Aggettivi di personalità… Come sei tu?

La personalità… Come sei tu? Describing your personality… 

In this lesson:
VOCAB: Adjectives of Personality 
GRAMMAR: Masculine vs. Feminine Adjectives 
GRAMMAR: The verb "ESSERE - to be" 
CULTURE: Gender & Addressing a group

Adjectives of Personality

Come sei tu?

Word for word, this is "How are you?", but because it uses the verb "essere" (sei) [and not "stare" as in Come stai?] it is not asking your current state or mood, but rather, generally, how are you... as in What do you look like?, or What is your personality like?

This time, we're going to focus on the personality aspect of this question and look at some possible answers.

No matter what your personality type (or your gender) the answer could start with:

Sono una persona …

I am a …… person.

"Persona" is a feminine noun, no matter if the person is male or a female, so the adjective describing it will be in the feminine as well.

Try browsing some of the possible answers and see which, if any, you recognize. Write down a few, or as many as you like, that apply to you:

Now that you've browsed, use the definitions below to look up any of the terms that you don't know or are unsure about and edit or add to your own personal list as necessary:

AGGETTIVI DI PERSONALITÀ*

*again, all the adjectives are in the feminine, because "persona" is a feminine noun
—also, masculine forms get enough attention as far as I'm concerned! 
(See the Cultural Note at the bottom of this post!)

allegra

cheerful

amichevole

friendly

ansiosa

anxious

arguta

sharp/witty

arrogante

arrogant

assennata

sensible/level-headed

audace

audacious/bold

calma

calm

cattiva

mean/bad

codarda

cowardly

compiacente

obliging/eager to please

comprensiva

understanding

coraggiosa

courageous

decisa

decisive

diligente

diligent

disobbediente

disobedient

disonesta

dishonest

dispettosa

mischievous

distaccata

detached

divertente

fun

dolce

sweet

educata

well-mannered

elegante

refined/graceful

emotiva

emotional

estroversa

extroverted

felice

happy

forte

strong

fredda

cold

gelosa

jealous

generosa

generous

gentile

kind

impacciata

clumsy

impaziente

impatient

impulsiva

impulsive

infelice

unhappy

intelligente

intelligent

introversa

introverted

lunatica

moody

maleducata

rude/ill-mannered

mite

mild-mannered/gentle

modesta

modest

noiosa

boring

obbediente

obedient

onesta

honest

ottimista
(invariable)

optimistic

ottusa

obtuse/dumb

paziente

patient

permalosa

sensitive/touchy

pessimista

(invariable)
pessimistic

pigra

lazy

premurosa

caring/thoughtful

presuntuosa

presumptuous

prudente

prudent/cautious

ribelle

rebellious

sbadata

scatterbrained/careless

scettica

skeptical

scherzosa

joking/playful

scontrosa

surly

scortese

impolite/unkind

sensibile

sensitive

seria

serious

sgarbata

rude

snob 
(invariable)

snobbish

spigliata

self-assured

spregiudicata

unscrupulous/unprejudiced

tetra

gloomy/glum

timida

shy

vanitosa

vain

Looking at your list of adjectives, practice saying them aloud and in full sentences. Starting with the formula from above:

Sono una persona …

…emotiva e permalosa.

...onesta e pigra.

(Just for examples!)

Masculine vs. Feminine Adjectives

Just as in English, it is possible to say 'I am' and then launch into the adjectives without saying 'a person.' In Italian, however, this means that you will have to be aware of your gender, as well as the gender of your adjectives. If you're female, then you can use all of the adjectives in the form given above. If you're male, however, you will have to switch your adjectives to the masculine form. 

In most cases, if the adjective ends in "a", you change the ending to an "o", as in:

Sono …

…tetra e lunatica. (female)

…tetro e lunatico. (male)

In most cases, if the adjective ends in "e", it remains the same for male and female.

Sono …

…sensibile e scortese. (male or female)

The verb "Essere - to be"

In the above examples, we see the question in the "tu" or "you" (informal) form: 

Come sei tu?

And the answer in the "io" or "I form":

Sono una persona...

It is, of course, possible to talk about the personalities of other people as well. For this, you will need to know the other forms of the verb ESSERE:

So, following this chart, we could say..

(io) Sono… comprensiva.

(tu) Sei… comprensiva.
(lui) È… comprensivo.
(lei) È… comprensiva.
(Lei) È… comprensivo/a.

