Basic Italian: A Grammar and Workbook

UNIT THREE

Adjectives; possessive and demonstrative

pronouns

1 Adjectives in Italian must agree in gender and number with the noun they
refer to: if the noun is masculine singular the adjective must be masculine
singular, if the noun is feminine singular the adjective must be feminine singu-
lar, etc. Adjectives therefore change their forms accordingly. But remember
that when an adjective is listed in a dictionary or a grammar, it is given in its
masculine singular form. In the masculine singular, most Italian adjectives
end in -o or in -e:

2 Adjectives ending in -o have four different forms: -o for the masculine
singular (italiano), -a for feminine singular (italiana), -i for the masculine
plural (italiani) and -e for the feminine plural (italiane):

3 Adjectives ending in -e have only two forms: -e for the masculine and
feminine singular (francese) and -i for the masculine and feminine plural
(francesi). With adjectives ending in -e there is thus no difference between the
masculine and the feminine form:

italiano

nuovo

francese

grande

Italian

new

French

big

l’arbitro [ms] italiano

gli arbitri [mp] italiani

la cameriera [fs] italiana

le cameriere [fp] italiane

lo stadio [ms] nuovo

gli stadi [mp] nuovi

la casa [fs] nuova

le case [fp] nuove

the Italian referee

the Italian referees

the Italian waitress

the Italian waitresses

the new stadium

the new stadia/stadiums

the new house

the new houses