Using Adjectives Italian

Adjectives What is an adjective? Write down some examples of adjectives?

In English How do we describe a noun in English? What is the word order? Do we need to change the words at all? What happens when we want to describe something in the plural? What rules do we have in English when using adjectives?

In Italian – Gli aggettivi Italian adjectives must agree with nouns both in gender and number. There are two groups of adjectives in Italian. ~Adjectives ending in –e ~Adjectives ending in –a or –o

Adjectives ending in –e Adjectives ending in –e have a common ending for both singular masculine and singular feminine. Giovane (young) Verde (green) The endings of the first group of adjectives can be summarised as follows

Adjectives ending in -e SINGULAR PLURAL -e -i

Mia mamma non e’ piu _______________ (young) Exercise – Look up the words in the dictionary but make sure you check whether to keep them in singular or change to plural. Mia mamma non e’ piu _______________ (young) Stefania e sua sorella sono spesso ________ da scuola (absent) I film di Benigni sono sempre ____________ (fun) I grattacieli di Sydney sono molto __________ (big) Non ti credo, quello che dici e’ __________ (impossible) Quella Salsa non mi piace, e’ troppo _________ (spicy)

Adjectives ending in –a and –o There are adjectives that end in –a and –o. Therefore the ending needs to agree with the noun. If the noun that you are describing is a feminine singular noun then the adjective should end in an –a and –e for plural. If the noun that you are describing is a masculine singular noun then the adjective should end in an –o and –i for plural. EG: alto/a Una donna alta – a tall woman Un’uomo alto – a tall man

If the feminine adjective ends in –ca or –ga then the plural becomes –che, -ghe. EG: una strada lunga becomes strade lunghe. If the masculine adjective ends in –co or –go then the plural becomes –chi or –ghi. EG: un viale largo becomes viali larghi.

Table of changes for adjectives ending in –a or -o SINGULAR PLURAL -a -e -o -I -ca -che -ga -ghe -co -chi -go -ghi