Breakdown of Queste riunioni virtuali sono sempre meno noiose.
essere
to be
queste
these (feminine)
noioso
boring
sempre
always
la riunione
the meeting
meno
to / less (time) / less
virtuale
virtual
Questions & Answers about Queste riunioni virtuali sono sempre meno noiose.
Why do we use "sempre" here if it means "always"? Doesn't the English translation say "less and less"?
In Italian, you express progressive change ("less and less" or "more and more") by combining sempre with meno (less) or più (more). While sempre usually means "always," here it functions more like "constantly" or "continually." So, sempre meno noiose literally means "continually less boring."
How do we know "riunioni" is feminine to match with "queste" and "noiose"?
The singular form is la riunione. A helpful rule to remember is that almost all Italian nouns ending in -ione (like stazione, lezione, or decisione) are feminine. Because it is feminine and plural here, it takes the feminine plural demonstrative adjective queste and the feminine plural adjective noiose.
If the noun is feminine plural, why is the adjective "virtuali" ending in "-i" instead of "-e" like "noiose"?
Italian has two main groups of adjectives. Noioso is in the group that has four endings (-o, -a, -i, -e), so it changes to noiose for feminine plural. Virtuale belongs to the group that ends in -e in the singular for both masculine and feminine. For this second group, the plural always ends in -i for both genders, making it virtuali.
"Noiose" looks a lot like the English word "noisy". Are they related?
No, they are "false friends"! Noioso means "boring" or "tiresome." If you wanted to complain that the virtual meetings were "noisy," you would use the adjective rumoroso (which would become rumorose here).
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