Comparativo- Equalita - Elmwood Park Memorial High School

ComparativoEqualita’
ITALIAN 3
• In English "as...as" (e.g. Jen is as pretty as a flower).
• But what about Italian? You have two options:
• Mario e’ tanto intelligente quanto Giovanni.
OR
• Mario e’ cosi intelligente come Giovanni.]
• (Which both translate
• “Mario is as intelligent as Giovanni.”)
• Tanto…quanto
• can be used to compare nouns or adjectives.
• When used with adjectives, however, it is invariable
(no agreement).
• Cosi’…come
• can be used with adjectives only.
• You don’t use cosi’...come with nouns
• (to compare their quantities)
• only with adjectives
• (to compare qualities).
ESEMPI
• So you would say
• “Mario e’ tanto intelligente quanto Marco.”
• or
• “Mario e’ cosi intelligente come Marco.”
• But
• “Mario ha tanti amici quanto Marco.”
• (Not cosi’…come because you’re comparing
quantities of nouns.)
TANTO…QUANTO
• In tanto…quanto constructions with nouns
• the tanto…..quanto agree in gender and
number ONLY with nouns they describe
quantities of.
• ESEMPIO:
• A Toronto ci sono tanti ragazzi quante ragazze.
BUT!
• “I ragazzi hanno tanti soldi quanto le ragazze.
• No quantity of girls is referred to in the second sentence,
only a quantity of money.
• WHICH MEANS…
• no agreement of quanto with ragazze.If you make the
quanto agree with ragazze in the second sentence
• “I ragazzi hanno tanti soldi quante ragazze”
•
•
you’re saying
“The boys have as much money as (they have) girls.”