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Position of adjectives
Most adjectives in Italian follow the noun they modify, particularly adjectives of color, nationality, and religion.
un vino rosso — a red wine
un ragazzo italiano — an Italian boy
una chiesa cattolica — a Catholic church
REMEMBER: Adjectives of nationality and religion (and any other adjectives derived from proper names, such as machiavellico — “Machiavellian”) are not capitalized in Italian.
The following adjectives always precede the noun:
- Altro: l’altro signore — the other gentleman
- Demonstrative adjectives: questa (quella) stanza — this (that) room
- Interrogative adjectives: Quanti ragazzi? Quali ragazzi? — How many children? Which children?
- Quantitative adjectives (molto, qualche, parecchi, etc.): molte ragazze — many girls / qualche amico — a few friends / parecchi libri — several books
- Cardinal numbers: quattro fratelli — four brothers
The following adjectives usually precede the noun:
- Possessive adjectives: il mio libro-“my book”
- Ordinal numbers: il secondo giorno-“the second day”
The following are very common descriptive adjectives:
| bello beautiful |
brutto ugly |
buono good |
cattivo bad |
| nuovo new |
antico ancient |
giovane young |
vecchio old |
| grande big, large |
piccolo little, small |
lungo long |
breve short |