Any adjective can be substantiated, that is, used as a noun.
Often this noun serves to make the expression more fluent.
- Ha cinque figli, tre sposati e due scapoli (invece di: tre figli sposati e due scapoli).
- He has five children, three married and two bachelors (instead of: three married children and two bachelors).
- Aveva le mani impegnate: nella sinistra teneva dei fogli, nella destra penna e matita.
- His hands were full: in his left hand, he held some paper, in his right hand a pen and pencil.
There are noun adjectives that are now used only as nouns:
- Il giornale, il mobile, la capitale, ecc.
- The newspaper, the mobile, the capital, etc.
The adjective noun in the masculine singular has an abstract meaning:
- Il bello, il buono, il giusto, il pubblico, il privato…
- The beautiful, the good, the right, the public, the private…
Verbal phrases are very frequent:
1. Il bello / il brutto / lo strano / l’assurdo / il difficile è che …
The good / the bad / the strange / the absurd / the difficult is that…
- Il bello è che ti sto a sentire!
- The best part is that I’m listening to you!
2. Il bello / il brutto / lo strano / l’assurdo / il difficile è + infinito.
The beautiful / the ugly / the strange / the absurd / the difficult is + infinite.
- Lo strano per me è non aver sentito niente.
- The strange thing for me is that I didn’t hear anything.
The plural (masculine or feminine) mostly refers to categories of people.
- I ricchi e i poveri, le bionde e le brune, gli sfrattati, i disoccupati, i verdi, ecc.
- The rich and the poor, the blondes and the brunettes, the evicted, the unemployed, the greens, etc.
The possessive, in the plural, indicates the family or the parents alone:
- I miei, i tuoi , i suoi (familiari, parenti, genitori).
- Mine, yours, his (family members, relatives, parents).
- I suoi sono al mare.
- His parents are at the seaside.
As regards the names of peoples, the masculine plural refers to the population:
- Gli Inglesi, i Tedeschi, ecc.
- The English, the Germans, etc.
Instead, the masculine singular refers to the language or to an individual of a nation:
- Lui parla l’inglese e il tedesco.
- He speaks English and German.
- Un inglese è diverso da un francese, ecc.
- An Englishman is different from a Frenchman, etc.