Learn Italian: Il suo funzionamento è pessimo, dobbiamo migliorarlo. - Its functioning is terrible, we must improve it.

It is created by taking the root of the verb funzionare (to work/function) and adding the suffix -mento. This suffix is commonly used to turn verbs into masculine nouns that describe a process, an action, or the result of an action—very similar to "-ing" or "-tion" in English.

Is pessimo related to the word peggio?

Yes, they belong to the same family! While peggio or peggiore means "worse" (a comparative), pessimo is the irregular absolute superlative of cattivo (bad). It translates to "terrible" or "the worst," and you can use it instead of saying molto cattivo or cattivissimo.

Why is the pronoun lo attached to the end of migliorarlo?

Lo means "it" and refers back to the masculine noun il funzionamento. When a direct object pronoun is used with an infinitive verb like migliorare (to improve), you drop the final -e of the infinitive and attach the pronoun directly to the end, creating one single word: migliorarlo.

How do we know il suo means "its" and not "his" or "her"?