Il pollo cotto al forno è buono.

The baked chicken is good.

Breakdown of Il pollo cotto al forno è buono.

• essere: to be
• buono: good
• il pollo: the chicken
• cotto al forno: baked

Questions & Answers about Il pollo cotto al forno è buono.

Why do we say Il pollo cotto al forno instead of just Pollo cotto al forno?

In Italian, when you talk about food in a general or uncountable sense, you normally include the definite article. So Il pollo here means “chicken” in general. Dropping il would make it sound like you’re referring to one specific chicken, not the dish as a category.

What is cotto in this sentence?

Cotto is the past participle of the verb cuocere (“to cook”), used here as an adjective meaning “cooked.” So pollo cotto literally means “cooked chicken.”

Why does the adjective cotto come after the noun pollo, instead of before it?

In Italian, most descriptive adjectives—and especially past participles used adjectivally—follow the noun they modify. Hence pollo cotto, not cotto pollo.

What does al forno mean, and why not use nel forno?

Al forno literally means “to the oven,” but idiomatically it means “baked.” Italian cooking phrases use a/allo/alla/al + [cooking place or tool] to indicate method:

• al forno = baked
• alla griglia = grilled
• in padella = fried
  Saying nel forno would emphasize location (“inside the oven”) rather than the cooking method, so it’s not the usual choice.

Could you omit cotto and just say Il pollo al forno è buono?

Yes. Il pollo al forno already implies that the chicken is cooked in the oven, so Il pollo al forno è buono is perfectly natural. Adding cotto is grammatically correct but a bit redundant.

Why is it è buono and not è bene?

Buono is an adjective describing a noun (the chicken’s quality = “good”). Bene is an adverb used to modify verbs (e.g., funziona bene = “it works well”). Since you’re describing pollo, you need the adjective buono.

Is pollo cotto al forno a reduced form of pollo che è cotto al forno?

Exactly. Pollo cotto al forno compresses pollo che è cotto al forno (“chicken that is cooked in the oven”) by dropping the relative pronoun che and the verb è when the past participle functions as an adjective.

Does cotto change form depending on gender and number?

Yes. As an adjective, cotto agrees with the noun it modifies:

• Masculine singular: cotto (il pollo cotto)
• Feminine singular: cotta (la pizza cotta)
• Masculine plural: cotti (i polli cotti)
• Feminine plural: cotte (le patate cotte)