Today you are going the learn the meaning of a very cute Italian word. Or, better, you’ll learn which word means “cute” in Italian.
Carino might not feature on our list of the top 1000 Italian most common words, but once you know it you just can’t go without it.
It has a lovely sound, and you can use it in 3 different ways in everyday conversations.
So here’s the meaning of carino and how to put it in a sentence.
How to conjugate carino according to gender
If you’ve read our lesson on Italian grammar genders, you already know that every adjective has a masculine and feminine form and that each of them also has a plural form.
Carino makes no exception and is conjugated the standard way.
- masculine singular: carino;
- masculine plural: carini;
- feminine singular: carina;
- feminine plural: carine;
Now that you know that, here are all the ways you can use carino in a sentence with some examples!
The 3 meanings of carino
Most of the time, carino just means cute, and you can use it as you would do with its English equivalent. Sometimes Italian will add proprio or molto before it to mean “really cute“.
And, of course, you can also use it sarcastically.
Ho incontrato un ragazzo carino al cinema.
I’ve met a cute boy at the cinema.
Quella ragazza è proprio carina!
That girl is really cute!
Oh, sei così carino quando rutti così. Un amore!
Oh, you’re so cute when you burp like that. How lovely!
However, there are also situations in which it would be better translated with “kind” or “nice”.
For instance, you can use it to describe a nice gesture or person.
Oh, che gesto carino!
Oh, what a nice gesture!
Lui è una persona davvero carina!
He’s a really cute person!
You can also use carino to say that something is nice or enjoyable.
Ha raccontato una barzelletta carina.
She told a funny joke.
Fixed expressions + a useful resource
These were the 3 translations of carino. Italians also use this word in a couple of fixed expressions, like:
Italian has a lot of proverbs and fixed phrases that it’s good to know.
If you want to learn some more, check our list of common Italian phrases and try to learn a new one every day.
Your Italian will improve in a very short time.
And if you have trouble understanding something, don’t be shy and ask everything you need to know in the comments. A presto!
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