Dear readers, your questions really do help us to focus on what’s important to you as students of Italian, so please keep them coming. Here’s an interesting one that arrived a few days ago from a reader called Patsy:

“Could you give me any advice on adjective order in the case of multiple adjectives? It doesn’t sound right to just say the adjectives together as you would in English and sounds better if one goes before the noun and one after but I’m not sure why or what the rule is.”

When I read this question, my mind immediately went to one of Francesco Petrarca’s most famous poems which starts with the following words:

“Chiare, fresche et dolci acque,
ove le belle membra
pose colei che sola a me par donna”

“Chiare, fresche e dolci acque,
dove immerse le belle membra
colei che unica sembra degna di essere la mia signora”

“Clear, fresh and sweet waters,
in which the only one who seems to me to deserve to be my lady
immersed her beautiful limbs”

Francesco Petrarca. Photo (CC) Biblioteca de la Facultad de Derecho y Ciencias del Trabajo

The opening line of Petrarca’s Canzone 126, written around 1340, clearly shows that it’s normal to put several adjectives in a row in Italian. In this particular case, the fact that all the adjectives are positioned before the noun acque (waters) signifies that they are all equal in importance. Let’s see what happens if we reposition one of adjectives, fresche, after the noun acque. In this case we have: “chiare e dolci acque fresche” (Sorry, Francesco, no offence meant!). But by putting the adjective fresche after the noun acque we give it a greater emphasis, and therefore imply that it’s fundamental to the understanding of the noun. Acque fresche means that the waters are intrinsically fresh, and the fact that they are “chiare e dolci” (clear and sweet) is just lesser detail that could be omitted.

Early ms. transcription of the first few lines of Francesco Petrarca’s sonnet “O cameretta che già fosti un porto”Photo (CC) kladcat

However, this is only valid for adjectives that belong in the same category. In the above case  chiare, fresche, and dolci are all aggettivi qualificativi (qualifying adjectives*). If we mix different types of adjectives, then there are some rules to follow:

aggettivi dimostrativi (demonstrative adjectives*), i.e. questo (this), and quello (that), go in front of any other adjective, e.g. Come si chiama questo piccolo paese? (What’s the name of this little village?); mi piace quella vecchia casa lì (I like that old house over there)

aggettivi possessivi (possessives adjectives*), i.e. mio (my), tuo (your, sing.), suo (his/her), nostro (our), vostro (your, plural) and loro (their) go in front of the noun, but after questo and quello, e.g. quando è cominciata questa tua passione per gli aerei? (when did this passion of yours for aeroplanes begin?); mi dà tanto fastidio quella sua abitudine di mangiarsi le unghie (I really dislike that habit of his of biting his nails)

Then there are adjectives which always follow the noun, such as colours and nationalities, e.g. ti piace questo maglione rosso? (do you like this red jumper?), Lucia è laureata in letteratura francese (Lucia ha a degree in French literature).

For a complete list of types of adjectives and their position you can refer to this post: adjectives and their position

Spero che queste mie poche semplici righe vi siano utili!