- In this video, we're going to talk about adjectives
which come before and after the noun.
Let's get started!
(upbeat music)
Hello everyone and welcome to Coffee Break Italian!
I'm Mark
Hello everyone, I'm Francesca.
And, as Francesca said,
today we are answering a question
and this question is coming from our listener, John.
John wants to know does "grande", the adjective "grande",
come before or after the noun.
Francesca, it's a little bit of a trick question, isn't it?
- It is, it is, but we can give some explanations
and some ideas on how to use the adjectives in Italian.
- Okay, go for it.
- Okay, first of all, I should say that
the standard position for adjectives
in Italian is after the noun.
So, for example,
"mangio una mela rossa".
- So, "I eat a red apple". "Mangio una mela rossa".
Or "Giulia è una ragazza simpatica".
- "Giulia is a nice girl".
Or, another example,
"ho un amico spagnolo".
So "I have a Spanish friend". That all makes sense.
So these adjectives are all going after the noun.
- Yes. So, if in doubt, just place it after the noun.
However, as pointed out by John,
there are some adjectives in Italian
which can actually be moved.
So they can be placed
after the noun in the standard position
but they can also be moved in front of the noun,
and when that happens, the meaning changes a little bit.
- Okay.
- So, shall we just start maybe with a bit
of the most common adjectives which can be moved?
- That sounds like a good idea.
Okay. So we've got our sheet here, ready to go.
- Okay. So for example, "grande".
- Okay. So "grande" as John suggested
"grande" meaning big,
but we'll see what happens to it meaning-wise
when we change the location of it.
Exactly. "Piccolo".
Okay, so "piccolo", "small".
Very good. And then... "vecchio".
- Ah right, "old", okay, "vecchio."
- Mmhmm.
- Okay.
- And "nuovo".
- The opposite, I guess.
Yes.
"Nuovo", "new".
- And some other adjectives are, for example, "povero"
- "Povero", so "poor".
And also...
- "alto"!
- "Alto", so "tall".
- "Bello" and "buono"
- Okay. So "beautiful" and "good".
"Bello", "buono." Anything else?
- Maybe "diverso"?
- Ah, okay, "different", so "diverso".
Okay could we take a couple of these
and then give some examples
where we'll put the adjective once before
and then once after and see what that does to the sentence?
- Of course. Let's start from "grande",
which was the question from John.
I'll give you two simple examples.
If I were to say,
"Mauro è un attore grande".
- Okay, "Mauro è un attore grande"
Okay.
- This is the standard position of the adjective
and, by placing "grande" after the noun,
we're just stressing its literal meaning.
We're just talking about the size,
let's say, of Mauro.
So we're really saying that Mauro
is an actor who is not small.
- Okay. That sounds good.
What happens then if we put that before the noun?
So the sentence would be...
- "Mauro è un grande attore".
- Perfect.
- So there, we've taken "grande" and put it before the noun.
So, what's happening now?
- In this case, we're not really using "grande"
with its literal meaning, but it's more,
let's say, figurative.
So we're not interested in the actual size of Mauro.
We don't want to know if Mauro is big or small or tall
but we're talking about his qualities as an actor.
So we're really saying that Mauro is a great actor
but we don't know if he's a big or small, really.
- So, for example,
we could say "Danny DeVito è un grande attore".
Yes, definitely!
Even though he's not very "grande".
- No.
- Okay. Let's take another example then.
- Okay. Let's take the adjective "vecchio".
Let's take the adjective "vecchio", which means "old".
Normally it's used to describe the age
of someone or something.
- Okay.
So, for example,
Serena "è un'amica vecchia
di mia madre".
- Okay so "Serena è un'amica vecchia
di mia madre".
- Perfect.
- Okay so "Serena is an old friend of my mother".
- Yes, in this case, we are giving information
about the age of Serena
so we want to say that Serena is not very young.
and this is how we are describing Serena.
So Serena being old and not young.
- Okay.
- So this is the literal meaning as it happened before.
- So what happens when we put "vecchia" before the noun?
- If we say "Serena è una vecchia amica
di mia madre".
In this case, we're not really interested
in the literal meaning of the adjective "vecchio".
We're not really using "vecchia" here
as opposed to "young", "giovane",
but it's more figurative again.
So we're describing the friendship
between my mother and Serena which is a long friendship
but maybe they are both quite young
and we're not really giving information about Serena's age,
but it's just the type of friendship
between the two of them.
- Okay. So there, we have this figurative meaning, "vecchia"
meaning the old friendship, rather than the old age
of Serena.
She might be very young, but they might have been friends
for a long time.
So, she's an old friend of my Mum,
not "she's a friend of my Mum who's old," as it were.
- Exactly, perfect.
- Okay. Let's take one more example.
I think it's beginning to make sense.
Let's take one more example.
- Okay. I'm glad it's making sense.
Let's take the adjective "nuovo", "new".
- Okay, so here we've got "nuovo". Let's take "nuovo", then.
- Okay, and it can be very subtle with the "nuovo",
but I just want to show you two examples.
If I say "vorrei un cellulare nuovo".
"Vorrei un cellulare nuovo".
Okay, so that looks like "I would like a new phone".
"a new mobile phone", "cell phone".
Exactly, yes.
- And by placing "nuovo" after "cellulare",
you want to stress the fact
that, for example, you don't want an old phone,
but you want a brand new phone.
So this is the literal meaning
of "nuovo".
But again, if we change the position of "nuovo",
it can be really subtle here, but by saying,
"vorrei un nuovo cellulare"
- Okay, so there are you saying,
you want, like, another one? A different one?
- Yes, exactly. You just want another mobile phone
but you're not really saying
if you want it to be new or second hand.
You just want another phone.
- A different one.
- But I understand that this can be a little bit subtle
and probably not immediate to understand.
- Good, okay, so those are some examples from this list.
The main thing here is that if it goes
after the noun it's the physical, the literal meaning
of the adjectives, and if it comes before the noun
then it's this more figurative meaning.
- Exactly, perfect.
I think this summarises everything perfectly, Mark.
- Well, John, we hope that this answers your question.
If you have a question like John
then make sure you get in touch with us.
Simply go to coffeebreakquestions.com
where you can fill in the form,
leave your question for us
and we'll hopefully be able to include
that in a future episode of our show.
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- And if you want to practise this grammar point
a little bit further, you can just write a sentence
using one of these adjectives
and post it in the comments here below.
Great. Thank you very much Francesca.
Thanks to you, Mark!
And see you next time!
- Ciao, ciao!
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