Aggettivo qualificativo: where to put it in a sentence?
IMPORTANT: This is an advanced Italian grammar post. If you're a beginner please take your time to get here. Learn about all the parts of the speech and get accostumed to how Italian works (it has loads of rules and exceptions so try to focus on building easy sentences first). For now, simply add the adjective after the noun it refers to: this is generally considered a "neutral" position for adjectives (and you can use them in this position to introduce other complements and make more difficult sentences too -see below).
Italian sentences add infos "to the right": they grow with infos after the main thing is stated. They follow a [subject - verb - object - other complements] pattern. This pattern can change though, cause of stylistic choices or cause the speaker wants or needs to put the stress on specific parts of the speech (eg. "Bello, questo vestito!" instead of "Questo vestito è bello!" => these two sentences both translate as "This dress is nice!" but in the first sentence, we want to stress we find it very nice so we put "bello" first), or give them a slightly different acception.
THE AGGETTIVO QUALIFICATIVO: Generally speaking, the aggettivo qualificativo specifies a characteristic of the noun it refers to. According on the situation, this characteristic can be fundamental (Portami la cartellina blu, per favore = Bring me the blue folder, please -> I want the blue one, not the red or the yellow or any other I have) or just "a plus" (Ho una cartellina blu = I have a blue folder -> Fun fact...?). It's up to the speaker's intention.
SO, WHERE TO PUT THESE ADJECTIVES? The aggettivo qualificativo can move its position according on how objective (more fixed) or subjective (less fixed: as seen, the speaker can move it to stress infos and bring their opinion) the characteristic it expresses is. To make it a little easier though, there are a few rules for you to check:
->AFTER THE NOUN: - if the adjective specifies a particular characteristic of the noun that makes the noun different from others. eg. Ho visto il maglione nuovo di Luigi = I saw the new sweater of Luigi -> I saw the new one, not an old one. eg. Portami la cartellina blu. = Bring me the blue folder -> the blu one, not another color's one.
- if the adjective is altered (check here): eg. una casa piccolina = a small little house
- if the adjective introduces a complement: eg. una casa piena di piante = a house filled with plants
- if the adjective is a present/past participle of a verb: eg. una casa ristrutturata = a restructured house
-if the adjective originates form a noun and has a relation with the noun it comes with: eg. un biglietto aereo = a plane ticket (aereo => aeroplano = airplane)
->BEFORE THE NOUN: - if the adjective is simply describing but not comparing to others or making the noun different from similar ones (as seen for the "after"). eg. Ho visto il nuovo maglione di Luigi. => simply a Luigi's sweater that is new. I'm not considering the old ones here.
-if the adjective is intended with a figurative acception (that's why to keep it objectively neutral/literal, you need to put it after the noun). So, in general we have: 1) adjective + noun: figurative meaning of the adjective 2) noun + adjective: literal meaning of the adjective eg. una grande casa = a cool/comfortable house; una casa grande = a big house eg. una vecchia amica = an old times' friend, a friend I know since long time; un'amica vecchia = a friend old in age eg. un buon amico = a friend you can rely on; un amico buono = a good hearted friend eg. un alto magistrato = a very important magistrate/official; un magistrato alto = a magistrate/official that is tall (check here for more; reminder that there are exceptions but the figurative acception is to be considered oftentimes, unless the context tells you differently)
