Grammar Lesson 27

The adjective: gender and number

In Italian in general the adjective agrees in gender and number with the noun it describes.

As with the nouns, we divide adjectives in classes according to their ending:

1) Adjectives that in the masculine singular form end in -o have four endings:

	Singular	Plural
Masculine	-o	-i
Feminine	-a	-e

Examples:

Basso (in all its forms) = Small

Marco è basso / Marco is small

Anna è bassa / Anna is small

Marco e Giovanni sono bassi / Marco and Giovanni are small

Anna e Mariangela sono basse / Anna and Mariangela are small

2) Adjectives that in the masculine singular form end in -e have two endings:

	Singular	Plural
Masculine	-e	-i
Feminine	-e	-i

Examples:

Speciale (in all its forms) = special

Marco è speciale / Marco is special

Anna è speciale / Anna is special

Marco e Giovanni sono speciali / Marco and Giovanni are special

Anna e Mariangela sono speciali / Anna and Mariangela are special

3) Adjectives that in the masculine singular form end in -ista, -cida, -ita and -asta have three endings:

	Singular	Plural
Masculine	-a	-i
Feminine	-a	-e

Examples:

Egoista (in all its forms) = selfish

Marco è egoista / Marco is selfish

Anna è egoista / Anna is selfish

Marco e Giovanni sono egoisti / Marco and Giovanni are selfish

Anna e Mariangela sono egoiste / Anna and Mariangela are selfish

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