How to Use Adverbs or Adjectives in Italian

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Adverb or Adjective?

Words like molto and troppo can be adverbs or adjectives, depending on how they are used in a sentence. In this post, you’ll learn How to Use Adverbs or Adjectives in Italian and the difference between them.

Adjectives must agree in gender (masculine or feminine) and number (singular or plural) with the noun they qualify, while the endings of adverbs never change.

Then, you must be able to tell when molto, troppo and other words like these are Italian adverbs.

Italian Adverbs have three possible uses

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• They modify the meaning of verbs

as in:

Camminiamo lentamente/spesso/insieme/molto (We walk slowly/often/together/very much.)

• They modify the meaning of adjectives

as in:

Ho letto un libro veramente/piuttosto/proprio/molto interessante. (I have read a truly/rather/really/very interesting book)

• They modify the meaning of other adverbs

as in:

Camminiamo piuttosto/sempre/spesso/molto lentamente. (We walk rather/ always/often/very slowly)

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Here are some sentences where molto and troppo are adverbs

Make sure you realize which type of word they modify:

Non bevo mai molto la mattina.	I never drink very much in the morning.
Avete speso troppo!	You have spent too much!
Il clima inglese è davvero molto strano!	The English climate is truly very strange!
Questa radio è troppo piccola.	This radio is too small.
Non usciamo molto spesso con loro.	We don’t go out with them very often.
Sono arrivati troppo presto.	They arrived too early.

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When molto and troppo are adverbs, their endings do not change.

(To help you remember this rule, think of it this way: when it means ‘very’, molto doesn’t vary)

Use of Italian Adjectives: 

When words like molto and troppo modify (or replace) a noun, they are adjectives (or pronouns) and as such, they need to agree with that noun,

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Molto and Troppo as Adjectives

Faccio molte passeggiate in campagna	I take many walks in the countryside
In centro c’è sempre molta gente.	There are always many people in the centre.
Molti vanno al cinema la domenica.	Many (people) go to the cinema on Sundays
Ho preso troppo sole e mi sono scottata la schiena.	I caught too much sun and got my back sunburnt.
La frutta mi piace davvero e ne mangio sempre molta.	I really like fruit and I always eat lots (of it).
Non guardo più i film western, ne ho visti troppi da bambina.	I don’t watch westerns anymore, I saw too many of them as a child.

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Be particularly careful when molto and troppo are pronouns.

In sentences containing the pronoun ne, molto and troppo must agree with the noun replaced by ne

(i.e. molta frutta and troppi film in the fifth and sixth sentences above).

Here is a table of the words which follow these rules:

WORDS	Meaning as Adverbs	Meanings as Adjectives
alquanto	somewhat	some, several
molto	very	much many
moltissimo	really very	a great deal of
parecchio	rather	a considerable amount, several
poco	not very	not much, not many
pochissimo	very little	very little, very few
tanto	so very	so much, so many
tantissimo	really so very	really so much, so many
troppo	too	too much, too many

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Using Tutto, Qualche and Ogni correctly – How to Use Adverbs or Adjectives in Italian

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When it is an adjective, tutto is followed by the article/demonstrative and the noun it refers to and agrees with the noun in gender and number.

An adjective followed by the article

Singular		Plural
tutto il giorno	all-day	tutti i giorni	every day
tutto il libro	the whole book	tutti i libri	all of the books, every book
tutta la casa	the entire house	tutte le case	all of the houses, every house
tutto lo spettacolo	every show	tutti gli spettacoli	the whole show all shows
tutto quest’anno	this entire year	tutti questi anni	all these years
tutta quella folla	all that crowd	tutte quelle ragazze	all those girls

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If there is a numeral, this is preceded by e, but tutto still agrees with the noun,

Tutto with Numeral

tutti e due i miei genitori	both of my parents
tutti e quattro i libri	all four books
tutte e venti le lettere	all twenty letters
tutte e cinque queste caramelle	all five of these sweets

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Ogni and Qualche are always followed by a singular noun.

Ogni singular noun has the same meaning as tutti/tutte + article + plural noun,

as in:

ogni giorno =  tutti i giorni	every day
ogni mattina = tutte le mattine	every morning

Despite being always followed by a singular noun, the meaning of qualche is always plural, as in:

qualche giorno	a few days
qualche settimana	a few weeks

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