Vocabulary (Review)

Learn New Words FAST with this Lesson’s Vocab Review List

Get this lesson’s key vocab, their translations and pronunciations. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.

Or sign up using Facebook
By clicking Join Now, you agree to our Terms of Use, Privacy Policy, and to receive our email communications, which you may opt out at any time.
Already a Member?

Lesson Notes

Unlock In-Depth Explanations & Exclusive Takeaways with Printable Lesson Notes

Unlock Lesson Notes and Transcripts for every single lesson. Sign Up for a Free Lifetime Account and Get 7 Days of Premium Access.

Or sign up using Facebook
By clicking Join Now, you agree to our Terms of Use, Privacy Policy, and to receive our email communications, which you may opt out at any time.
Already a Member?

Lesson Transcript

Intro
Hi everybody! Marika here. Welcome to Ask a Teacher, where I’ll answer some of your most common Italian questions.
The Question
The question for this lesson is: How can I correctly conjugate the adjective bello?
Explanation
Bello is a very common Italian adjective that means “beautiful” or “good.” Despite being common, it’s irregular and doesn’t follow the regular forms of adjectives.
It follows the article rules instead. Let’s see all the forms it can take.
Just like the masculine article lo, it’s bello before a masculine noun starting with z, x, ps, pn, gn, y, s+consonant. For example:
Bello zaino (“beautiful backpack”)
Bello spettacolo (“good show”)
The adjective becomes bell’, with an apostrophe, before a masculine noun starting with a vowel. For example:
Bell’uomo (“beautiful man”)
As gli is the plural form for lo and l’, with an apostrophe, similarly begli is the plural form of bello and bell’:
Begli zaini (“beautiful backpacks”)
Begli uomini (“beautiful men”)
It’s bel before all other masculine nouns, which would take the masculine article il. For example:
Bel gatto (“beautiful cat”)
Just like i is the plural form of il, similarly bei is the plural form of bel:
Bei gatti (“beautiful cats”)
It’s bella before all feminine nouns, which would take the feminine article la. For example:
Bella donna (“beautiful woman”)
Bella isola (“beautiful island”)
An exception is bell’amica (meaning “good friend” in an ironic way).
Just like le is the plural form of la, belle is the plural feminine form:
Belle donne (“beautiful women”)
Belle isole (“beautiful islands”)

Outro
The demonstrative adjective quello (“that”) follows the same rules as bello, and it rhymes!
Pretty interesting, right?
If you have any more questions, please leave a comment below!
A presto! “See you soon!”

Comments

Hide