Learn Italian: L'insegnante è poco simpatico. - The teacher is not very nice.

L'insegnante è poco simpatico.

The teacher is not very nice.

Breakdown of L'insegnante è poco simpatico.

little, few, not very

Questions & Answers about L'insegnante è poco simpatico.

Why does the translation say "not very" instead of "little"?

While poco literally means "little," when used before an adjective like simpatico, it usually translates to "not very" in English. Italians often use poco plus an adjective to soften a negative statement, literally saying someone is "little nice" instead of calling them mean directly.

Why doesn't poco change its ending here?

In this sentence, poco is acting as an adverb because it describes the adjective simpatico (it tells us how nice he is). Adverbs never change their endings. If poco were describing a noun instead of an adjective, like in "pochi libri" (few books), it would change its ending to match the noun.

How can we tell if L'insegnante is a male or female teacher?

The noun insegnante ends in -e, which means the word itself can be either masculine or feminine. To find out the person's gender, we have to look at the adjective. Since simpatico ends in -o, we know this is a male teacher. If it were a female teacher, it would be L'insegnante è poco simpatica.

Does simpatico mean "sympathetic"?

No, this is a very common false friend! Simpatico means "nice," "friendly," or "likable." If you want to say someone is sympathetic in Italian, you would use a word like comprensivo.