Do you want to speak Italian more easily and confidently by the end of 2019? Well, it is nearing the end of the year, and maybe by now you’ve had a chance to try out your Italian on your dream trip to Italy. Maybe you’ve seen and experienced nice people and beautiful places on during your stay in the “bel paese.” Why not share about these experiences in Italian?
As I’ve said before, I believe that “commonly used phrases” are the key for how we can all build fluency in any language in a short time.
If we learn how to incorporate “commonly used phrases” that use bello, the much-used Italian adjective that means “nice,” beautiful,” and so much more in Italian, we will be able to describe so many lovely things—just as we do in our native language!
Of course, we also need to learn the variations of bello in order to describe all the people and places that we will encounter that are beautiful in Italy!
And, by remembering common Italian phrases that describe what you will encounter in Italy, you will automatically have committed to memory the rules for the adjective bello!
This post is the 27th in a series of Italian phrases we have been trying out in our Conversational Italian! Facebook group. If you’d like to read the earlier posts in the series, “Italian Phrases We Use EVERY Day!” just click HERE
Many “commonly used phrases” in Italian
describe things that are “nice” or “beautiful”
with the adjective bello
and its variations – bel, bella, bei, belle, bell’
See below for how this works.
As we all master these phrases, so will you. Try my method and let me know how it works. What sentences will you create with these phrases?
Please reply. I’d love to hear from you! Or join our Conversational Italian! group discussion on Facebook.
The basics of the Italian language are introduced in the Conversational Italian for Travelers textbook and reference books Just the Verbs and Just the Grammar
found on amazon.com and Learn Travel Italian.com.
The rights to purchase the Conversational Italian for Travelers books in PDF format on two electronic devices can also be obtained at Learn Travel Italian.com.
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How to Use Bello
with Singular Nouns
Bello is an Italian adjective that one will use often when visiting the “bel paese”—so many people are and places are beautiful, nice, and lovely in Italy! But, the form of this adjective will change according to the masculine or feminine form of the noun (person, place or thing) it modifies, the number of “things” that are beautiful, and also according to where this adjective is placed in the sentence.
When referring to a person, bello/bella are used to mean handsome and beautiful, as well as nice, or lovely. Places or things can be beautiful, and also nice or lovely. The context of the conversation will determine which meaning the word bello carries, although in many cases the meanings overlap.
Note here: the adjective buono, which was the topic of our last blog in this series, is usually used when referring to food, which is always “good” in Italy!
Sound complicated? Well, it is… a little bit. But by remembering some common phrases that use the adjective bello, you will automatically have committed the rules for this adjective to memory!
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We will start our discussion of bello with how to modify singular masculine nouns. For masculine nouns, bello is placed either directly after the noun, or at the end of the sentence, after the verb è for is (from the verb essere). In the second case, the adjective bello will be separated from the noun it modifies, but both the noun and adjective will agree in gender and number. See the first two examples in our table below.
(You may notice that the rules for how and when to change the ending for bello are identical to those for buono!)
A common Italian exclamation is, “Che bello!” which simply means, “How beautiful!” or “How wonderful!” This expression can also be used when an English speaker might say, “Cool!” to refer to something good. Another common expression one might hear in Italy is, “Che fai di bello?” for “What are you up to?” or “What’re you doing?”
| Il giorno è bello. | The day is beautiful. |
| il giorno bello | the beautiful day |
| Che bello! | How beautiful! How wonderful! |
| Che fai di bello? | What are you up to? What’re you doing? |
But, when the adjective bello is placed before a masculine noun, the last letter -o is dropped from bello (along with the extra “l” when writing the word) to make bel, as in, “Che bel giorno!” for “What a beautiful day!”
You will remember that the Italian masculine nouns that begin with the letters s+consonant, z, ps, or gn are often treated differently in Italian from other masculine nouns that begin with a consonant. For instance, the definite article lo must be used before these nouns, rather than the usual definite article il.
