Learn Italian: Sei più testardo che intelligente! - You are more stubborn than intelligent!

Sei più testardo che intelligente!

You are more stubborn than intelligent!

Breakdown of Sei più testardo che intelligente!

more / anymore (with 'non')

che

than (in comparisons)

Questions & Answers about Sei più testardo che intelligente!

Why do we use che for "than" here instead of di?

We use che because we are comparing two adjectives (testardo and intelligente) that describe the exact same person. When you compare two qualities of a single subject, or two verbs, you must use che instead of di.

How would this sentence change if I were speaking to a woman?

You would change testardo to testarda. However, intelligente stays exactly the same because Italian adjectives ending in -e in the singular are used for both masculine and feminine nouns. So, you would say: Sei più testarda che intelligente!

If I wanted to say "You are more intelligent than stubborn," do I just swap the adjectives?

Yes! The adjective you have "more" of goes right after più, and the one you have less of goes after che. To flip the meaning, you simply say: Sei più intelligente che testardo!

Why isn't the word tu (you) at the beginning of the sentence?

Because the verb sei already means "you are," the subject pronoun tu is usually dropped in Italian. You would only add it if you wanted to create a strong contrast, such as pointing out that this specific person is stubborn compared to someone else in the room.