Basic Italian: A Grammar and Workbook

Adverbial expressions

5 Having a lot of words ending in -mente can often sound heavy. To avoid
this, Italian sometimes uses adverbial phrases instead of single words. These
do the same job as one-word adverbs, and indeed they do usually correspond
to one-word English adverbs in ‘-ly’. These adverbial expressions are most
often constructed with con (with), sometimes with senza (without), followed
by a noun:

Adverb

lavorare molto/tanto

molto/tanto lontano

molto/tanto difficile

lavorare troppo

troppo lontano

troppo difficile

lavorare poco

poco lontano

poco difficile

Adjective

molto (tanto)/troppo/poco lavoro [ms]

molta (tanta)/troppa/poca acqua [fs]

molti (tanti)/troppi/pochi esercizi [mp]

molte (tante)/troppe/poche lettere [fp]

to work a lot

very far

very difficult

to work too much

too far

too difficult

to work little/not to work much

not very far

not very difficult

a lot of/too much/not much work

a lot of/too much/not much water

many/too many/not many exercises

many/too many/not many letters

Mio padre lavora troppo. [adverb]

Questa musica è molto bella. [adverb]

Luisa dorme poco. [adverb]

Dormi troppo poco. [adverbs]

Abbiamo molto tempo. [adjective]

Luisa mangia poca pasta. [adjective]

Ho molti amici. [adjective]

‘Perché fai questo?’ ‘Ci sono molte

ragioni.’ [adjective]

My father works too much.

This music is very beautiful.

Luisa sleeps little/doesn’t sleep

much.

You sleep too little/don’t sleep

enough.

We have a lot of time.

Luisa eats little pasta/doesn’t eat a

lot of pasta.

I have a lot of friends.

‘Why are you doing this?’ ‘There

are many reasons.’

con difficoltà

con eleganza

con lentezza

con rapidità

con semplicità

with difficulty

elegantly

slowly

rapidly/quickly

simply