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5.02: Il superlativo assoluto

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    Absolute superlative

    Bellissimo! might be what you would say when admiring Michelangelo’s David or a breathtaking view in the Dolomites.  Bellissimo means very beautiful, extremely beautiful: the suffixes -issimo / -issima / -issimi / -issime take the place of very and extremely.  Consider the examples:

    Il panorama di qui è bellissimo. [The landscape from here is very beautiful.]

    I camerieri in questo ristorante sono gentilissimi. [The waiters in this restaurant are very kind.]

    La prenotazione è stata facilissima. [The reservation was very easy to make.]

    Le camere da letto di questo albergo sono grandissime. [The rooms in this hotel are very big.]

    To form this superlative, simply drop the last letter of the adjective, as in bello → bell; gentile → gentil, etc., and add the -issimo / -issima / -issimi / -issime forms.

    You can also use this superlative for adverbs, such as bene → ben → benissimo,  and male → mal → malissimo.

    Notice that:

    • there are a few special forms: ottimo is a synonym of buonissimo, and pessimo is a synonym of cattivissimo.
    • you cannot use this superlative for adjectives that already have a very strong meaning, such as delizioso, fantastico, meraviglioso, stupendo, orribile and terribile.
    • you can either say molto + adjective or adjective + –issimo, but you cannot combine the two forms and say molto gentilissimo, for example.

    This page titled 5.02: Il superlativo assoluto was last modified on Thu, 10 Mar 2022 21:38:20 GMT and is shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Daniel Leisawitz and Daniela Viale via source content that was edited to the style and standards of the LibreTexts platform.