One of the eight parts of speech, adjectives are a type of modifier; that is, they modify or describe nouns in a certain way, letting you know the size, shape, weight, color, nationality, or any of a myriad other possible qualities of nouns.
Adjectives serve the same purpose in Italian and English, but they are very different in other respects.
English adjectives have a single form, but Italian adjectives can have up to 4 forms, according to the gender and number of the nouns they modify:
masculine singular
masculine plural
feminine singular
feminine plural
If you’ve already studied the noun lesson, some of these rules will look familiar.
1) Masculine singular is the default form and usually ends in -o. This changes to -a for feminine singular, -i for masculine plural, and -e for feminine plural.
Per esempio…
alto (tall)
alto
alti
alta
alte
2) When the masculine adjective ends in -a, there is no difference between masculine and feminine singular. The masculine plural is created by changing -a to -i, the feminine plural to –e.
entusiasta (enthusiastic)
entusiasta
entusiasti
entusiasta
entusiaste
3) When the masculine adjective ends in -e, there is no difference between the masculine and feminine forms. The plural is created by changing -e to -i.
facile (easy)
facile
facili
facile
facili
4) Masculine adjectives that end in –co or –go change to –ca / –ga for feminine singular. Masculine plural is usually –chi* / –ghi, while feminine plural is always –che / –ghe.
stanco (tired)
stanco
stanchi
stanca
stanche
largo (wide)
largo
larghi
larga
larghe
* Adjectives with 3 or more syllables with stress on the antepenultimate (3rd from last) syllable change –co to –ci for masculine plural.
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