How to form adverbs - Easy Learning Grammar Italian
1 The basics
- In English you can make an adverb from the adjective slow by adding –ly. You can do a similar kind of thing in Italian.
- Here are some guidelines:
- if the adjective ends in –o in the masculine, take the feminine form, ending in –a, and add –mente
| Masculine adjective | Feminine adjective | Adverb | Meaning |
| lento | lenta | lentamente | slowly |
| fortunato | fortunata | fortunatamente | luckily |
| Cammina molto lentamente. | He walks very slowly. |
| Fortunatamente non ha piovuto. | Luckily, it didn’t rain. |
- if the adjective ends in –e for both masculine and feminine, just add –mente
| Adjective | Adverb | Meaning |
| veloce | velocemente | quickly, fast |
| corrente | correntemente | fluently |
| Parla correntemente l’italiano. | She speaks Italian fluently. |
- if the adjective ends in –le, or –re, you drop the final e before adding –mente
| Adjective | Adverb | Meaning |
| facile | facilmente | easily |
| particolare | particolarmente | particularly |
| Puoi farlo facilmente. | You can easily do it. |
| Non è particolarmente buono. | It’s not particularly nice. |
TipDon’t try to make adverbs agree with anything – they always keep the same form.
2 Irregular adverbs
- In Italian there are two kinds of adverbs which do not behave in the way just described. They are:
- adverbs which are completely different from the adjective
- adverbs which are exactly the same as the masculine adjective
- The adverb related to buono (meaning good) is bene (meaning well). The adverb related to cattivo (meaning bad) is male (meaning badly).
| Parlano bene l’italiano. | They speak Italian well. |
| Ho giocato male. | I played badly. |
- Words such as fast and hard can be both adjectives and adverbs:
- a fast car
- You’re driving too fast.
- a hard question
- He works very hard.
- The same kind of thing happens in Italian: some adverbs are the same as the masculine adjective. The following are the most common ones:
- chiaro (adjective: clear; adverb: clearly)
| Il significato è chiar0. | The meaning is clear. |
| Giulia parla chiaro. | Giulia speaks clearly. |
- giusto (adjective: right, correct; adverb: correctly, right)
| il momento giust0. | the right moment. |
| Marco ha risposto giusto. | Marco answered correctly. |
- vicino (adjective: near, close; adverb: nearby, near here)
| È molto vicino. | He’s very close. |
| I miei amici abitano vicino. | My friends live nearby. |
| C’è una piscina vicino? | Is there a swimming pool near here? |
- diritto (adjective: straight; adverb: straight on)
| Il bordo non è diritto. | The edge is not straight. |
| Siamo andati sempre diritto. | We kept straight on. |
- certo (adjective: sure, certain; adverb: of course)
| Non ne sono certo. | I’m not sure. |
| Vieni stasera? – Certo! | Are you coming this evening? – Of course! |
- solo (adjective: alone, lonely; adverb: only)
| Si sente solo. | He feels lonely. |
| L’ho incontrata solo due volte. | I’ve only met her twice. |
- forte (adjective: strong, hard; adverb: fast, hard)
| È più forte di me. | He’s stronger than me. |
| Correva forte. | He was running fast. |
- molto (adjective: a lot of; adverb: a lot, very, very much)
| Non hanno molto denaro. | They haven’t got a lot of money. |
| Quel quadro mi piace molto. | I like that picture a lot. |
- poco (adjective: little, not very much; adverb not very much, not very)
| Hai mangiato poco riso. | You haven’t eaten very much rice. |
| Viene in ufficio poco spesso. | She doesn’t come to the office very often. |
- Note that although these adverbs look like adjectives, they NEVER change their form.
Key points
- You generally make adverbs by adding –mente to adjectives.
- Adverbs never agree with anything.
- Some adverbs have the same form as the masculine adjective.