Superlative Adjectives In Italian
In Italian we have two types of Superlative Adjectives.
The first type is the Superlativo Relativo (Relative Superlative).
It expresses that something has a quality to the maximum or minimum extent compared with other items.
Let’s go through some examples!
| Italian | English |
| La Sicilia è la più grande isola d’Italia. | Sicily is the biggest Italian island. |
| Queste ricette sono le più buone del ristorante. | These recipes are the best of the restaurant. |
| Mio fratello è il meno giovane dei suoi amici. | My brother is the less young of his friends. |
We use the following structure:
Definite article + più/meno + adjective + di
The second type of Superlative Adjectives is the Superlativo Assoluto (Absolute Superlative).
It expresses the maximum level of a quality, without comparison.
Here you have some examples to understand it better!
| Italian | English |
| Laura è bellissima. | Laura is very beautiful. |
| Questo vino è buonissimo. | This wine is really good. |
| Le scarpe che ho comprato sono comodissime. | The shoes I bought are very comfortable. |
As you can see in the examples, the Superlativo Assoluto is very easy to make: we just need to add the suffix -issimo to the base form of the adjective.
It always agrees with the noun it refers to, so we can have -issimo, -issima, -issimi and -issime.
Some adjectives have two different Superlative forms!
| Adjective | Superlativo Relativo | Superlativo Assoluto |
| buono |
il più buono il migliore |
buonissimo ottimo |
| cattivo |
il più cattivo il peggiore |
cattivissimo pessimo |
| grande |
il più grande il maggiore |
grandissimo massimo |
| piccolo |
il più piccolo il minore |
piccolissimo minimo |
Be careful: in the second form of the Superlativo Relativo we don’t need to use più or meno!
Now you can start practicing!
Why don’t you make a couple of sentences and use the two types of Superlatives?
If you want to learn more Italian have a look at our online resources.
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