Learn Italian: Il vestito rosso è meno elegante del vestito nero. - The red dress is less elegant than the black dress.

Il vestito rosso è meno elegante del vestito nero.

The red dress is less elegant than the black dress.

Breakdown of Il vestito rosso è meno elegante del vestito nero.

Questions & Answers about Il vestito rosso è meno elegante del vestito nero.

Why does the sentence use del instead of just di for "than"?

When using meno ... di (less ... than), the word di has to combine with the article of the following noun. Since "the black dress" is il vestito nero, you combine di + il to make del.

Vestito is a masculine word. Why doesn't elegante end in -o?

While many Italian adjectives change their ending to match masculine (-o) or feminine (-a) nouns, adjectives that naturally end in -e in the dictionary are used for both. Elegante is one of these, so it stays the same whether the noun is masculine or feminine.

Why are the colors placed after the nouns here?

In Italian, descriptive adjectives, especially colors, almost always go after the noun they describe. So instead of "the red dress", you say il vestito rosso (literally "the dress red").

How would I change this to say "more elegant" instead of "less elegant"?

You simply swap out meno (less) for più (more). The sentence structure and the word del stay exactly the same: Il vestito rosso è più elegante del vestito nero.