How to Make Verbs, Adjectives, and Objects Agree in Italian

You know how when you get into an argument with someone and you can’t agree, one person might just leave the conversation all together?

Yeah. That’s what happens when you don’t make your verbs, adjectives and objects agree.

Whatever you’re trying to communicate just walks away.

Doesn’t even say goodbye. (Rude, right?)

Every time one of your verbs, adjectives or objects don’t agree with each other - meaning they don’t have matching endings for singular, plural, masculine and feminine - THEY’RE AT WAR.

It’s a grammar war.

And grammar wars aren’t fun to be in the midst of when you’re just trying to talk to an Italian about what you do for a living.

Now, agreement doesn’t mean that all of the endings have to be the same.

Let me show you an example so it’s clearer.

In English, we can say: “The girls have three purple bows.”

The only thing that has to agree here is number. There are girls {plural} and they have bows {plural}.

But in Italian, it would look like this: “Le ragazze hanno tre fiocchi verdi.” 

What’s in agreement here?

1.) Le ragazze - The singular version is “la ragazza.” When you make it plural, the article {la, le} has to agree, too.

2.) Le ragazze hanno - “Hanno” is from the verb “avere - to have.” When you want to say that THE GIRLS {plural} have something, you need to conjugate the verb to reflect that the subjects are more than one - meaning THEY HAVE.

3.) tre fiocchi - Here you’re saying that there are three bows. Since there are three, it needs be plural. The singular for the word “bow” is “il fiocco.”

4.) fiocchi verdi - The adjective that is describing what the bows are like {green} needs to also agree in number and gender. Meaning - green must be changed to masculine and plural.

Not sure why words have gender or are plural/singular? Read this article.

Expanding on this, if you’re a female and you want to describe yourself with an adjective, you must make sure that whatever adjective you use is changed to feminine and singular.

Per esempio:

• Lei è stanca. - She is tired.

• Lei è piena. - She is full.

• Sono pronta. - I’m ready. {female}

• Sono pazza. - I’m crazy. {female}

If you’re a guy, you would keep the ending that you typically see in dictionaries because they’re shown as masculine.

• Lui è stanco. - He is tired.

• Lui è pieno. - He is tired.

• Sono pronto. - I am ready. {male}

• Sono pazzo. - I am crazy. {male}

“BUT WAIT!” You might say. What about those adjectives that end in -e?

Like:

• Triste - Sad

• Intelligente - Smart

• Difficile - Difficult

• Divertente - Fun

• Grande - Big

• Felice - Happy

• Facile - Easy

• Importante - Important

• Interessante - Interesting

• Speciale - Special

• Utile - Useful

• Veloce - Fast

• Verde - Green

When an adjective ends in an -e like this, it stays the same for masculine and feminine BOTH in the singular.

However, when it changes to the plural, the ending -e is replaced by an -i.

• Tristi - Sad

• Intelligenti - Smart

• Difficili - Difficult

• Divertenti - Fun

• Grandi - Big

• Felici - Happy

• Facili - Easy

• Importanti - Important

• Interessanti - Interesting

• Speciali - Special

• Utili - Useful

• Veloci - Fast

• Verdi - Green

So as you can see, if you just make the endings of the words the same “i matching an i” or an “a matching an a,” it’s not necessarily true that you’ll always be correct.

Some examples in action would be:

• Le ragazze intelligenti - The smart girls

• I portafogli grandi - The big wallets

• Le persone tristi - The sad people

• Le borse verdi - The green purses

They don’t always match because some nouns and adjectives are irregular or invariable - meaning they differ from the norm or they never change.

Some examples of irregular nouns are:

• il braccio - le braccia = arm - arms

• il dito - le dita = finger - fingers

• il fiore - i fiori = flower - flowers

Some examples of adjectives that never change are:

• blu - blue

• rosa - pink

Does the adjective ALWAYS go after the noun?

As you saw before, intelligenti was put AFTER le ragazze.

But this isn’t always the case.

Some adjectives often go BEFORE the noun.

Gli esempi:

• una bella sigaretta - a nice cigarette {meaning one that is good + necessary}

• un brutto giorno - an ugly day

• un bel bambino - a handsome little boy [We would say "un bambino buono", not a buono bambino]

• una cattiva ragazza - a bad girl

• un giovane uomo - a young man

• un vecchio ponte - an old bridge

• un grande scrittore - a great writer

If you put “grande” after a noun, it means “big.”

• un piccolo piatto - a small plate

• allo stesso tempo - at the same time

• un'automobile nuova - a new car

• una nuova avventura - a new adventure

• l’altro giorno - the other day

• un caro amico - a dear friend

If you put “caro” after a noun, it means “expensive.”

• un vero amico - a true friend

• il primo giorno - the first day

• l’ultimo giorno - the last day

Any questions? Drop ‘em in the comments below.