Basic Italian: A Grammar and Workbook

9 The demonstrative adjectives questo (this) and quello (that), like their
English counterparts, always precede the noun they refer to:

• For an explanation of the forms of quello, see paragraph 10.

10 The forms of the adjectives quello and bello (beautiful/handsome/nice/-
fine) change in the same way as the definite article. Here are the forms,
followed in brackets by the corresponding forms of the definite article:

• The feminine singular form bell’ is rarely used, and bella is preferred, even
  before a vowel.

Note that when bello comes after the noun, the full form is used: lo spettacolo
è bello, un’esperienza bella e interessante, etc.

un vecchio amico

un amico vecchio

la povera donna

la donna povera

an old [i.e. long-standing] friend

an old/elderly friend [i.e. a friend who is old]

the poor [i.e. unfortunate] woman

the poor woman [i.e. she has no money]

questo ragazzo

questa ragazza

questi ragazzi

queste ragazze

quel* ragazzo

quella* ragazza

quei* ragazzi

quelle* ragazze

this boy

this girl

these boys

these girls

that boy

that girl

those boys

those girls

Masculine

Feminine

Singular

quel/bel

quello/bello

quell’/bell’

quella/bella

quell’/bell’*

(il)

(lo)

(l’)

(la)

(l’)

Plural

quei/bei

quegli/begli

quegli/begli

quelle/belle

quelle/belle

(i)

(gli)

(gli)

(le)

(le)

quel film

bello spettacolo

quell’esempio

quella canzone

bella esperienza

quel bel film

that film

lovely show

that example

that song

beautiful experience

that beautiful film

bei film

quegli spettacoli

begli esempi

belle canzoni

quelle esperienze

quei bei film

beautiful films

those shows

fine examples

beautiful songs

those experiences

those beautiful

films