8 Italian Question Words You Need to Know [with Examples and Audio]

Question words are a key piece of figuring out any language.

How can you communicate effectively if you can never ask anything?

Italian question words (also known as “Italian interrogatives”) are pretty similar to English: Who, what, when, where, why, how, which and how much/many.

It’s not quite as simple as just translating the words from English, though.

In this post, you’ll learn everything you need to know about the eight main question words in Italian and how to use them to get all your questions answered.

Contents

• Italian Question Words
• • Chi? — Who?
  • Perché? — Why?
  • Dove? — Where?
  • Come? — How?
  • Che?/Cosa? — What?
  • Quando? — When?
  • Quale? — Which?
  • Quanto? — How many?
• And One More Thing...

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Italian Question Words

Here are the eight main Italian question words that you should know:

In the sections below, I’ll explain how to use each of these words and share some examples so you can see them in context. 

Chi? — Who?

Chi functions as a standard question word. For “whose,” you use the phrase di chi.

Let’ see some examples of both: 

With a slight change to che , it can also be used as a relative pronoun:

Lui è la persona che legge. (He’s that person who/that reads.)

Che is a homophone that has a few other meanings, which we’ll get to later on.

Perché? — Why?

The word perché is a little tricky because it’s actually a homophone. It commonly means “why,” but it can also mean “because.”

This might get a little confusing in sentences, so be sure to take note of the context to deduce which version is being used.

Dove? — Where?

Dove will stand alone except when used before a verb that begins with an “e,” in which case you simply follow this formula: dove + è = dov’è.

Let’s see both forms in some example questions: 

Come? — How?

You might be familiar with this word from the well-known Italian greeting Come stai?  (How are you?). If you’re asking how something is, be sure to write it as com’è, as with dov’è.

Come can also be used to mean “as with” or “like.”

Take a look at how these different uses work in practice:

Che?/Cosa? — What?

You might remember from earlier that che can be used to mean “who” as a relative pronoun. In the context of a question, however, it means “what.”

You can also tack on the word cosa to indicate a single question all on its own:  Che cosa? (What?)

Remember that cosa as a noun means “thing” or “it,” such as in the sentence “Non mi piace questa cosa”  (“I don’t like this thing”).

While che and cosa can both mean “what” individually and together, the context in which they’re used can vary. Certain parts of Italy may opt to use che, while others tend to prefer cosa. It all depends on where you are and the regional dialect.

The end of cosa can also change to cos’è when that form of “is” comes after.

Let’s take a look at a few of the many ways to say “what”:

Quando? — When?

For use as a relative pronoun, quando is pretty simple and tends to not change.

Check out these examples: 

Quale? — Which?

Note that both “which” and “who” as relative pronouns change into che in Italian.

This means that “The one which is blue” becomes “La cosa che è blu,”  just like it would be if the English sentence had used “who” or “that” instead of “which.”

Like question words such as come and dove, quale becomes qual è when used with the verb è. It’s incorrect to use an apostrophe between the two words so although it’s often done, don’t make it your habit!

Quanto? — How many?

This one may look a lot like quando, and they may be pronounced similarly, but these two words have very different meanings. Be sure to listen closely and take note of that one-letter difference!

Because quanto can be used to refer to multiple things, make sure to change the ending to reflect the number and gender of the subject.

For example, “How many apples?” becomes “Quante mele?”  while “How many dogs?” becomes “Quanti cani?”

Note that this rule does not apply to the phrase “Quanto costa?” as quanto becomes an adverb when placed next to a verb.

With some review and practice, you’ll be asking questions in Italian like a pro in no time at all!

To see these question words used in the context of authentic Italian media, you can check out a language learning program like FluentU.

So what are you waiting for? Brush up on your Italian interrogatives, then get out there are start asking some questions!

Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)

And One More Thing...

If you're as busy as most of us, you don't always have time for lengthy language lessons. The solution? FluentU!

Learn Italian with funny commericals, documentary excerpts and web series, as you can see here:

FluentU helps you get comfortable with everyday Italian by combining all the benefits of complete immersion and native-level conversations with interactive subtitles. Tap on any word to instantly see an image, in-context definition, example sentences and other videos in which the word is used.

Access a complete interactive transcript of every video under the Dialogue tab, and review words and phrases with convenient audio clips under Vocab.

Once you've watched a video, you can use FluentU's quizzes to actively practice all the vocabulary in that video. Swipe left or right to see more examples of the word you’re on.

FluentU will even keep track of all the Italian words you’re learning, and give you extra practice with difficult words. Plus, it'll tell you exactly when it's time for review. Now that's a 100% personalized experience!

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