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La mia porzione di carne è piccolissima!

La mia porzione di carne è piccolissima!
My portion of meat is very small!
From Lesson 88:The absolute superlative (-issimo)·Italian

Breakdown of La mia porzione di carne è piccolissima!

essere
to be
piccolo
small
di
of, from
mio
my
la carne
the meat
la porzione
the portion

Questions & Answers about La mia porzione di carne è piccolissima!

How exactly do we build the word piccolissima?
You take the regular adjective piccolo (small), drop the final vowel -o, and add the absolute superlative suffix -issimo. Because it describes la porzione (a feminine singular noun), the final letter must match, making it piccolissima (extremely small).
Why do we need the word La before mia porzione?
In Italian, possessive adjectives like mio or mia almost always require a definite article (like il or la) in front of them. You only drop the article when talking about singular family members (like mia madre). Since a portion of meat is not a relative, we use la mia porzione.
The words porzione and carne both end in -e. How do we know they are feminine?
Nouns ending in -e can be masculine or feminine, so you often just have to memorize their gender. However, there is a handy trick for porzione: Italian nouns ending in -zione are almost always feminine! Carne is also feminine, which you can see if you ever talk about la carne.
Could I just say è molto piccola instead of using the -issimo ending?
Yes, you can! Saying molto piccola (very small) means the exact same thing as piccolissima. Italians love using the -issimo ending because it sounds very expressive, but both are perfectly correct ways to emphasize an adjective.

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