How to ask questions in Italian

In this video lesson we will introduce some question words that are very useful and that are commonly used in daily situations, for example when you are introducing yourself to another person or asking for some information regarding things or people. 

We will now focus on COME - CHI and DOVE. 

Download here the free PDF of the lesson and follow along or take notes!

Remember that when we talked about the simple sentence structure we said that to make a question you simply needed to work on the intonation of the sentence. So if you took an affirmative sentence you simply make it a question by graphically inserting the question mark and by pronouncing it correctly.

• Mangi un gelato is an affirmative sentence 
• Mangi un gelato? is the interrogative sentence

Now we are adding these little words at the beginning of the question to make the question itself more structured and precise in what you are asking.

The structure of the sentence now changes a little bit. (Video on how to create a basic Italian sentence HERE!)

If you remember the basic affirmative sentence was like this

S V O

Subject Verb and Object 

but now we need to move things around a bit

This is how you need to structure the sentence:

QUESTION WORD + VERB + The rest of the sentence (including the subject)

COME 

Come si chiama l’insegnante?

(What’s the teacher’s name?)

COME SI CHIAMA L’INSEGNANTE?

• COME is the question word 
• SI CHIAMA is the verb 
• INSEGNANTE is the subject. 

You have already used this word to ask for a person’s name in the sentence 

COME TI CHIAMI?

If you ask me I would say MI CHIAMO GIULIA. 

COME in this case means WHAT if you translate that specific sentence otherwise it means HOW.

For example you have met a person, you have asked them for his or her name and you want to know how they are… this is what you will say:

• COME STAI? 
• COME VA?

Which translates to how are you? / How is it going?

Let’s also look at the question word CHI… literal translation would be WHO… 

• Chi è il ragazzo con la maglietta rossa?
• Who is the boy with the red t-shirt?

Question Word Verb + rest of sentence

So you have your question word, your verb and subject plus the rest of the sentence

I will list a few more sentences:

• Chi ha fatto i compiti? (Who did the homework?)
• Chi vuole un caffè? (Who wants a coffee?)
• Chi è tua sorella? ( ho is your sister... meaning which one is your sister)
• Chi è la più bella? (Who is the most beautiful?)

If you are still in that introduction situation with a new person you might also want to ask them for their nationality.

So your dialogue would be:

• Ciao,
• Come ti chiami?
• Mi chiamo Mario
• Di dove sei?

So now we can talk about the question word DOVE

Let’s analyze DI DOVE SEI? Literally it mean From where are you from?

So DOVE translates to WHERE

let’s use it in other sentences:

• DOVE mangiamo starerà? (Where are we eating this evening?) 
• DOVE andiamo in vacanza? (Where are we going on holiday?)
• DOVE sono le chiavi della macchina? (Where are the car keys?)

 So remember that you place the Question Word at the beginning then you add a verb and the rest of the sentence!

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