Bene, Bravo, Bello e Buono. HOW TO USE THESE WORDS (WELL) IN ITALIAN

Do you know the difference between “bene”, “bravo”, “buono”, and “bello”? Is a book “buono” or “bello”? And what about food?

Hello, I’m Maria, and I’m a teacher of Italian, English, and Spanish. Today I want to talk to you about the difference between “bene”, “bravo”, “buono”, and “bello”, because it’s something that my students, especially English speakers, often confuse. This is because in English the word “good” is used. Indeed, in Italian, these four words all have a positive value, but they are used in different contexts. Let’s see which ones.

Let’s start with “bravo”. “Bravo” is an adjective that indicates someone’s ability to do something, or it indicates an honest and generous person. 

“Questo cantante è molto bravo” or “Mia sorella è brava a scrivere”. In this case, I’m talking about the singer’s ability to sing and my sister’s ability to write. If I say “Lui è un bravo ragazzo”, it means that he is an honest and generous boy with a good heart.

“Buono” is always an adjective and indicates the quality of someone from a moral point of view, or the quality of some food from the point of view of taste. 

Let me give you an example: “Paola è molto buona”. With this sentence, I mean that Paola is a good and kind person. 

If I say “- Com’è la pizza? – La pizza è buona”. In this case, I’m referring to the taste of the pizza. 

Remember that when you describe food, you always use the adjective “buono” if you like the food. Obviously, you don’t say “questa pizza è bene” or “questa pizza è bella”, but only “questa pizza è buona”. 

Let’s make another example with “buono”: if I say that “Il tuo italiano è buono”, I’m talking about the quality of your Italian. It means that you speak Italian well and understand it well.

Now let’s move on to “bello”. “Bello” is an adjective that describes aesthetic or atmospheric perfection. 

“Il quadro è bello” means that I like the painting from an aesthetic point of view, that it’s pleasant to look at. 

The adjective “bello” can be used with people and things, for example, “Questa ragazza è bella”, “Questa città è bella”. A city is beautiful because what you like about a city is its aesthetics, what you see, so the buildings, the streets, the green areas.

Finally, “bene” is an adverb, unlike “buono”, “bravo”, and “bello”, which, as we said before, are adjectives. “Bene” is used after a verb and serves to give a positive value. 

For example, “Anna cucina bene” means that Anna cooks very good dishes. Or “Parli italiano molto bene”, means that you speak Italian well in the sense that you can speak it and make yourself understood. 

Or “- Come stai? – Sto bene”. When you talk about your mood, you don’t use “buono” as in English with “I’m good”. In Italian, “sono buono” has another meaning, it speaks of a quality of your character, it means that you are good and generous.

And is a book bello and buono? Well, a book can be both bello and buono. What’s the difference? If a book is bello, it means that you liked the plot of the book or how it’s written. If I say “Questo libro è buono”, I’m talking about the quality of the book, it means that the book is well written and probably by reading it I also learned something. But be careful, you can’t say “Questo libro è bene” because, as I already told you, “bene” is an adverb, not an adjective.