The qualifying adjective

The two classes (-o and -e), agreement with the noun in gender and number, and position.

First page · two classes

The forms and agreement

: The qualifying adjective is the word that indicates a quality of the noun: what a person, animal or thing is like (alto, bello, rosso, italiano). It stays near the noun and must agree with it.

1ª classe (-o)

First-class adjectives end in -o and have four forms: -o (masculine singular), -a (feminine singular), -i (masculine plural), -e (feminine plural).

alto, altaalti, alterosso / rossaitaliano / italiana

2ª classe (-e)

Second-class adjectives end in -e and have only two forms: -e for the singular (masculine and feminine) and -i for the plural (masculine and feminine).

grande / grandiverde / verdifelice / felicidifficile / difficili

The forms of the adjective
	Singolare		Plurale
Classe	Maschile	Femminile	Maschile	Femminile
1ª classe: alto	alto	alta	alti	alte
1ª classe: rosso	rosso	rossa	rossi	rosse
2ª classe: grande	grande	grande	grandi	grandi
2ª classe: felice	felice	felice	felici	felici

The adjective must always agree with the noun: it takes the same gender (masculine or feminine) and the same number (singular or plural). If the noun is feminine plural, the adjective must also be feminine plural.

Posizione

Usually the qualifying adjective stands after the noun (una casa grande, un ragazzo simpatico). A few very common adjectives can also stand before it (un bel film, una brava persona).

una casa grandeun ragazzo simpaticoun bel film

Generi misti

When an adjective describes several nouns of different gender, the masculine plural is used: un ragazzo e una ragazza simpatici.

Marco e Anna sono simpaticilibri e riviste nuovi

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