Italian Adjectives: Agreement, Position and Colours

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To describe a person, a house or a city you need adjectives (aggettivi qualificativi): the words that answer the question “what is it like?” (com’è?). Una casa grande (a big house), un ragazzo simpatico (a nice boy), due studentesse italiane (two Italian students), una giornata bellissima (a beautiful day). In Italian the adjective changes form to agree with the noun: in gender (masculine or feminine) and in number (singular or plural). This is the most important rule of the whole lesson. After learning irregular plurals and articles, here you put the three things together.

The basic rule: the adjective agrees with the noun

As a rule, a descriptive adjective agrees in gender (masculine / feminine) and number (singular / plural) with the noun it refers to: gatto rosso (a red cat: masculine singular), ragazze eleganti (elegant girls: feminine plural) ^[1]. It does not matter whether the adjective comes before or after the noun, or after the verb essere (to be): La casa è piccola. Le case sono piccole. (The house is small. The houses are small.)

The three main classes

Type	Masc. sing.	Fem. sing.	Masc. plural	Fem. plural
in -o (4 forms)	alto	alta	alti	alte
in -e (2 forms)	grande	grande	grandi	grandi
in -a (3 forms)	ottimista	ottimista	ottimisti	ottimiste

Adjectives in -o are the most numerous and have four forms: italiano, italiana, italiani, italiane. Adjectives in -e have one form for the singular (masculine and feminine) and one for the plural: un uomo gentile, una donna gentile, due amici gentili, due amiche gentili (a kind man, a kind woman, two kind friends). Adjectives in -a (such as ottimista, pessimista, egoista, realista) are few: they have the same form in the singular, but change in the plural: ragazzi ottimisti, ragazze ottimiste (optimistic boys, optimistic girls) ^[2].

Plurals with -ch- and -gh-

Adjectives in -co and -go keep the hard sound by adding an h before i and e:

• bianco → bianca → bianchi → bianche (white);
• stanco → stanca → stanchi → stanche (tired);
• lungo → lunga → lunghi → lunghe (long);
• largo → larga → larghi → larghe (wide);
• tedesco → tedesca → tedeschi → tedesche (German).

Other adjectives in -co, instead, form the masculine plural in -ci: simpatico → simpatici, pratico → pratici, magico → magici. The feminine plural is always in -che: simpatiche, pratiche, magiche. When an adjective ends in unstressed -io, the plural has a single i: grigio → grigi, grigie (grey).

Colour adjectives

Colours are adjectives and usually agree like the others: una borsa rossa, due borse rosse, un vestito giallo, dei vestiti gialli, una camicia verde, due camicie verdi. A few colours are invariable, that is, they have a single form for everyone: blu, rosa, viola, lilla, beige ^[2].

• un cappotto blu, due cappotti blu, una gonna blu, delle gonne blu (blue coat, skirt…);
• una maglia rosa, delle maglie rosa (pink sweater);
• una sciarpa viola, due sciarpe viola (purple scarf).

The colour marrone (brown), on the other hand, is variable: you say occhi marroni, scarpe marroni ^[3]. When a colour is specified by a noun, it stays unchanged together with that noun: gli occhi azzurro cielo (sky-blue eyes), i pantaloni verde bottiglia (bottle-green trousers) ^[1]. When two colours are joined, normally only the final vowel of the second changes (maglia giallorossa, muri giallorossi), unless the second colour is invariable (vestito gialloblù, coperte gialloblù) ^[4].

Several nouns, one adjective

If an adjective refers to a masculine and a feminine noun, it usually goes in the masculine plural: Marco e Sara sono simpatici. (Marco and Sara are nice.) Un ragazzo e una ragazza italiani. (An Italian boy and an Italian girl.) If all the nouns are feminine, the adjective is feminine plural: Elena e Giulia sono simpatiche.

Where to put the adjective

In Italian the adjective normally goes after the noun: un libro interessante, una città tranquilla, un ragazzo svizzero. It always goes after the noun when it indicates a specific characteristic such as colour, shape, material or nationality: la gonna blu, un tavolo rotondo, una lingua straniera ^[1][3]. Some very common adjectives often go before the noun: bello, brutto, buono, cattivo, grande, piccolo, giovane, vecchio, nuovo: una bella casa, un buon amico, un grande successo.

Sometimes the position changes the meaning: un grande uomo is an important man, while un uomo grande is a tall or big man; un vecchio amico is a long-standing friend, un amico vecchio is an elderly friend. When the adjective precedes the noun it often has a figurative or more subjective sense; when it follows the noun it has a literal sense ^[3].

