Chapter 6 – Adjectives and Colors

Adjectives are words that are used to describe nouns or pronouns. In the Italian language, there are two kinds of adjectives: one with four different endings, and the other type which has two endings.

• First Type

The first type of adjectives is determined by the number and the gender of the word that the adjective is describing. The adjective can end in the vowels “-a”, “-e”, “-i", or “-o”, as illustrated in the example below:

Adjective: italiano (ee-tah-lee-ah -noh) – “Italian”

• Singular, masculine
  • “il ragazzo italiano” (pronounced il rah-gats -tsoh ee-tah-lee-ah -noh) – meaning “the Italian boy”
• Plural, masculine
  • “i ragazzi italiani” (pronounced ee rah-gats -tsee ee-tah-lee-ah -nee) – meaning “the Italian boys”
• Singular, feminine
  • “la ragazza italiana” (pronounced lah rah-gats -tsah ee-tah-lee-ah -nah) – meaning “the Italian girl”
• Plural, feminine
  • “le ragazze italiane” (pronounced leh rah-gats -tseh ee-tah-lee-ah -nah) – meaning “the Italian girls”

• Second Type

The second type of adjectives is based only on the number of words, not its gender. All adjectives under this category has the vowel “-e” as its ending when in the singular form, while plural forms end in the vowel “-i". Since gender is not a factor, the second type of adjectives can pertain to either masculine or feminine nouns or pronouns.

To illustrate this principle, here are examples of the gender-neutral Italian adjectives:

• Singular
  • “l'esame facile” (pronounced leh-za -meh fah -chee-leh) – meaning “the easy exam”
  • “la prova facile” (pronounced lah proh -va fah -chee-leh) – meaning “the easy test”
• Plural
  • “gli esami facili” (pronounced lyee eh-za -mee fah -chee-lee) – meaning “the easy exams”
  • “le prove facili” – (pronounced leh proh -ve fah -chee-lee) – meaning “the easy tests”

Take note that Italian adjectives are more flexible than their English counterparts in terms of their position relative to the word that they are are describing. In general, however, most adjectives are placed right after the noun or pronoun. Examples of adjectives that do not follow this standard includes:

• “bello” (behl -loh) – meaning “beautiful”
• “buono” (bwoh -noh) – meaning “good”
• “cattivo” (kaht-tee-voh) – meaning “poor” or “bad”

Describing Through Colors

Use the following Italian adjectives to describe someone or something in terms of colors or “colore” (koh-loh-reh):

• “rosso” (rohs -soh) – meaning “red”
• “giallo” (jahl -loh) – meaning “yellow”
• “azzuro” (ahdz-zooh -roh) – meaning “blue”
• “arancione” (ah-rahn -cho-neh) – meaning “orange”
• “verde” (vehr -deh) – meaning “green”
• “viola” (vee-oh -lah) – meaning “purple”
• “rosa” (roh -sah) – meaning “pink”
• “marrone” (mahr -roh-neh) – meaning “brown”
• “bianco” (byahn -koh) – meaning “white”
• “nero” (neh -roh) – meaning “black”
• “grigio” (greeh -joh) – meaning “gray”

To improve your manner of describing people or things through color, here are some other related terms that might come in handy for you:

• “colorato” (koh-loh -rah-toh) – meaning “colored”
• “chiaro” (kyah -roh) – meaning “light” or “clear” or “transparent”
• “illuminato” (eel-looh -mee-nah-toh) – meaning “bright”
• “scuro” (skooh -roh) – meaning “dim” or “dark”
• “arcobaleno” (ahr -koh bah-leh -noh) – meaning “rainbow”

Exercise

Translate the following Italian adjectives into English.

1. italiano
2. facile
3. bello
4. cattivo
5. verde
6. giallo
7. marrone
8. scuro
9. colorato
10. chiaro

Answer Key:

1. italian
2. easy
3. beautiful
4. poor/bad
5. green
6. yellow
7. brown
8. dim/dark
9. colored
10. light/clear/transparent