Adjective agreement in Italian (endings)

In Italian, adjectives change their form to agree with the gender and number of the noun they refer to.

Regular declension

Most of Italian adjectives end in -o and follow the usual declension of nouns.

English speakers are not used to decline adjective nor articles. 

il bravo alunno / la brava alunna → the good student
i bravi alunni / le brave alunne → the good students

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Irregular declensions

However, a lot of adjectives have different endings and don't follow the general rule.

Adjectives ending in -e

Adjectives ending in -e in the singular only have two forms:

Be careful!

il compito difficile → the difficult task
la scelta difficile → the difficult choice
i compiti difficili → the difficult tasks
le scelte difficili → the difficult choices

Adjectives ending in -a

Adjectives ending in -a in the singular form, follow the gender of the noun only in the plural form.

Adjectives ending in -tore

Adjectives ending in -tore in the masculine singular form have the feminine declension in -trice.

Adjectives with roots ending in -c and -g

Adjectives whose roots end in -c or -g have spelling changes or sound changes in the plural.

Invariable adjectives

Some adjectives never change their endings.

• adjectives ending in -i
• some adjectives indicating colours

Adjective agreement with more than one noun

When an adjective refers to two or more nouns, the agreement depends on whether the nouns have the same gender or not.

Nouns of the same gender

If the nouns are all masculine or all feminine, the adjectives maintain this gender and are declined according to the plural form.

• masculine:  lo zaino e l'astuccio rossi    
                    red bag and pencil case
• feminine:  la matita e la gomma gialle
                    yellow pencil and rubber

Nouns of different gender

If the nouns have different genders, the adjective is declined according to the masculine plural form:

• la ragazza e il ragazzo spagnoli
  the Spanish girl and boy