-issimo: the italian absolute superlative

The most famous words in Italian are the "issimo" ones - bellissimo, carissimo, buonissimo, and so on. You can add the suffix "issimo" to just about any Italian adjective to form the "absolute superlative".

The absolute superlative is the comparative that tells us a noun possesses a quality to an extreme degree. There's no equivalent suffix in English. We just say "very beautiful" or "extremely beautiful". In Italian, you add "issimo". And since adjectives agree, the issimo does too. So you get...

il ragazzo bellissimo

la ragazza bellissima

i ragazzi bellissimi

le ragazze bellissime

Now you know four degrees of description in Italian:

Rachel e' bella. (beautiful)

Rachel e' piu' bella di Gwen Stefani. (more beautiful)

Rachel e' la ragazza piu' bella del mondo. (the most beautiful)

Rachel e' bellissima! (extremely beautiful)

Sei bravissimo!