RAGAZZONE meaning and pronunciation

What’s the meaning of ragazzone in Italian?

As you will see in this lesson, suffixes in Italian can be used to describe nouns instead of adjectives and this is directly related to the word ragazzone. But why? Read on to find out!

Let’s get started! Iniziamo!

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Meaning of ragazzone in Italian

Ragazzone is the Italian translation for big boy.

It is basically made up of ragazzo, which as you may already know means boy, and the suffix –one, which is used to make things bigger.

Whenever you want to convey the message that you think something or someone is bigger than normal, you can either go the old school route and use an adjective (grosso, alto, grande?) or you can play creatively with the language and use a suffix in Italian.

Big boy can be literally translated as grande ragazzo, but this combination of words is never used.

There are suffixes that describe smaller things, like -ino, and others that are used to refer to people or things that are bigger than normal, like -one.

Ragazzo → Ragazzone
Boy → Big, tall boy

Piatto → Piattone
Plate → Big, plate

So how do you pronounce ragazzone in Italian?

Its pronunciation is similar to rah-gahts-tsoh-neh. Make sure your ts has a longer sound (see how to pronounce all Italian consonant clusters here), and remember not to add a -y sound to the final -e. Italian vowel sounds are pure (they don’t sound like diphthongs).

Ragazzone can be used to describe an adult man who’s still as naïve as a child.

Ragazzone, however, is most often used as an affectionate term to refer to boys with a strong constitution who almost look like men. For example, you could say…

Non ti vedo da tantissimo, Mattia. Sei diventato un ragazzone!
I haven’t seen you for a long time, Mattia. You have become a big boy!

Paolo è un ragazzone. È forte come un toro.
Paul is a big boy. He is as strong as a bull.

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Ragazzone or ragazzino?

Careful with the vowels. Ragazzone in Italian means big boy, but ragazzino translates to little boy!

This is because the suffix -ino, as we’ve already said, makes things smaller, not bigger.

Ragazzino is sometimes used as a pejorative term to describe particularly loud and nasty children.

Dei ragazzini mi hanno rotto una finestra giocando a pallone.
Some kids broke one of my windows playing soccer.

More often, however, you will hear ragazzaccio, which translates as scoundrel or rascal. The suffix -accio takes the place of a pejorative adjective.

Quei ragazzacci hanno tirato la coda al gatto.
Those bad boys pulled the cat’s tail.

Now that we’ve covered all the uses of ragazzone in Italian, you can put your skills to the test and learn all the other suffixes in Italian!

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