioso.

_______________________________

Una lezione interessante e divertente.

_______________________________

Una signora ricca e generosa.

_______________________________

Una giovane ragazza inglese.

_______________________________

Una studentessa simpatica ma pigra.

_______________________________

Una nuova Ferrari rossa.

_______________________________

Un libro lungo e noioso.

_______________________________

Ascolto: Caterina

  1. Che lavoro fa Caterina?
  2. Dove è nata?
  3. Quando si è trasferita in Michigan?
  4. Di che colore sono i suoi occhi?
  5. A Caterina piacciono i gatti?

License

Icon for the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License

Italian Language and Culture I Copyright © by is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

Share This Book