Italian essential adjective vocabulary: 300 words
Describe anything — the adjectives you reach for every day (English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese). This page lists 40 of them with their Italian translations, then lets you practise the full set in either direction with spaced repetition.
English to Italian: the first 40 words
| English | Italian | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| good | buono | |
| bad | cattivo | |
| big | grande | |
| small | piccolo | |
| hot | caldo | |
| cold | freddo | |
| fast | veloce | |
| slow | lento | |
| happy | felice | |
| sad | triste | |
| angry | arrabbiato | |
| afraid | spaventato | |
| tired | stanco | |
| hungry | affamato | |
| thirsty | assetato | |
| sick | malato | |
| healthy | sano | |
| strong | forte | |
| weak | debole | |
| tall | alto | |
| short | basso | |
| long | lungo | |
| new | nuovo | |
| old | vecchio | |
| young | giovane | |
| dirty | sporco | |
| clean | pulito | |
| wet | bagnato | |
| dry | secco | |
| soft | morbido | |
| hard | duro | |
| smooth | liscio | |
| rough | ruvido | |
| dark | scuro | |
| heavy | pesante | |
| sweet | dolce | |
| bitter | amaro | |
| salty | salato | |
| sour | acido | |
| beautiful | bello |
260 more words in the full “Essential Adjectives” library, each aligned across seven languages and scheduled for you by spaced repetition. Add it to your account and start drilling English to Italian in one click.
What to watch out for in Italian
- 81 of these 300 words are near-identical in English and Italian (27%) —
agile,docile,casual. Those are free; the value of drilling is in the rest. - Accents count. Answers are graded accent-sensitively, so you need
àèéìòóù— LinguaSwap shows a one-tap keypad for them while you type. - 59 words carry a usage note in the full library, for the cases where a direct translation would mislead you.
Practise Italian essential adjective vocabulary
Words come back just before you would forget them, and every language direction is tracked separately.