(noi) Siamo… comprensivi.*

(voi) Siete… comprensivi.*
(loro) Sono… comprensivi.*

Tutto il mondo è comprensivo!

The whole world is understanding!

*Notice how the adjective ending changed?  That's because noi, voi, and loro are PLURAL forms and so require also PLURAL adjectives. Not sure about pluralization rules?  Check out: Pluralization

For additional practice, think of people in your life and use the adjectives above to describe them.

—Com'è tua madre?
—Mia madre è…

—Com'è il tuo amico?
—Il mio amico è…

—Come sono i tuoi professori?
—I miei professori sono… 

Hai capito? (Got it?)  

"Like" Via Optimae on Facebook and share your own personality descriptions!

Ciao! Mi chiamo Alex e sono una persona 
cattiva e dispettosa

 (o forse solo scherzosa!)

or maybe just a jokester!

Come sei tu?

Buono studio!

CULTURE: Gender & Addressing a group
In general, you use masculine forms to address men and feminine forms to address women, but what if you're addressing a mixed group?  Well, in that case, the masculine form wins out. Even if there are three hundred women and just one man— the grammar books say that you should use the masculine.

I watched a television series recently in which they played with this idea.  The boss of a women's magazine frequently addresses her employees using feminine forms, much to the dismay of the lone male employee.   He cites grammar rules as justification for why she should use masculine forms, but this only drives her character to use the feminine with more gusto.  This shows how changing gender roles can affect longstanding linguistic rules—or at least how those rules can be used as fodder for comedy in a television series! {I'm on the lookout for the clip and will post it if I find it— From what I remember, it's pretty funny!}

Potrebbero interessarti…

ITALIAN: Beginners Series:

  (1) How Italian verbs work, (Intro to verbs & grammar terms)

  (2) Italian present tense: -ARE verbs

  (3) Italian present tense: -ERE verbs

  (4) Italian present tense: -IRE verbs

  (5) La negazione - Negation

  (6) Ogni quanto? Quante volte? (Describing 'how often'/ how many times)
  (7) C'è & Ci sono  (There is | There are)

ITALIAN: The Basics Series:
  (1) Indefinite Articles (How to say "A/AN" in Italian
  (2) Definite Articles (singular)
  (3) Pluralization
  (4) Definite Articles (plural)
  (5) The Partitive Article

Be the first to know about new lessons & worksheets! {Subscribe here!} 

Gli aggettivi di nazionalità - The adjectives of nationality in Italian

Aggettivi di nazionalità are the adjectives that specify which country a person or thing comes from.

In English the adjective of nationality for Italy is "Italian".

Giovanni comes from Italy.  He is Italian.

In Italian, the adjective of nationality for Italy (Italia) is "italiano."

Giovanni proviene dall'Italia.  È italiano.

Chances are, you've heard "italiano" before, but what about the adjectives of nationality for other countries… like Antigua and Barbuda? Kenya?  Sri Lanka?

In Italian, like in English, even if you don't know the exact adjective, you can still express this idea by using the following construction:

di (definite article)* + (paese)

of/from +  (country)

*When the preposition di (of/from) is combined with a definite article, either: il, la, l', i, le or gli they get joined together to create the articulated forms:  del, della, dell', dei, delle, degli. Whether you can simply use "di" or must use one of the articulated forms in this construction depends on the country/context.

Kasun? Lui è dello Sri Lanka.

Kasun? He's from Sri Lanka.

La squadra olimpica del Kenya è bravissima!

The olympic team from Kenya is great!

That construction works, but often it sounds better to have a single word— the appropriate adjective of nationality.  

Kasun?  Lui è singalese (anche "cingalese")

Kasun?  He's Sri Lankan.

La squadra olimpica keniota è bravissima!

The Kenyan olympic team is great!

The following is an almost complete list of the countries of the world (listed alphabetically in Italian) and their corresponding Aggettivo di nazionalità: 

..

(available as a pdf on Google drive)

or

flip through the list here in Flashcard format:

Hint: you can also use the drop down menu on the bottom right hand side "Choose a Study Mode" to see the list in various learning modes and games.

There isn't always a corresponding adjective (in this case the aforementioned construction is the only option) and sometimes, more than one term is acceptable.  


Want more explanation and/or activities? Check out these sites:


Aggettivi di Nazionalità da One World Italiano
Esercizio- Aggettivi di Nazionalità da Impariamo Italiano

Mi chiamo Alex e sono americana (o statunitense!)... e tu?