Big or Great? Understanding "Grande" in Italian

In English, we generally place the adjective before the noun it modifies. We say the yellow house, not the house yellow.

In Italian, it’s usually the opposite. We tend to place the adjective after the noun, so we’d say la casa gialla far more often than la gialla casa. The latter isn’t technically wrong, but outside of a poetic context, it’s really not used.

However, there are plenty of situations where you can freely place the adjective either before or after the noun it modifies. In some cases, this just changes the emphasis slightly.

For example, un buon lavoro vs. un lavoro buono, where the latter emphasizes the job being good—possibly contrary to claims made in the conversation so far.

In some cases, though, the positioning of the adjective changes the meaning entirely.

Big or Great?

This is true for the very common adjective grande, which can mean either “big” or “great” depending on its position.

In the 80s, there was a famous commercial for a brush brand called Cinghiale. In it, a guy on a bike with a giant brush is stopped in traffic by a vigile (bylaw enforcement) for obstructing traffic. His justification was, “Devo dipingere una parete grande; ci vuole un pennello grande” (I must paint a big wall; I need a big brush). The vigile replies, “Non ci vuole un pennello grande, ma un grande pennello” (It doesn’t take a big brush but a great brush).

The difference is all in the positioning of the adjective grande:

• Un grande pennello (A great brush)

• Un pennello grande (A big brush)

So, when grande is placed before the noun it modifies, it generally means great—an assessment of quality. When it’s placed after, grande means big.

It’s a subtle but important difference, one that’s easy to miss if you’re not a native speaker.

---

Exercises

Translate the following sentences into English:

1. Torino è una grande città.

2. Torino è una città grande.

3. Il tuo cane è bello grande.