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    Interesting. I majored in Spanish/Linguistics and am now tackling Italian; which is naturally what brought me here. This is interestingly not disimilar from the use of "harto" in Spanish. Absolutely a word that can be used correctly to mean sort of like "had enough/sick of" [Estoy harto del frío- I'm sick of the cold]. Many speakers also use it like "a lot/ma you" [harto gente- a lot of of people; or assai persone] but it's not really correct. Still, in my experience very elitist wealthy whites in South America scoff at it as if "it would be unimaginable in an interview" but in reality it's co – user1233 Feb 14 '15 at 4:12
  • It’s so vulgar that it is used dozen of times in Dante Alighieri’s Commedia! (:-) – GuM Sep 27 '17 at 3:22


assai bello = very beautiful


assai persone = many people


Ho fatto assai per te = I did much for you




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    I never heard "assai persone". It is definitely wrong. – mmj Jan 10 '14 at 11:48
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    I live in Lombardy and I use assai as an adverb (never as an adjective) pretty often. It's a bit unusual but definitely not wrong nor vulgar. It may actually sound a bit bookish or even posh in the Northern half of the country. – Mauro Vanetti Dec 10 '14 at 10:40





Assai is a sort of superlative and it is absolutely not vulgar. It comes from the Latin word satis, which means very or much depending on the usage. In Southern Italy, it is often used as an adverb with the same meaning. For example:

[Correct usage] Un uomo assai famoso (A very famous man.)
[Southern Italian usage] Io ho mangiato assai. (I ate too much.)

TL;DR: No, it's not vulgar.




In the spoken, everyday language it may appear:

  3. Funny (because of 2)


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  • That's why one should probably hope to have someone like you as the interviewer! :) However, you can't be always that lucky. Better safe than sorry... – gd1 Feb 9 '14 at 6:06
  • It may be awkward in speech for precisely the opposite reason than being vulgar. :-) – Mauro Vanetti Dec 10 '14 at 10:44

I think assai is fine used conversationally to mean "much/very" as described by several people above. Certainly it is used in this way in Lazio, Tuscany and Emilia-Romagna.

It has a more poetic, old-fashioned tone when used adverbially or adjectivally after the expression/word it is qualifying, which is more common in the south, esp. Naples.

In Neapolitan, it is "assaje", as in the very famous folk song "Te voglio bene assaje", referenced in Lucio Dalla's song "Caruso".

Showing you have a knowledge and awareness of this part of Italian heritage would be impressive to your Italian friends, if they are not too ignorant to know it themselves.


Assai is not a vulgar word. It is and old-fashioned word though, which was mainly used in poetry. Sometimes, is also used in southern/central Italy as part of local dialects, but even in this case, it's not vulgar at all. It is just an old-fashioned way to make a superlative (as others pointed out).

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    I'm not sure "mainly used in poetry" is correct. – egreg Jan 13 '14 at 9:01

I think this is a great word, and I have been endeavoring to get to know it better. It sounds very similar to the French word, "assez" (pronounced "assAY"), meaning "enough", and a link someone above posted about its etymology confirms this. The south of Italy was long an outpost of French influence (see Wikipedia on "Southern Italy"), so it is not surprising that the word is used more there.

It doesn't seem like a vulgar word to me, but I wonder whether when some people say that it is, what they mean is that it is not highbrow, "proper" Italian, but colloquial street language primarily of working people. The root of the word, vulgar, does not have to do, incidentally, with being profane or rude, but simply common.

The character of this expression is, from what I can tell, essentially one that is focused on emphasizing something by deliberate understatement - like when people say, "Enough!" but really they mean that much more than enough has been said. I've often heard it used as a stand alone word. "Assai..." plus some raised eyebrows... meaning, suggestively, "a L O T..."., It's a much more suggestive word than "molto", which has a sort of prosaic, numerical quality.

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    Welcome to Italian.SE! Assai is not vulgar, and it is standard Italian (it is true it is used more often in the South, but it's not unheard of in the North either). It is indeed a cognate of assez, but like the French equivalent it is often used also in formal prose. – Denis Nardin Apr 13 '19 at 16:47

Caruso by Lucio Dalla (https://i.stack.imgur.com/YlQsZ.png)

In the lyrics of the song in the image I posted, you will see "assai"

This is not vulgar. My nonna uses it often to mean "a lot," "a great deal," etc. My nonna is Calabrese and my other Sicilian nonni understand her usage of it. It is not limited to Lazio and Tuscany etc. In usage.

  • Notice that the lyrics of that song, while not actually in Neapolitan dialect, hint at it and contain several non-standard Italian terms and uses (such as te for ti, dint' for dentro) etc., so perhaps it is not the best text to ascertain the use of assai in standard Italian. (By the way, sai is a whole different word, meaning “you know”.) – DaG Sep 19 '17 at 15:45

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