Premio Strega: Italy’s most prestigious literary award
The Premio Strega is Italy’s most prestigious and sought-after literary award.
Some Italian adjectives can be easily turn into adverbs but adding –mente. For example, you can turn lento slow into lentamente slowly. Let’s see exactly how it works! If you don’t remember the difference between an adjective and an adverb, read our article Difference between adjectives and adverbs.
The rule is very simple: To form an adverb from an adjective, you should add -mente to the feminine singular form of the adjective:
LENTO > LENTA + MENTE = LENTAMENTE
Remember that adjectives ending in -e don’t change their form for the feminine, so if you have an -e adjective you basically take it as it is and add -mente. That’s very easy:
VELOCE + MENTE = VELOCEMENTE
There is another rule: Adjectives ending in –le and –re lose their e before –mente:
GENTILE > GENTIL + MENTE = GENTILMENTE
Not every adjective can become an adverb by adding -mente, however this works for a lot of them.
ADJECTIVE | ADVERB | ||
lento | slow | lentamente | slowly |
allegro | cheerful | allegramente | cheerfully |
attento | careful | attentamente | carefully |
coraggioso | brave | coraggiosamente | bravely |
triste | sad | tristemente | sadly |
veloce | fast, quick | velocemente | quickly |
gentile | kind, polite | gentilmente | politely, kindly |
possibile | possible | possibilmente | possibly |
terribile | terrible, awful | terribilmente | terribly |
particolare | peculiar, characteristic | particolarmente | particularly, especially |
Your online bookstore specialized in learning Italian.
The Premio Strega is Italy’s most prestigious and sought-after literary award.
La capretta Lilli voleva aiutare, ma cosa poteva fare? – con PASSATO PROSSIMO E IMPERFETTO
A simple quiz in Italian about Dante and the Divine Comedy
Summary of The Divine Comedy with significant quotes
Un breve racconto per esercitarsi con il congiuntivo • con ESERCIZI