Italian All-in-One For Dummies (130 page)

Chi è?
(
Who is it?
)

Che tempo fa?
(
What's the weather like?
)

Come si dice _____?
(
How do you say_____ [in Italian]?
)

Cosa vuol dire _____?
(
What does _____ mean?
)

Dove/dov'è/dove sono _____?
(
Where/where is/where are _____?
)

Quanto costa?
(
How much is it?
)

Come?
(
Huh?
)
(
What did you say?
)

Perché?
(
Why?
)

Pronto?
(
Hello?
[used to answer the phone])

Digging Deeper: Asking More Complex Questions

To ask more complicated questions, beyond the most basic ones that require only a
yes, no,
or brief one- or two-word response, you need the interrogative adjectives, adverbs, and pronouns that lead to more profound conversations.

Here are some examples:

Chi è quel bell'uomo?
(
Who
is that handsome man?
)

Cosa ne sai?
(
What
do you know about her/him/it?
)

Quando è successo l'incidente e dove?
(
When
did the accident happen, and
where
?
)

Perché non sei andato alla festa?
(
Why
didn't you go to the party?
)

Quanti figli hanno?
(
How many
children do they have?
)

Quale formaggio preferisci?
(
Which
cheese do you prefer?
)

Employing interrogative adjectives

You use two adjectives to ask questions:
quanto/a
(
how much
),
quanti/e
how many
), and
quale
(
which
).

Adjectives modify a noun or pronoun; because
quanto
and
quale
are adjectives, you need to make them agree in number (singular, plural) and gender (masculine, feminine) with the words they modify.

Finding how much or how many with quanto

Quanto
(
how much; how many
) has four forms:

quanto
(masculine, singular)

quanti
(masculine, plural)