01/05/2019 How to Use Italian Superlatives to Bring Out Your Best (and Worst) | FluentU Italian

Italian Language and Culture Blog

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by JESICAVERSICHELE

How to Use Italian

Superlatives to Bring Out
Your Best (and Worst)
Italy is a country of superlatives.

It’s known for landscapes that are bellissimi (the most

beautiful).

The coffee’s il più buono del mondo (the best in the

whole world) and a dress you don’t like isn’t just
unappealing, it’s brutissimo (very ugly).

After all, Italians have a lot of things around them that

are very beautiful, so it follows that they have strong
opinions on quality.

You can expect to find exaggerations in the

language, with many things being “the most” or ” the
least.”

That’s why, to speak Italian with the expressiveness

of a native, you must learn how to use the Italian
superlative.
 

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How to Use Italian Superlatives
to Bring Out Your Best (and
Worst)

What Is a Superlative?

A superlative is an adjective or adverb that describes

the highest or lowest quality or degree of something. 

Superlatives can be used in a hyperbolic manner—

like when every single Italian claims that their own
grandma’s cooking is the best in the world. The word
“best” in the previous sentence is a superlative.

They’re also often used to describe extreme

situations, when something’s either the most or the
least, the best or the worst—like the food that you
(and not your grandma) tried to cook.

Everyone from Han Solo to Wonder Woman uses

superlatives! Want to see even more of these words
in action? You can find lots more real-world Italian
videos on FluentU, like music videos, movie trailers,
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news, inspiring talks and

more.

The immersive, entertaining

content makes grammar and
vocabulary like the
superlatives in this post
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Forms of the Italian Superlative

The absolute superlative (superlativo
assoluto)

The absolute superlative is used to say that

something’s “very” something.

2 Take a look at these two phrases:

La cucina di nonna é buona. — Grandma’s

cooking is good.

La cucina di nonna é buonissima! — Grandma’s

cooking is very good!

Since grandma is the best chef in the world, saying

that her cooking is good just doesn’t do it justice. You
need to say that it’s very good.

In Italian, you do that by taking the masculine singular

form of an adjective (like bello) and cutting off the last
vowel (leaving you with bell-). Then, add -issimo, -
issimi, -issima or -issime, depending on the gender
and number of the noun or pronoun being modified.

To understand this better, let’s see the extreme form

of the word bello in use:

Lui é bellissimo. — He’s very handsome.

Loro sono bellissimi. — They’re (male or mixed

gender) very handsome.

Lei é bellissima. — She’s very beautiful.

Loro sono bellissime. — They’re (female) very

beautiful.

You can pretty much add -issimo/a/i/e to any

adjective to form the absolute superlative.
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01/05/2019 How to Use Italian Superlatives to Bring Out Your Best (and Worst) | FluentU Italian

For example:

Brutto (Ugly): Quelle scarpe sono bruttissime! —

Those shoes are hideous! (Again, don’t ever
offend an Italian’s fashion sense!)

Bravo (Good, talented, well behaved): La bimba é

2 bravissima. — The little girl is very good.
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Caldo (Hot): Stai attento! Il

forno caldissimo. — Watch out! The oven is very
hot.

Freddo (Cold): É freddissimo fuori. — It’s freezing

(i.e. very cold) outside.

Irregular Italian Superlatives

2
There are a few superlative adjectives with irregular
spellings. These words are often used to describe
extreme situations and are best just memorized in
their superlative form:

Ottimo (The best, optimal, excellent): Questo é

un vino ottimo! — This is an excellent wine!

Pessimo (Awful, terrible): Ma questo… é

pessimo. — But this [wine] is terrible.

Massimo (Maximum): Hai dato il massimo? — Did

you give it your best attempt?

Minimo (Minimum): Si può fare questo lavoro con

una conoscenza minima. — This job can be done
with minimal knowledge.

Infimo (The lowest, least): Quei prodotti sono di

infima qualità. — Those products are of the
lowest quality.

There are also a handful of words that take -errimo as

an ending in the absolute superlative:

Celebre (Famous): Lei è stata celeberrima per 15

minuti. — She was very famous for 15 minutes.

Misero (Miserable): Prima della libertà, lo schiavo

era miserrimo. — Before freedom, the slave was
wretched.

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Aspro (Sour): Questo vino è pessimo: é

asperrimo. — This wine is terrible: it’s very sour.

Acre (Bitter): Il Campari é acre ma non é

acerrimo. — Campari is bitter but it’s not very
bitter.

2 Integro (Honest): Lo chiamavano “honest Abe”

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perché era integerrimo. — They called him
“honest Abe” because he was so honest.

