“Judge a man by his questions rather than by his answers,” said the French free speech advocate Voltaire. And indeed, questions are not only a fundamental part of every language, but one of the basic forms of human communication and, in the end, of our everyday life.
In this comprehensive guide, we’ll teach you all the most important Italian question words. You’ll learn how to ask questions in Italian and be able to manage all the millions of circumstances where you could need to drop a question mark. From asking something trivial to break the ice with a cute stranger, to getting on one knee to ask the most important question of your life to the one you love in Italian… Yes, we know, we are romantic!
Now let’s dive in and answer all your questions about, well, questions in Italian. But before that, a little grammar introduction.
What are interrogative pronouns, adverbs, and adjectives?
Question words are words whose role is to introduce a question. They can be adverbs, adjectives, or pronouns, but unless you actually LOVE grammatical analysis, you can avoid worrying about this. Some examples in English are: when, how, who, what, where, which, and so on. As you will see, Italian question words are not so different from the English ones, except for one significant difference.
Notable differences between English and Italian question words
Even if Italian question words are fairly similar to the English ones from a grammar perspective, there’s one major difference to consider: some of them have singular/plural and male/female forms.
If this might be hard to grasp for learners speaking languages that are less sensitive to gender and number, there’s only one basic rule to remember: when a question concerns the quality or quantity of a specific object or person, the question word must be declined.
Let’s take a look at an example:
Quanto zucchero vuoi nel caffè?
How much sugar do you want in your coffee?
In this case, since the gender of the Italian word for “sugar,” “zucchero” is male, the question word “quanto” (meaning “how much”) referring to “sugar” should be male too.
No worries, we’ll show you plenty of examples over the course of this guide. Let’s continue!
How to ask questions in Italian
As in most languages, questions in Italian might be introduced by a question word or not. Let’s think of this example in English:
- Do you want sugar in your coffee?
- How much sugar do you want in your coffee?
The first kind of question, where there’s no question word, can be answered with a simple yes or no. The second one can’t be answered by a simple yes or no and is introduced by a question word.
While in English the two questions have the same formula with the only exception of the question word, Italian is different. Let’s explore how to ask each type of question in Italian.
Yes/No questions in Italian
Here, you have the formula for Yes/No questions in Italian:
(subject) + verb + complement + ?
Basically, in written text, you formulate a normal sentence and simply add a question mark at the end. As it’s often the case in Italian, most of the time, you don’t need to specify the subject since the verb will naturally make it explicit. You should specify the subject when there’s a risk of misunderstanding or when you want to highlight it for some reason.
Examples:
- Hai già mangiato?
- Have you already eaten?
- Anna è andata a lavorare ieri?
- Did Anna go to work yesterday?
In spoken language, you’ll have to use a specific inflection to express the interrogative intent of what you’re saying. A crucial element of the Italian language, inflection can be learned at best by following a course with a professional, native Italian teacher.
Other questions
This is the formula for every other question:
Question word + verb + complement + (subject) + ?
As you can see, in this case, the verb (and eventually the complement) should precede the subject, when expressed.
Examples:
Cosa fai a Capodanno?
What do you do on New Year’s Eve?
Quando arriva a casa Paola?
When will Paola arrive home?
Italian question words: The complete list
As you already know at this point, question words - whether they are adverbs, pronouns, or adjectives - are a must know in every language, and that is also true for Italian. Here you have a two-part list of Italian question words, the first part for indeclinable words and the second one for those that should be declined.
We also have some good news for you: in most cases, they can also be used as exclamatory adverbs. Double treat! We’ll talk about this in a bit.
Indeclinable question words:
| English | Italian | Pronunciation | IPA |
| Where | Dove | Doh-veh | ˈdo.ve |
| When | Quando | Kwan-doh | ˈkwan.do |
| How | Come | Koh-meh | ˈko.me |
| How much | Quanto* | Kwan-toh | ˈkwan.to |
| What | Che | Keh | ˈke |
| What | Cosa | Koh-zah | ˈkɔ.za |
| What | Che cosa | Keh koh-zah | ˈke ˈkɔ.za |
| Who | Chi | Kee | ki |
| Why | Perché | Per-keh | perˈke |
| Why | Come mai | Koh-meh mah-ee | ˈko.me ˈmaj |
*when used as an adverb
Declinable question words:
| English | Italian | Pronunciation | IPA |
| Which (singular, m. and f.) | Quale | kwah-leh | ˈkwa.le |
| Which(plural, m. and f.) | Quali | kwah-lee | ˈkwa.li |
| How much(singular, m.) | Quanto* | Kwan-toh | ˈkwan.to |
| How much(singular, f.) | Quanta | Kwan-tah | ˈkwan.ta |
| How many(plural, m) | Quanti | Kwan-tee | ˈkwan.ti |
| How many(plural, f.) | Quante | Kwan-teh | ˈkwan.te |
*when used as an adjective
Now, let’s take a more in depth look at each one of them.
