'Bellissimo' and friends: saying 'very' with '-issimo'
In English, you make an adjective stronger with a separate word: very small, really beautiful, brand new. Italian can do this too, with molto, but it often prefers a shortcut: it drops the final vowel of the adjective and adds the ending -issimo. So bello becomes bellissimo, piccolo becomes piccolissimo and nuovo becomes nuovissimo. Grammar books call this the absolute superlative.
English speakers tend to trip over two things. First, the new ending still has to match the noun, so you need bellissima, bellissimi and bellissime as well. Second, -issimo means very or extremely. It does not mean the most, which Italian expresses in a different way.
Take the adjective, remove its last vowel and add -issimo. The result behaves like any adjective ending in -o, with four forms:
- -issimo: masculine singular
- -issima: feminine singular
- -issimi: masculine plural
- -issime: feminine plural
This also works for adjectives ending in -e, which normally have only two forms. Grande becomes grandissimo, and veloce becomes velocissimo. Once they take -issimo, these adjectives also have four endings, so a big house is grandissima.
A useful rule of thumb: if you could say molto + adjective, you can usually say adjective + -issimo instead. The -issimo form sounds a little stronger and more enthusiastic. Italians use it all the time in everyday speech.
Bellissimo is probably the most common one. You will hear it about views, photos, people, films and holidays. It can mean beautiful, gorgeous or simply really nice.
Piccolissimo means tiny or very small. It is handy for rooms, portions, flats and anything that is smaller than you expected.
Nuovissimo is the natural way to say brand new. English uses a different word here, but Italian simply intensifies nuovo.
Adjectives ending in -co and -go usually add an h to keep the hard sound. So stanco becomes stanchissimo, lungo becomes lunghissimo and antico becomes antichissimo. Adjectives ending in -io keep only one i, so vecchio becomes vecchissimo.
Bellissima means extremely beautiful, with no comparison involved. To say the most beautiful, use il più, la più and so on.
Molto bellissimo is a typical learner mistake. The ending already means very, so choose either molto bello or bellissimo.
Adjectives with an absolute meaning, such as perfetto, eterno or infinito, normally don't take -issimo. Colour words that never change their endings, such as rosa and blu, don't take it either. Use molto or rephrase instead. Some common adjectives also have an older alternative. Next to buonissimo you will often hear ottimo, and next to cattivissimo you will hear pessimo. Both pairs are covered in the article on ottimo and pessimo.
To say very or extremely, drop the adjective's last vowel and add -issimo, as in bello to bellissimo or nuovo to nuovissimo. Then make it agree like any -o adjective: -issimo, -issima, -issimi, -issime. Remember that it means very, not the most, and never put molto in front of it.