Salube (Healthy): Si dice che il frappé di cavolo

sia saluberrimo. — They say that kale smoothie is
super healthy.

Tetro (Gloomy): I film di Tim Burton possono

essere teterrimi. — The films of Tim Burton can
be very gloomy.
2

The Relative Superlative

This form is also used to express high praise (or

disdain!) but instead of saying someone’s very good
or very bad, you use the relative superlative to say
someone’s the best or the worst.

It’s called the relative superlative because the

description is always relative to something else, even
if it’s not mentioned in the sentence. If you’re talking
about “the best singer,” for instance, you’re implying
that there are other singers who aren’t as good.

There are a few words you can use to describe the

best or worst of something:

Migliore (The best): Luciano é il cantante

migliore. — Luciano is the best singer.

Peggiore (The worst): La Torta di Frutta è il

peggiore dolce di Natale. — Fruitcake is the
worst Christmas sweet.

Minore (The least, lesser): Il male minore. — The

lesser evil.

Maggiore (Bigger, greater, superior): La sua

conoscenza della lingua italiana é maggiore
della mia. — His knowledge of Italian is greater
than mine.

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Note: Sometimes you’ll hear maggiore shortened to

maggior in certain phrases like “Per la maggior
parte…” meaning “for the most part…”.

Another way of expressing extremes is by using il

più (the most) and il meno (the least). You can put il
più or il meno in front of any adjective to indicate that
2 the subject is the most or least of something.
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For example:

Il peperoncino calabrese è il più piccante in tutta

Italia. — The peperoncino calabrese [pepper] is
the spiciest in all of Italy.

E il peperone è il meno piccante. — And the bell

pepper is the least spicy.
2
Italian Superlative in Use

Just like in English, you use the superlative when you

want to describe a person or thing that’s the best,
worst, biggest, smallest, most awesome, etc.

Superlative words can be used as adverbs to

describe actions (verbs). In Italian, a superlative
adverb always appears in the masculine singular
form:

Usain Bolt corre velocissimo. — Usain Bolt runs

very fast.

Remember that even if the subject is female or plural,

the word’s ending doesn’t change:

Anche Dafne Schippers corre velocissimo. —

Also, Dafne Schippers [female runner from The
Netherlands] runs very fast.

Una lumaca non corre, ma cammina

lentissimo. — A snail doesn’t run but crawls very
slowly. (Note: camminare for humans means “to
walk,” but for insects it translates to “to crawl or
to creep”)

Using the Superlative to Search for

Information Online

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So now that you know how to form Italian

superlatives, you can start use them in your
conversations.

For an even more immediate use, try applying

superlatives to your internet searches.

2 How many times have you searched for the best

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solution to a problem or the worst foods for your
health in your own language? The same can be done
in Italian.

For instance, let’s say you want to find out what the
best kind of bread is. Maybe you want to learn how
to make bread at home or you’re just curious. You
could type the following search query:

il pane più buono — the best bread

2

Here’s an example of an article that may appear in

your results:

“Il pane più buono? Quello che fai tu!” — The

best bread? The kind you make yourself!

Or maybe you want to find the easiest way to do

something. Maybe you’ve been tasked with making
the dessert for an upcoming party and you (not being
your grandma) don’t know what to bake—but you
know that you want to make an authentic Italian treat.
Just search for this phrase:

dolci più facili — easiest sweets

And you might get a delicious result like this:

“Salame di Cioccolato: Il dolce più facile e

buono: 7 mosse per prepararlo a casa” —
Chocolate salami: the easiest and best treat: 7
ways to prepare it at home (Note: chocolate
salami is a type of cookie. It’s not made of meat!)

You can also use the absolute superlative to find

information online.

For example, you can type in “montagne bellissime”

If you’re looking for images of beautiful mountains.
You might find:

“Il bellissimo video che celebra le Dolomiti” —

“The very beautiful video that celebrates the
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Dolomites [mountains in Northern Italy]”

Or maybe you want to know why Ronaldo always

shows his abs when he scores a goal:

“Ronaldo festeggia il gol e mostra gli addominali:

«La mia ragazza dice che sono bellissimo
2 quando lo faccio»” — “Ronaldo celebrates a goal
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by showing his abs ‘My girlfriend says that I’m
very beautiful when I do that’ [interview]”

Now you know how to turn regular Italian words into

the most awesome. Aren’t Italian superlatives just the
best?

2
Jesica Versichele writes about languages, world
cultures and food. Check her out at
jvcreativecontent.com

Download: This blog post is available as a

convenient and portable PDF that you can take
anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)

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