Bello and buono before a noun

Before a masculine singular noun, bello and buono change form just like the articles:

	bello (beautiful)	buono (good)
before a consonant	un bel libro	un buon libro
before s + consonant, z	un bello zaino	un buono studente
before a vowel	un bell’albero	un buon amico
plural	dei bei libri, dei begli zaini	dei buoni libri
feminine	una bella casa, delle belle case	una buona idea, delle buone idee

Do not worry about memorising everything at once: at the beginning it is enough to recognise un bel libro, una bella casa, un buon amico, una buona idea.

The most useful adjectives for describing

Area	Adjectives
People	alto/basso (tall/short), giovane/anziano (young/elderly), simpatico/antipatico (nice/unpleasant), gentile (kind), allegro/triste (cheerful/sad)
Things and places	grande/piccolo (big/small), nuovo/vecchio (new/old), bello/brutto (beautiful/ugly), pulito/sporco (clean/dirty), caro/economico (expensive/cheap), tranquillo/rumoroso (quiet/noisy)
Nationality	italiano, svizzero, tedesco, francese, inglese, spagnolo
Colours	rosso, giallo, verde, azzurro, nero, bianco, grigio, marrone, arancione, blu, rosa, viola

Remember that in Italian nationality adjectives are written in lower case: una studentessa svizzera, un amico tedesco (a Swiss student, a German friend).

The most common mistakes

• “Una ragazza simpatico”, “una macchina rosso”: the adjective must agree with the noun: simpatica, rossa.
• “Due borse rossi”: borse is feminine plural, so rosse.
• “Le scarpe blue”, “una gonna rose”: blu and rosa never change: le scarpe blu, due gonne rosa.
• “Un bello libro”: before a masculine noun starting with a consonant you say un bel libro.
• “I ragazzi stanci”: the plural of stanco is stanchi, with the h.

Reading: a new house

Sara e Marco abitano in una casa nuova, piccola ma luminosa. La cucina è bianca e moderna, il soggiorno ha due finestre grandi e un divano blu. Nella camera da letto ci sono due armadi marroni e una lampada rosa. Il quartiere è tranquillo e i vicini sono gentili e simpatici. Sara è molto contenta, ma Marco, che è un po’ pigro, dice che il giardino è troppo grande: preferisce i piccoli balconi fioriti.

In English: Sara and Marco live in a new house, small but bright. The kitchen is white and modern, the living room has two big windows and a blue sofa. In the bedroom there are two brown wardrobes and a pink lamp. The neighbourhood is quiet and the neighbours are kind and nice. Sara is very happy, but Marco, who is a bit lazy, says the garden is too big: he prefers small flowered balconies.

Your turn: underline all the adjectives and write next to each the noun it refers to. Then put the text in the plural (“Sara e Marco abitano in due case nuove…”) and check every agreement.

Exercise 1: complete with the right form

1. La casa è (piccolo) ______.
2. Marco e Luca sono (simpatico) ______.
3. Le scarpe (nuovo) ______ sono sulla sedia.
4. Una ragazza (svizzero) ______ parla italiano.
5. I pantaloni (blu) ______ sono nell’armadio.
6. Sara e Giulia sono molto (gentile) ______.
7. Due borse (bianco) ______ e un cappotto (marrone) ______.
8. Elena e Paola sono (ottimista) ______.

Answers: 1. piccola – 2. simpatici – 3. nuove – 4. svizzera – 5. blu – 6. gentili – 7. bianche, marrone – 8. ottimiste.

Exercise 2: find the mistake

1. Una macchina rosso.
2. Gli studenti sono stanchi.
3. Una camicia rosa e due vestiti rosa.
4. Un bello libro interessante.
5. Le ragazze sono simpatici.

Answers: 1. rossa. 2. Correct. 3. Correct. 4. “un bel libro interessante”. 5. simpatiche.

Think about it: describe your bedroom in six sentences with at least six different adjectives (two colours, two sizes, one quality). Then check every agreement with its noun.

Keep learning

• Italian definite and indefinite articles
• Irregular plurals in Italian
• The present tense of -ere verbs
• Italian grammar course A1

Let’s practise together

Agreement is learnt by speaking and writing. Book a free trial lesson or check your level with the free test. For a structured path, join the course waiting list.

Sources

• [1] “La concordanza dell’aggettivo qualificativo”, Aulalingue Zanichelli (accessed 24 October 2026)
• [2] Blum, Gemmani, “Aggettivi”, in D’accordo! (University of Iowa Pressbooks) (accessed 24 October 2026)
• [3] “La posizione dell’aggettivo qualificativo”, Aulalingue Zanichelli (accessed 24 October 2026)
• [4] “Colori usati come aggettivi”, Treccani, Lingua italiana – Domande e risposte (accessed 24 October 2026)

Tables, reading text and exercises come from my experience teaching Italian to foreign learners.