{"id":122,"date":"2009-04-02T11:31:30","date_gmt":"2009-04-02T15:31:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/?p=122"},"modified":"2009-04-02T11:31:30","modified_gmt":"2009-04-02T15:31:30","slug":"meglio-o-migliore","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/meglio-o-migliore\/","title":{"rendered":"Meglio o Migliore?"},"content":{"rendered":"

I recently received an interesting e.mail from a reader saying that he had never realized that \u201cadverbs can also function as adjectives and nouns<\/em>\u201d and he asked me to focus in particular on \u201cbene, meglio, male e peggio in comparison with buono, migliore, cattivo e peggiore<\/em>\u201d. I must admit that I had\u00a0a few\u00a0moments of panic when I read this, but after\u00a0a bit of research I\u2019ve probably got an answer, even if not a complete one, as these particular words are used in many idiomatic expressions.\u00a0Proviamoci!<\/strong> (Let\u2019s try!)<\/span><\/p>\n

Aggettivi<\/strong> (adjectives) are words that describe nouns, and\u00a0add more information about them: e.g. il maglione rosso<\/span> <\/strong>(the red<\/span> jumper),\u00a0la mia<\/span>\u00a0penna <\/strong>(my<\/span> pen), queste<\/span> scarpe <\/strong>(these<\/span> shoes). Because adjectives describe nouns, they agree with the noun by changing gender (masculine or feminine) and number (singular or plural): e.g. rosso<\/strong>, rossa<\/strong>, rossi<\/strong>, rosse<\/strong><\/em>. Of course, there are always exceptions, so some adjective, like viola<\/strong> (purple), don\u2019t change at all.<\/span><\/p>\n

Avverbi <\/strong>(adverbs) are words that describe verbs: e.g. Marco ascolta attentamente<\/span> l\u2019insegnante <\/strong>(Marco listens carefully<\/span> to the teacher), Lucia parla correntemente<\/span> tre lingue <\/strong>(Lucia speaks three languages fluently<\/span>). Adverbs can also be used to reinforce an adjective or another adverb: e.g. questo maglione e\u2019 veramente<\/span> bello <\/strong>(this jumper is really<\/span> beautiful); Giorgio guida troppo<\/span> pericolosamente <\/strong>(Giorgio drives too<\/span> dangerously). Many adverbs are constructed by adding the suffix\u00a0\u2013mente<\/strong> to the equivalent adjective, like the ending in \u2018-ly\u2019 in English: pericolosamente<\/span> <\/strong>(dangerously<\/span>), attentamente<\/span> <\/strong>(carefully<\/span>). Adverbs do not change, they don\u2019t have gender or number.<\/span><\/p>\n

So, what are \u201cbene, meglio, male, peggio, buono, migliore, cattivo e peggiore\u201d? <\/span><\/p>\n

Bene<\/strong> and male<\/strong> are adverbs and they mean \u2018well\u2019 and \u2018bad\/badly\u2019: Lucia suona bene<\/span> il violino<\/strong> (Lucia plays the violin well<\/span>); questo lavoro e\u2019 fatto male<\/span> <\/strong>(this job is badly<\/span> done). But with the definite articles, i.e.\u00a0il Bene<\/strong> and il Male<\/strong>, they\u00a0are nouns and mean \u201cGood\u201d and \u201cEvil\u201d. Similarly, we can use them with the indefinite article, i.e. un bene, un male<\/strong>,\u00a0meaning \u201cit\u2019s a good thing\/a bad thing\u201d: \u2018e\u2019 un bene che tu sei arrivato perche\u2019 ho bisogno del tuo aiuto<\/strong>\u2019\u00a0(it\u2019s a good thing that you have arrived because I need your help).<\/span><\/p>\n

Buono<\/strong> and cattivo <\/strong>are adjectives meaning \u201cgood\u201d and \u201cbad\u201d: e.g. Mario ha fatto un buon lavoro<\/strong> (Mario did a good job), oggi il tempo e\u2019 cattivo <\/strong>(today the weather is bad). For more detailed explanations of their meaning and uses see my\u00a0past blogs The Good the Bad and the Ugly<\/span><\/a>\u00a0and <\/span>Buono o Bello<\/span><\/a>\u00a0.<\/span><\/p>\n

Migliore <\/strong>and peggiore <\/strong>are adjectives, in particular they are the comparative and superlative forms of buono<\/em> and cattivo<\/em>: migliore <\/strong>means \u201cbetter\u201d or \u201cthe best\u201d, and peggiore <\/strong>means \u201cworse\u201d or \u201cthe worst\u201d. Queste scarpe sono\u00a0migliori di quelle<\/strong><\/span>\u00a0<\/strong>(these shoes are\u00a0better than those), questo e\u2019 il libro migliore che abbia mai letto<\/strong> (this is the best book I\u2019ve ever read), questo vino e\u2019 peggiore di quello<\/strong> (this wine is worse than that one), questo e\u2019 il peggiore film che abbia mai visto<\/strong> (this is the worst film I\u2019ve ever seen).<\/span><\/p>\n

Meglio <\/strong>and peggio<\/strong> are adverbs, in particular they are the comparative forms of bene<\/em> and male<\/em>: meglio <\/strong>means \u201cbetter\u201d and peggio <\/strong>means \u201cworse\u201d. Lucia suona il violino meglio di Laura<\/strong> (Lucia plays the violin better than Laura), Laura suona il violino peggio di Lucia <\/strong>(Laura plays the violin worse than Lucia). Meglio<\/strong>\u00a0and peggio<\/strong> are commonly used in expressions such as: e\u2019 meglio <\/strong>(it\u2019s better) \/ e\u2019 peggio <\/strong>(it\u2019s worse):\u00a0e\u2019 meglio partire domani <\/strong>(it\u2019s better to leave tomorrow), e\u2019 peggio\u00a0andare in macchina\u00a0<\/strong>che\u00a0in autobus\u00a0<\/strong>(it\u2019s worse going in the car than by bus).\u00a0In modern Italian you will often hear\u00a0meglio<\/strong>\u00a0 and peggio\u00a0<\/strong>used in place of the more grammatically correct\u00a0migliore<\/strong> and peggiore<\/strong>\u00a0 when they follow the verb e\u2019<\/strong> e.g.\u00a0il maglione rosso e\u2019 meglio<\/span> di quello blu<\/strong>, instead of il maglione rosso e\u2019 migliore<\/span> di quello blu<\/strong>\u00a0(the red jumper is better than the blue\u00a0one), questo vino e\u2019 peggio<\/span> di quello<\/strong> instead of questo vino e\u2019 peggiore<\/span> di quello <\/strong>(this wine is worse than that one). <\/span><\/p>\n

I hope I\u2019ve helped to clarify some points, or have I made them as clear as mud?<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I recently received an interesting e.mail from a reader saying that he had never realized that \u201cadverbs can also function as adjectives and nouns\u201d and he asked me to focus in particular on \u201cbene, meglio, male e peggio in comparison with buono, migliore, cattivo e peggiore\u201d. I must admit that I had\u00a0a few\u00a0moments of panic…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[638,789,840],"class_list":["post-122","post","type-post","status-publish","hentry","category-grammar","tag-bene-e-male","tag-meglio-o-migliore","tag-peggio-o-peggiore"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=122"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}