Hi,

I am new to Italian language.. thus, i am not sure about the use of "bella" and "bello"
For example, when a man addresses a woman, should he say "Ciao bella" or "Ciao bello"?
Can a woman say "Ciao bella" or "Ciao bello" to a man?

Thank you.

Hi jingling9631,

You use bello for describing or addressing male human beings and masculine, singular nouns. When greeting a man, for example, or describing a book, a flower, a table (these are all masculine nouns in Italian).

You use bella, however, for describing or addressing female human beings and feminine, singular nouns. You use it when addressing a woman or describing a car, a house, a lamp (as these are feminine nouns).

A woman can either say ciao bello to a man or ciao bella to another woman. She (or any other subjects) can't say ciao bella to a man, for example, as bella is the female form of the adjective.

The same applies with inanimate objects:
Il libro (masculine, the book) = Il libro bello
La macchina (feminine, the car) = La macchina bella

Hope this helps! :)

Hi Lucia,

thank you for your help, now i understand better!

:D

Another question that I have, 

Can i say "Io piace cioccolato" instead of "mi piace cioccolato" since both Io and Mi mean "I"?

Grazie.

No, piace/piacciono is a special verb in Italian, as it must be preceded by mi, ti, gli... instead of the subject pronouns io, tu, lui etc.

You can say Mi piace il cioccolato (remember to add the article in front of a noun!), but you can't say Io piace il cioccolato.

Io means I, plain and simple. However, mi means to me, something like "to me chocolate is pleasing".

Hope this helps! :)

Grazie mille, Lucia!

As for the placement of adjectives, which are the cases where i would have to place the adjectives before  the nouns, other than ordinal numbers?

Hi jingling,

Adjectives are normally placed after the noun, but your osservation is correct: sometimes they go before the noun.

I've answered a similar question a few weeks ago and I think you might find it useful. Here: https://members.rocketlanguages.com/members/forum/italian-grammar/question-on-adjectives-noun-positioning-in-sentences

Don't hesitate to ask any questions if something isn't clear! :)