Adjectives in Italian: Form and Agreement

An adjective is a word that qualifies a noun; for example, a good boy. In Italian an adjective agrees in gender and number with the noun it modifies. In Italian there are two groups of adjectives: those ending in -o and those ending in -e.

Adjectives ending in -o in the masculine have four forms:

If an adjective ends in -io, the o is dropped to form the plural.

l'abito vecchio (the old suit)
gli abiti vecchi (the old suits)
il ragazzo serio (the serious boys)
i ragazzi seri (the serious boys)

Uli è tedesco. (Uli is German.)
Adriana è italiana. (Adriana is Italian.)
Roberto e Daniele sono americani. (Robert and Daniel are American.)
Svetlana e Natalia sono russe. (Svetlana and Natalia are Russian.)

Adjectives ending in -e are the same for the masculine and the feminine singular. In the plural, the -e changes to -i.

il ragazzo inglese (the English boy)
la ragazza inglese (the English girl)
i ragazzi inglesi (the English boys)
le ragazze inglesi (the English girls)

An adjective modifying two nouns of different gender is masculine.

i padri e le madre italiani (Italian fathers and mothers)