Dove
Meaning: Where
A classic interrogative adverb for questions involving place, dove can be elided when followed by a word starting with “e”.
| English | Italian | Pronunciation | IPA |
| Where do you live? | Dove vivi? | Doh-veh vee-vee? | ˈdo.ve vi-vi? |
| Where does your daughter go to school | Dove va a scuola tua figlia? | Doh-veh vah ah skwo-lah too-ah fee-llee-ah? | ˈdo.ve ˈva a ˈskwɔ.la ˈtu.a ˈfiʎ.ʎa? |
| Where is my bag? | Dov’è la mia borsa? | Doh-veh lah mee-ah bor-sah? | ˈdo.v ˈɛ la ˈmi.a ˈbor.sa? |
Quando
Meaning: When
Like dove, quando is an adverb and can be elided when followed by a word starting with “e.”
| English | Italian | Pronunciation | IPA |
| When will Marco leave? | Quando parte Marco? | Kwan-doh par-teh Mar-koh? | ˈkwan.do ˈpar.te ˈmar.ko? |
| When did you arrive? | Quando sei arrivato? | Kwan-doh sey arree-vah-toh? | ˈkwan.do ˈsɛj ar.riˈva.to? |
| When is your birthday? | Quand’è il tuo compleanno? | Kwan-deh eel twoh kom-pleh-an-noh? | ˈkwan.d ˈɛ il ˈtu.o kom.pleˈan.no? |
Come
Meaning: How
Come is another adverb and can be elided when followed by a word starting with “e”.
| English | Italian | Pronunciation | IPA |
| How are you? | Come stai? | Co-meh stah-ee? | ˈko.me ˈsta.i? |
| How are you called? (Meaning: What’s your name?) | Come ti chiami? | Co-meh tee kee-ah-mee? | ˈko.me ti ˈkja.mi? |
| How is your pasta? | Com’èla tua pasta? | Co-meh lah twa pas-tah? | ˈko.m ˈɛ la ˈtu.a ˈpa.sta? |
Che / Cosa / Che cosa
Meaning: What
These three Italian question words are synonyms, even if cosa and che cosa are slightly less formal.
| English | Italian | Pronunciation | IPA |
| What are you looking for? | Che cerchi? | Keh cer-kee? | ˈke ˈt͡ʃer.ki? |
| What was Michele doing? | Cosa faceva Michele? | Co-zah fa-cheh-vah Mee-keh-leh? | ˈkɔ.za faˈt͡ʃe.va mi.ke.le? |
| What does Giulia want for Christmas? | Che cosa vuole Giulia per Natale? | Keh co-zah vwoh-leh Gioo-lee-ah per Nah-tah-leh? | ˈke ˈkɔ.za ˈvuo.le ˈd͡ʒu.lja per naˈta.le? |
Chi
Meaning: Who
Chi is an interrogative pronoun that can’t be elided.
| English | Italian | Pronunciation | IPA |
| Who are you? | Chi sei? | Kee sey? | ki ˈsɛj? |
| Who’s that girl? | Chi è quella ragazza? | Kee eh kweh-lah rah-gah-tzah? | ki ˈɛ ˈkwel.la raˈɡat.t͡sa? |
| Who brought the cake? | Chi ha portato la torta? | Kee ah por-tah-toh lah tor-tah? | ki ˈa porˈta.to la ˈtor.ta? |
Perché / Come mai
Meaning: Why
Perchè and come mai are synonyms, even if come mai is slightly more colloquial.
| English | Italian | Pronunciation | IPA |
| Why don’t you come with us? | Perché non vieni con noi? | Per-keh non vee-eh-nee con no-ee? | perˈke non vje-ni con ˈnoj? |
| Why isn’t Maria eating? | Perché Maria non mangia? | Per-keh Maria non man-jah? | perˈke marja non ˈman.d͡ʒa? |
| Why have you postponed your departure? | Come mai avete rimandato la partenza? | Co-meh mah-ee aveh-teh ree-man-dah-toh lah par-ten-zah? | ˈko.me ˈmaj aˈve.te ri.manˈda.to la parˈtɛn.t͡sa? |
Quanto / Quanta / Quanti / Quante
Meaning: How much / How many
Quanto can be used as:
- an interrogative adverb; or
- with all its gender and number declinations, as an interrogative adjective for a noun. It’s a question word used for quantity.
| English | Italian | Pronunciation | IPA |
| How much do you usually run? | Quanto corri di solito? | Kwan-toh cor-ree dee soh-lee-toh? | ˈkwan.to ˈkor.ri di ˈsɔ.li.to? |
| How many tickets do you want? | Quanti biglietti volete? | Kwan-tee bil-leh-ttee voh-leh-teh? | ˈkwan.ti biʎˈʎet.ti voˈle.te? |
| How many suitcases did you bring? | Quante valigie hai portato? | Kwan-teh vah-lee-djeh ah-ee por-tah-toh? | ˈkwan.te vaˈli.d͡ʒe ˈaj porˈta.to? |
Quale / Quali
Meaning: Which
Quale, in its singular form, can be elided when followed by a word starting with “e,” but it doesn’t demand an apostrophe.
| English | Italian | Pronunciation | IPA |
| Which pizza does dad want? | Quale pizza vuole papà? | Kwah-leh pee-tzah vwoh-leh pah-pah? | ˈkwa.le |
| Which shoes did you choose? | Quali scarpe hai scelto? | Kwah-lee skar-peh ah-ee shel-toh? | ˈkwa.li |
| Which is your favorite color? | Qual è il tuo colore preferito? | Kwah-leh eel two coh-loh-reh preh-feh-ree-toh? | ˈkwa.le |
Using Italian question words as exclamatory adverbs
As mentioned before, Italian question words can also be used to introduce an exclamation, an expression of wonder, rage, sadness, or joy.
Some examples:
Quanto è caro quel negozio!
That shop is so expensive!
Che meraviglia!
What a wonder!
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