What does QUELLO and BELLO have in common?
Everybody knows that quello means that and bello means nice , however you might have noticed that, from time to time, quello and bello are in used in a different shape, like bel e quel or begli and quegli
How come?
Well, let’s start from quello
First thing first, you should be able to distinguish when quello is used as a pronoun (replacing a noun) and when used as adjective (accompanying a name).
In the first case, quello has four different possible endings, -o/-a/-i/e, according to the noun to which it refers
- Quello è il mio gatto – That one is my cat
- Quelle sono le mie amiche – those are my girlfriends
In the second case, when quello is an adjective, it changes its endings, by merging its root with the definite articles {il, lo, la, i, gli, le) that would normally precede a noun, as in the following examples:
- Quei ragazzi
- Quegli amici
- Quell’uomo
- Quel ragazzo
- Quella donna
- Quelle ragazze
The adjective bello follows exactly the same pattern of quello
- Bei ragazzi
- Begli amici
- Bell’uomo
- Bel ragazzo
- Bella donna
- Belle donne
The rule I have just mentioned, it to be applied just when quello and bello are positioned before a noun, that is to say that they must be adjectives to the noun.
