Learn Italian: Quel ragazzo magrolino era un noiosaccio. - That skinny boy was a terrible bore.

Quel ragazzo magrolino era un noiosaccio.

That skinny boy was a terrible bore.

Breakdown of Quel ragazzo magrolino era un noiosaccio.

Questions & Answers about Quel ragazzo magrolino era un noiosaccio.

Why is there an -ol- in the middle of magrolino instead of just adding -ino to magro?

While magrino is also a valid word, Italian sometimes inserts the infix -ol- before a suffix to make the pronunciation flow better. You will also see this in words like sassolino (pebble, from sasso). Here, it softens magro (thin) to mean 'a bit skinny' or 'scrawny'.

The word noiosaccio comes from the adjective noioso (boring), but here it has un in front of it. Can we use altered adjectives as nouns?

Yes! Just like regular adjectives, altered adjectives can act as nouns to describe a person. By adding the pejorative suffix -accio to noioso and using the article un, it changes from the adjective 'boring' into the noun 'a terribly boring person' or 'a bore'.

Does the suffix -accio in noiosaccio mean the boy is literally bad or evil?

Not necessarily. The suffix -accio is pejorative, meaning it adds a negative, unpleasant, or dismissive quality to the root word. Rather than meaning 'evil', it intensifies the unpleasantness of his personality, making him a 'terrible bore'.

As a quick refresher, why do we use Quel instead of Quello here?