The two most important masculine nouns to remember in this category are studente (student) and zio (uncle). When using these words in conversational Italian, bello usually follows these nouns, so we will not need to change the ending.
| Che bel giorno! | What a beautiful day! |
| il bel uomo / il bel bambino | the handsome man / the beautiful baby |
| lo studente bello / lo zio bello | the handsome student the handsome uncle |
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For a feminine noun (person, place or thing), there is only one rule to remember—the adjective bella is used to describe something beautiful, nice or lovely, whether placed before or after the noun this adjective modifies.
| La donna è bella. | The woman is beautiful. |
| la donna bella | the beautiful woman |
| la bella donna | the beautiful woman |
| La città è bella. | The city is beautiful. |
| la bella città | the beautiful city |
| la città bella | the beautiful city |
But, of course, there is one exception to use of bella for feminine nouns: if bella is placed before a feminine noun that begins with another vowel, and especially the letter –a , it is common to drop the last letter from bella and add an apostrophe to make bell’ for smoother conversation. Although the last -a of bella can also be retained in some phrases, as in our last example. The “decision” whether or not to drop the -a from bella before a noun is not based on any specific rule, but probably comes naturally to an Italian speaker in order to keep the conversation flowing naturally. Since our focus is on conversational Italian, just remember to bring the two words together when speaking, without repeating the -a ending, and don’t worry about the spelling!
A common Italian phrase is “Bella idea!” for “Wonderful idea!” or “Great idea!” Notice that there is no need to drop the -a from bella with this phrase, although bell’idea is also correct.
| la bell’amica | the nice friend |
| la amica bella | the beautiful friend |
| Bella idea! Bell’idea! |
Great idea! |
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How to Use Bello
with Plural Nouns
The adjective bello follows the usual Italian rules for changing singular adjectives to plural adjectives when placed after the noun.
In general, of course:
A masculine Italian noun and its adjective will end in -o, and this ending will change to -i in the plural.
A feminine Italian noun and its adjective will ends in -a, and this ending will change to -e in the plural.
An Italian noun or adjective that ends in -e may be masculine or feminine, and this ending will change to -i in the plural.
If you are interested in learning more about masculine and feminine words in Italian that end in the letter -e, and how to distinguish one from the other, this You Tube Video may be of help: Italian Grammar by Stella Lucente, LLC.
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Plural Bello/Bella after a noun
For the adjective bello, when placed after a noun, he plural will be belli.
For the adjective bella, when placed after a noun, he plural will be belle.
Plural Bello/Bella after a noun
| bello | o | goes to | i | belli |
| bella | a | goes to | e | belle |
Now we are ready for some examples of noun/adjective combinations using bello to describe the beautiful people and places you will find in Italy!
| il giorno bello | the good day | becomes the good days |
i giorni belli |
| la città bella | the nice city | becomes the nice cities |
le città belle* |
| la donna bella | the beautiful woman |
becomes the beautiful women |
le donne belle |
*Notice that the -à ending for città does not change in the plural, since it is invariable by definition, but the definite article and the adjective that modifies it do. If you really want to know if an Italian noun is masculine or feminine, just look to it’s definite article and the adjectives that modify it!
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Plural Bello/Bella before a noun
When the adjective bello and bella are placed before a noun, changing the singular to the plural form is a little bit more difficult. The endings actually follow the same pattern as the plural definite article (i, gli, and le), as described in the table below.
Don’t get too bogged down trying to memorize these endings right now, though, as most times it is perfectly fine to place bello after the noun and the regular endings can be used!
Plural Bello/Bella before a noun
| bel | (masc. before consonant) | goes to | definite art. i |
bei |
| bell’ | (masc. before vowel) | goes to | definite art. gli |
begli |
| bella | (fem. before consonant) | goes to | definite art. le |
belle |
| bell’ | (fem. before vowel, and especially -a) | goes to | definite art. le |
belle |
| il bel giorno | the beautiful day | becomes | i bei giorni |
| il bell’albero | the beautiful tree | becomes | i begli alberi |
| la bella settimana | the nice week | becomes | le belle settimane |
| la bella donna | the beautiful woman | becomes | le belle donne |
| la bell’europea | the beautiful European | becomes | le belle euoropee |
There are, of course, many more occasions to use the Italian adjective bello than those I have just listed. How many more an you think of?
Remember how to use the adjective bello and I guarantee you will want to say something “nice” or “beautiful” about Italy every day!
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