The difference between DIVERTENTE and RIDICOLO (Italian vocabulary)

Hi, everybody! I'm Luca and this video is designed for those wonderful people who are studying or learning Italian as a foreign language.

If you understand Italian, but would like to speak it better - you've come to the right place!

As a matter of fact, in this video I wanted to talk about a mistake that is really, really common, and is made very often by those who are learning Italian as a foreign language.

By watching this video, you will learn how to avoid a mistake that I'd call impeccably atrocious.

This mistake involves two Italian adjectives: "ridicolo" and "divertente".

On the one hand, we have the adjective "ridicolo", which has 4 forms. Its forms are: "ridicolo" with O for masculine singular nouns, "ridicola" for feminine singular nouns, "ridicoli" for masculine plural nouns, and "ridicole" for feminine plural nouns.

By contrast, the adjective "divertente" has only 2 forms, that is: "divertente" with E (singular) and "divertenti" with I (plural). Technically speaking, "divertente" is not an adjective, it's a present participle used as an adjective.

Many non-native speakers learning Italian assume that these two adjectives, "ridicolo" and "divertente", have the same meaning, and assume them to be, essentialy, synonyms.

However, that's not the case. The words "ridicolo" and "divertente" have completely different meanings. Therefore you can't use "ridicolo" in place of "divertente", and you can't use "divertente" in place of "ridicolo".

The mistake lies in using these two adjectives interchangeably.

In addition to that, some non-native speakers learning Italian assume that (the word) "ridicolo" is a stronger version of "divertente".

That's not the case, though. "Ridicolo" and "divertente" have 2 completely different meanings. In particular, (the word) "ridicolo" has a positive meaning, whereas "divertente" has a negative meaning.

So it's not that these 2 adjectives have a similar meaning or mean kind of the same thing. Not at all. "Ridicolo" clearly has a negative meaning, while "divertente" has a positive meaning.

Without further ado, let's do an example!

I could say:

1. "Ieri ho visto un film ridicolo".

2. "Ieri ho visto un film divertente".

What's the difference? If I say that I watched a movie that I call "divertente", I want to say that I watched a movie that made me laugh. Probably a comic movie, a movie that wanted to be funny. Basically, this movie contained scenes that I found funny and that made me laugh. Comic movies want to be "divertenti".

Something that I want to stress is that "divertente" very often, indeed almost always, refers exactly to this. It doesn't refer to the more general idea conveyed by "piacevole" or "rilassante". "Divertente" in today's Italian means exaclty this: that makes you laugh.

This word was originally closer (in meaning) to the idea of "rilassante", "piacevole", but nowadays this word is typically used to point to the fact that something is funny.

Therefore its meaning is positive, so to speak: I watched a movie and it made me laugh.

By contrast, if I say that I watched a movie that I call "ridicolo", you can infer that I have an extremely bad opinion of it. I don't mean that this movie made me laugh.

Etymologically speaking, "ridicolo" means that something makes you laugh. However, it means that it makes you laugh in a bady way. Because it is laughable.

Another poignant example of the meaning of (the word) "ridicolo" could be:

"Si è vestito in modo ridicolo".

Or: "Pensa di essere originale, ma è soltanto ridicolo".

So, if I call something "ridicolo", I want to say that it makes you laugh, but its intention is not to make you laugh. That is: it makes you laugh in a bad way. Its goal is not to make people laugh, yet it does make people laugh in a bad way, as I was trying to say.

To do another example, I could say that a book is "divertente", or, alternatively, I could say that this book is "ridicolo".

If I say that it's "divertente", I mean that this book made me laugh.

By contrast, if I say that it's "ridicolo" I mean that this book is so devoid of meaning, or weird, that it is laughable.

Or, if I say that somebody says "cose divertenti", you infer that I have a high opinion of them. I want to say that they say stuff that makes me laugh.

By contrast, if I say that they say "cose ridicole", you won't infer that I have a high opinion of them, quite the opposite: you can infer that I have a very low opinion of them.

Based on each scenario, "ridicolo" can stress the fact that something is perceived as weird. For instance, I did this example: "Si è vestito in modo ridicolo". What does it mean here "ridicolo"? It means that it unintentionally makes people laugh.

Or it could mean that something is insignificant. For instance "uno stipendio ridicolo", "prendevo uno stipendio ridicolo". What does that mean? That (the wage) is extremely tiny. Again, in this case "ridicolo" suggests an extremely low opinion of something. If somebody says "stipendio ridicolo", that is not a good remark.

But let's do another example.

I could say: "Mi hanno fatto una proposta ridicola".

Or: "Mi hanno fatto una proposta divertente".

And, hopefully, not "indecente".

What does "una proposta ridicola" mean? It means that I found this proposal meaningless, laughable.

By contrast, if I say "mi hanno fatto una proposta divertente", I want to say that I found it funny.

In a similar fashion, I can say that a person is "ridicola", meaning that they are laughable.

Or, alternatively, I could say that a person is "divertente". In this case, I want to say that I find this person fun and/or witty. They make me laugh. "Divertente" is very close in meaning to Italian words such as "allegro", "comico", "spiritoso".

Here you can find a card to a playlist that I have created and in which I have grouped together other common mistakes in Italian.

In the past, I talked about a number of mistakes that are often made by non-native speakers learning the Italian language.

I have clustered together all these videos in this playlist. Please do take a look at them!

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