Italian All-in-One For Dummies (131 page)

quanta
(feminine, singular)

quante
(feminine, plural)

These words allow you to find out how much or how many of something you're asking about. Here are some examples, using the four forms of
quanto:

Quanto denaro hai con te?
(
How much money do you have with you?
)

Quanto tempo sarà necessario?
(
How much time will be needed?
)

Quanti libri hai letto quest'anno?
(
How many books have you read this year?
)

Quanti studenti ci sono in classe?
(
How many students are there in class?
)

Quanta carne mangi?
(
How much meat do you eat?
)

Quanta gente c'è?
(
How many people are there?
)

Quante ragazze sanno ballare?
(
How many girls know how to dance?
)

Quante macchine sono nuove?
(
How many cars are new?
)

Determining which one with quale

Quale
(
which
) has only two forms:

quale
(masculine/feminine, singular)

quali
(masculine/feminine, plural)

It means
which
and, like
quanto,
agrees in number with the thing you're asking about. Here are a few examples:

Quale libro preferisci?
(
Which book do you prefer?
)

Quale casa è la più moderna?
(
Which house is the most modern?
)

Dei documenti, qual è più importante?
(
Of the documents, which is more important?
)

When
quale
precedes the verb
è
(
is
), you drop the final
e
from
quale.
You do not, however, write
qual
and
è
together with an apostrophe; you write
Qual è la risposta giusta?
(
Which is the correct response
?) You can find more details about using
quale
as a pronoun in the later section “
Inquiring about who, what, which one, and how many: Interrogative pronouns
.” The following examples show the plural form of
quale:

Quali studenti vanno alla partita?
(
Which students are going to the game?
)

Quali sedie sono comode?
(
Which chairs are comfortable?
)

Requesting the location and time: Interrogative adverbs

Where
(
dove
) and
when
(
quando
) do you use interrogative adverbs? Evidently, here and now. These interrogative adverbs keep you up-to-date on events. For example:

Dove andiamo?
(
Where are we going?
)

Quando partiamo?
(
When are we leaving?
)

Come andiamo, in treno o in macchina?
(
How are we going, by train or by car?
)

You put all interrogative adverbs right next to the verb in your question.

Because
dove, quando,
and
come
are adverbs, they're invariable. You don't have to think about number and gender.

Determining where with dove

With
dove
(
where
), you often use
è
(
is
) or
sono
(
are
)
.
To produce the singular form (
where is
), you drop the final
e
from
dove
and use an apostrophe to connect it to the verb
è
. For example:

Dov'è la stazione?
(
Where is the station?
)

Dov'è il ristorante?
(
Where's the restaurant?
)

The plural is simply
dove sono
(
where are
):

Dove sono le chiavi?
(
Where are the keys?
)

Dove sono i turisti?
(
Where are the tourists?
)

Finding out when with quando

Quando
(
when
) stays the same whether you use it with a singular or a plural verb. See the following examples:

Quando arrivano gli ospiti?
(
When are the guests arriving?
)

Quando parte il treno?
(
When does the train leave?
)

Quando vieni a trovarmi?
(
When are you coming to see me?
)
(Literally:
When are you coming to find me?
)

Knowing how and what with come

The third interrogative adverb,
come,
has two meanings:
how
and
what.
If you don't catch what someone is saying, you ask
Come?
(a nicer form than the English
Huh?
but with the same meaning). It also means
what
when used with
essere
(
to be
). When used with
è
(
is
), you drop the final
e
and use an apostrophe to form
com'è
(
what is something or someone like?
[permanently]).

Com'è Elena?
(
What is Elena like?
)
È bionda con gli occhi azzurri.
(
She's blond with blue eyes.
)

Come sono gli studenti?
(
What are the students like?
)
Sono intelligenti.
(
They're bright.
)

You use
come
as
how
most frequently to ask about someone's health, a temporary condition.

Come sta, Signorina?
(
How are you, Miss?
)

Come stai, Cinzia?
(
How are you, Cinzia?
)

You always put
come
right next to a verb.

Come hanno giocato?
(
How did they play?
)

Come ti senti oggi?
(
How are you feeling today?
)

Inquiring about who, what, which one, and how many: Interrogative pronouns

When question words can stand alone, or aren't necessarily tied to a verb, they're called
interrogative pronouns.
They replace nouns and must agree in number (singular/plural) and gender (masculine/feminine) with those nouns. They don't stand alone exclusively, but they can. Also, not all interrogative pronouns change.
Chi
(
who
) and
che, che cosa, cosa
(
what
) are invariable;
quale
(
which one
) and
quanto/a/i/e
(
how much
;
how many
) aren't. Here are some example questions with these interrogative pronouns:

Chi mi ha telefonato?
(
Who called me?
)

Chi è?
(
Who is it?
)

Chi sarà?
(
Who could it be?
) (
Who will it be?
)

Che fai?
(
What are you doing?
)

Che cosa studi?
(
What are you studying?
)

Cosa è/Cos'è?
(
What is it?
)

A che ora mangiamo?
(
What time are we eating?
)

Quale
(
which one
) uses only two forms:
quale
(
which one?
[masculine/­feminine, singular]) and
quali
(
which ones?
[masculine/feminine, plural]).