Do you find yourself describing everything as ‘bello’ in Italian? ‘Bello’ is a great word, useful for so many situations.
- Che bella vista! – What a beautiful view!
- Il ragazzo è bello – The boy is handsome
- È un bel regalo – It’s a beautiful present
But how about mixing it up a little?
Today, we’re going to look at synonyms – these are words that have the same or a similar meaning. It can help to learn them in groups of words and then try them out in different situations.
Bello
Let’s start with ‘bello’. Instead of using this, you could try:
Stupendo – wonderful / marvellous
Splendido – splendid / excellent
Magnifico – magnificent
Carino – nice / cute
Attraente – attractive / charming / seductive
Piacevole – pleasant
Incantevole – enchanting / fascinating
So using our sentences from before, we could say:
- Che vista stupenda! – What a wonderful view!
- Il ragazzo è attraente – The boy is attractive
- È un regalo carino – It’s a nice present
Brutto
If you don’t like something, you can use the word ‘brutto’, which is the opposite of ‘bello’ and in English can mean ugly, horrible, unpleasant or bad.
- Quella era una cosa brutta da fare – That was a horrible thing to do
- Sei una brutta persona – You are a bad person
- È una brutta situazione – It is a horrible situation
Some synonyms for this word are:
Sgradevole – unpleasant
Orrendo – horrible / hideous / horrendous
Orribile – horrible / horrific
Cattivo – bad / evil / unkind
Misero – miserable
Triste – sad / depressing
Our sentences from before could turn into:
- Quella era una cosa orribile da fare – That was a horrible thing to do
- Sei una persona cattiva – You are a bad person
- È una situazione sgradevole – It is an unpleasant situation
So the next time you are about to use ‘bello’ or ‘brutto’, why don’t you try out one of these synonyms?
