Opposite Adjectives in Italian
For me, the hardest part of learning a new language is learning new vocabulary. The reason is that there are two main types of long-term memory that comes into play when learning a language: procedural memory and declarative memory.
The first allows you to automatically use language without thinking about steps; it makes you remember rules that you can re-apply, like verb conjugations. The second allows you to remember aleatory information, like words and their meaning. In other words, the language vocabulary.
What I will try to do here is provide you with some reasons why some Italian adjectives behave the way they do, so that you can more easily remember them.
Think about English words like “happy” and “unhappy”, or “believable” and “unbelievable”. The negative versions give you a way to describe the opposite of the original meaning.
Just like in English, some Italian opposite adjectives are formed using prefixes, small additions to the beginning of words that change their meaning.
Many of these prefixes come from Latin or Greek, which means you can find similar patterns in other Romance Languages as well. Here’s a quick list of common prefixes in Italian that turn adjectives into their opposites:
- in-
- dis-
- s-
- a-
How to Form Opposite Adjectives in Italian
Adjectives Starting With in-
The prefix in- is the most common one to form opposites in Italian. For example:
- capace/incapace – capable/incapable
- certo/incerto – certain/uncertain
- credibile/incredibile – credible/incredible
- felice/infelice – happy/unhappy
- utile/inutile – useful/useless
Questo posto è incredibile!
This place is incredible!
If the adjective starts with a p or m, in- changes to im-:
- mobile/immobile – mobile/immobile
- morale/immorale – moral/immoral
- possibile/impossibile – possible/impossible
- preparato/impreparato – prepared/unprepared
Mi sento un po’ inutile perché non sto facendo niente.
I feel a bit useless because I’m not doing anything.
If the adjective starts with a l or r, in- changes to i- + either l or r, resulting in a double consonant. For example:
- responsabile/irresponsabile – responsible/irresponsible
- logico/illogico – logical/illogical
Adjectives Starting with dis-
The dis- prefix is also common:
- abitato/disabitato – inhabited/uninhabited
- attento/disattento – attentive/inattentive
- onesto/disonesto – honest/dishonest
- informato/disinformato – informed/uninformed
- ordinato/disordinato – tidy/untidy
Mattia è davvero disordinato ed è pure disonesto.
Mattia is really untidy and he’s even dishonest.
Adjectives Starting with s-
The s- prefix is less common but still useful:
- carico/scarico – charged/out of battery or power
- cortese/scortese – kind/unkind
- gradevole/sgradevole – pleasant/unpleasant
- contento/scontento – pleased/displeased
Il mio cellulare è scarico.
My mobile phone is out of battery.
Quella persona è un po’ sgradevole.
That person is unpleasant.
Adjectives Starting with a-
The a- prefix is the least common, but here are a few key examples:
- normale/anormale – normal/abnormal
- sociale/asociale – sociable/unsociable (In Italian, asociale often refers to someone who is introverted rather than completely avoiding social norms)
- tipico/atipico – typical/atypical
Mia sorella è un po’ asociale.
My sister is a bit unsociable.
Other Opposite Adjectives
Now that you learned how to form opposite adjectives through prefixes, it’s time to have a look at some others which don’t follow this patterns of prefix-based negation.
As in all languages, including English, some adjectives in Italian rely on entirely different terms to express contrasting meanings, and here it is where your declarative memory comes in handy.
So, get ready and memorize them:
- caldo/freddo – hot/cold
- alto/basso – tall/short (height)
- veloce/lento – fast/slow
- nuovo/vecchio – new/old
- aperto/chiuso – open/closed
- buono/cattivo – good/bad
- giovane/anziano – young/old (age)
- chiaro/scuro – light/dark
- felice/triste – happy/sad
- forte/debole – strong/weak
