divided into diminutives, "vezzeggiativi" (diminutives with kindness and sympathy nuance), augmentatives and pejoratives. Many other alterations can be built, sometimes with more than one suffix: for example, libro (book) can become libretto (diminutive), libricino (double diminutive), libercolo (diminutive + pejorative), libraccio (pejorative), libraccione (pejorative + augmentative). Uomo (man), coming from Latin homo, becomes om- in altered forms: omino/ometto (diminutive), omone (augmentative), omaccio (pejorative), omaccione (augmentative + pejorative). Adjectives In Italian, an adjective can be placed before or after the noun. The unmarked placement for most adjectives (e.g. colours, nationalities) is after the noun, but this is reversed for a few common classes of adjective — those denoting beauty, age, goodness, and size are placed before the noun in the unmarked case, and after the noun for emphasis. Placing the adjective after the noun can alter its meaning or indicate restrictiveness of reference. If a noun has many adjectives, usually no more than one will be before the noun. un libro rosso = a red book (the unmarked case) un rosso libro = a book that is red (the marked case; it is especially important to the intended meaning that the book is red, as opposed to some other color) un buon uomo = a good man (the unmarked case) un uomo buono = a man who is good (the marked case; it is especially important to the intended meaning that he is good, the adjective is emphasized) Adjectives are inflected for gender and number: Degrees of comparison Italian has three degrees of comparison: comparative, relative superlative and absolute superlative. The comparative and relative superlative are formed with più ("more", "most"); for instance: sono più alto di te ("I am taller than you") sono il più alto fra gli uomini ("I am the tallest of men") Vice versa, inverting the order of the words, it's required to replace più with meno ("less, fewer"); for instance: sono il meno forte del campionato ("I am the least strong of the championship") tu sei meno alto di me ("You are less tall than me") Another comparative form is made with the word come ('as', 'like'); for instance: sono alto come te ("I am as tall as you") The absolute comparative is formed by placing troppo ("too") before the adjective; for instance: sei troppo buono ("you are too good"). The absolute superlative, derived from the Latin synthetic superlative in -issimus, is formed by adding -issimo