Italian Question Words: Full List with Examples

Quick Answer:
Italian question words (chi, che/cosa, dove, quando, quanto, quale, come, perché) are used to ask about people, things, place, time, quantity, choice, manner, and reason. Unlike English, Italian usually keeps the same word order in questions and relies on intonation and punctuation rather than verb inversion.

What does “cena” mean? When is dinner? Where is the restaurant? How do I get there? How much does the pasta cost? These are all questions you may want to ask in Italian, and to do that, you are going to need to learn the Italian question words. In this article, we take an in-depth look at each of them, so you can feel confident asking the things you need to ask to find out what you need to know.

Italian Question Structure

Italian is not a complicated language to learn, especially for those whose native language is English, a point often highlighted when discussing whether Italian is an easy language to learn. However, there is something to keep in mind when formulating questions in Italian: Italian questions follow a different structure than English ones.

English Question Format

In English, we usually put the verb before the subject of a sentence to make a question, like so:

Is she sleeping? (Which is the inverted form of the answer: “She is sleeping.”)

Question words like who, what, where, when, why, and how come before the verb:

Why is she sleeping?

Auxiliary verbs like “do/does” may also be used after the question word:

How does she sleep all day?

Italian Question Format

In Italian, the word order is reversed. Italian questions use the SVO or Subject-Verb-Object format, like this:

Mangi pane con burro?
Do you eat bread with butter?

Note: Italian doesn’t have an extra auxiliary verb in the present tense because “do/does” is understood by the verb and the question mark at the end.

When a question word is added, though, things change. The verb moves to the beginning and the order becomes Question Word-Verb-Rest of Sentence.

Dove sono le mie scarpe?
Where are my shoes?

Italian Question Words

Just like in English, there are luckily a limited number of Italian question words to learn. There are just eight simple words, and you can find examples of all of them below.

Chi – Who

In Italian, “chi” means “who,” and is used to ask things like “who is that?” or “who are you?” It refers to a person, and can be used as a question all by itself (“Chi?”) or placed in the “Question Word” position in the sentence structure we described before – so, at the beginning of the sentence.

Chi sei?
Who are you?

Chi ha mangiato tutta la torta?
Who ate all the cake?

Che or Cosa – What

There are two different ways to ask “what?” in Italian: “che” and “cosa.” Both can be used in any circumstance, as this is not a situation where one word is more formal than the other. You can even use them together!

Che hai mangiato a colazione?
What did you eat for breakfast?

Cosa hai mangiato a colazione?
What did you eat for breakfast?

Che cosa hai mangiato a colazione?
What did you eat for breakfast?

(As you can see, every version of this means exactly the same thing. The choice of word is based on personal preference and local customs.)

Dove – Where

When you want to ask where something or someone is, you use the word “dove.” Be careful, though, as this is spelled exactly like the English word “dove,” which is a type of bird, but in Italian it is pronounced “dov-eh” (and, obviously, has a completely different meaning).

Dove sono i bambini?
Where are the kids?

Another thing to note about “dove” is that it can change form in questions. Very often, it becomes a contraction when using the verb “è” to mean “is.” You form this contraction by removing the final “e” of “dove,” adding an apostrophe, and then adding “è” with no space between them, like so:

Dov’è la biblioteca?
Where is the library?

Quando – When

Another important Italian question word to learn is “quando,” which means “when.” It helps to establish at what point things did or will happen in time. The response is often a time, date, or a year. 

Quando sei arrivato in Italia?
When did you arrive in Italy?

Quanto – How Much/How Many

“Quanto” means either “how much” or “how many.” The form of this word changes based on the gender and the number of whatever you are asking about, with the final letter changing to reflect that. “Quanto” is singular while “quanti” and “quante” are the plural masculine and feminine forms, respectively. Here are some examples to make it clearer:

Quanto costa?
How much does it cost?

Quanti gatti hai?
How many cats do you have?

Quante scarpe sono?
How many shoes are there?

Quale – Which

“Quale” corresponds to the English “which” and also changes based on the number of what you are asking about. While “quale” is singular, “quali” is plural.

Quali libri sono miei?
Which books are mine?

Quale gusto vorresti?
Which flavor would you like?

Come – How

“Come” may be one of the most-used Italian question words. It means “how” and can be used to ask everything from how someone is doing to how something is done to how something should look. Like “dove,” it looks like the English word “come” (to arrive or approach), but is pronounced differently: “com-eh.”

Come stai?
How are you?

Perché – Why

You might hear this one from your kids a lot! “Perché” means “why.” Like most of the other words on this list, it can be used on its own as simply “Perché?” or at the beginning of a sentence.

Perché Lucia non è qui? Why isn’t Lucia here?

FAQs

What are the five Ws in Italian?

In English, the five Ws are “who, what, where, when, and why,” but in Italian none of them start with “W!” Instead, they are (in order) “chi, che/cosa, dove, quando, e perché.”

What are interrogatives in Italian?

Interrogatives are question words like “chi” (who), “cosa/che” (what), “come” (how), “quando” (when), “dove” (where), “perché” (why), “quale” (which), and “quanto” (how much/how many).

Final Takeaway

Italian question words are simple to learn, and will help you to ask everything you need to know in Italian. To see them used by native Italian speakers in videos and shows, check out Jolii.ai today.