How to Say WHAT in Italian: Che, Cosa, Che Cosa, Chi (B1)

🔍 In short. To ask “what” in Italian you have three correct options: che, cosa, and che cosa. They all mean the same thing, but Italians use them differently depending on region, register, and the formulaic expression you are about to drop. This guide unpacks all three for italian che cosa, plus the related interrogatives chi (who), quale (which), quanto (how much), and the colloquial reinforcers Italians add when a question gets emotional.

You will see how a friend in Padova picks cosa by default, how a friend in Napoli picks che in the same situations, and why the more bookish che cosa still shows up in journalism and formal writing. Real examples come from a bookshop in Lucca, a sartoria, a market in Padova, and a phone call about a train to Trieste.

By the end of the guide you will know which form fits which conversation, when chi swaps for che, why quale beats che in front of a noun, and how to handle reported questions (mi ha chiesto cosa volevo) without freezing on the verb tense.

---

Three forms, one meaning: che, cosa, che cosa

Italian has three forms of the interrogative pronoun for “what”: che, cosa, and che cosa. The Treccani entry on this exact doubt confirms that all three are correct and widespread in contemporary Italian, both in direct and in reported questions. The choice between them is not a matter of grammar but of regional habit and register.

• Che volevi dirmi?
  What did you want to tell me?
• Cosa volevi dirmi?
  What did you want to tell me?
• Che cosa volevi dirmi?
  What did you want to tell me?

All three sentences are interchangeable. A friend from Bologna would default to cosa, a friend from Napoli to che, a journalist writing for a national paper might pick che cosa. None of them is more “correct”; the choice signals where you come from and how formal you want to sound.

Cosa: the northern default that became national

The form cosa as an interrogative pronoun started as a northern Italian habit, especially Florentine. Manzoni canonised it in the 1840 edition of I Promessi Sposi, replacing the older che cosa with the leaner cosa. From there it spread to journalism, fiction, and conversation, and today it is the most common form across all italian che cosa registers.

• Cosa stai facendo, Pietro?
  What are you doing, Pietro?
• Cosa hai comprato al mercato di Padova?
  What did you buy at the Padova market?
• Cosa ne pensi della libreria nuova di Lucca?
  What do you think of the new bookshop in Lucca?
• Di cosa ti ha parlato Caterina?
  What did Caterina talk to you about?

Notice the last example: when an italian che cosa question takes a preposition (di, a, con, su, per), the preposition stays attached to the pronoun: di cosa, a cosa, con cosa. You can also pull the preposition to the end in informal speech (cosa pensi di questo?), but the first construction is the cleaner choice.

Che: short, southern, formula-friendly

The bare che as an interrogative dominates central and southern Italy. It is also the default in a handful of fixed expressions that the rest of Italy uses without thinking, regardless of region.

• Che vuoi per cena stasera?
  What do you want for dinner tonight?
• Che dire? Non me l’aspettavo proprio.
  What can I say? I really wasn’t expecting it.
• Ma che ne so io, chiedi a Pietro!
  How would I know, ask Pietro!
• Che c’è? Sembri preoccupata.
  What’s the matter? You look worried.

The formulas che dire?, che ne so?, che c’è? are stable across Italy, no matter how often the same speaker uses cosa elsewhere. Treccani lists them as the strongest pocket of che usage in standard Italian italian che cosa.

Che cosa: the formal, bookish option

The full form che cosa survives in journalism, academic prose, opinion pieces, and formal speech. It is the form you would use in a written exam, in a formal email, or when defining a term: che cos’è uno spread? che cosa significa “trapassato”?

• Che cosa significa esattamente questa clausola?
  What exactly does this clause mean?
• Che cos’è il diritto d’autore in italiano?
  What is copyright in Italian?
• Che cosa intende il legislatore con questa norma?
  What does the legislator mean by this rule?
• Che cosa vi aspettate dal nuovo sindaco di Padova?
  What do you expect from the new mayor of Padova?

The elided form che cos’è is universal: never che cosa è in writing, always che cos’è. The same elision happens in cos’è, cos’hai, cos’hanno when cosa precedes a vowel-starting verb.

Chi: asking “who”

When the answer to the question is a person, italian che cosa swaps for chi. Unlike the three “what” forms, chi has no alternatives: it is the only Italian interrogative for “who”, “whom”, “whose” (with a preposition).

• Chi viene con noi a Trieste in macchina?
  Who is coming with us to Trieste by car?
• A chi hai dato le chiavi della sartoria?
  Who did you give the keys of the tailor’s shop to?
• Di chi è questo libro lasciato sul bancone?
  Whose is this book left on the counter?
• Con chi hai parlato della casa editrice?
  Who did you talk to about the publisher?

Note di chi è for ownership questions: this is the standard Italian construction for “whose is this?”. The English-style “whose book is this?” would be di chi è questo libro?, with the noun moved out of the question. Chi can also be reinforced with mai in literary writing: chi mai poteva immaginarlo?

Quale: “which” + noun

When the question presupposes a choice from a known set, italian che cosa gives way to quale. Where English uses “which” + noun, Italian uses quale + noun, agreeing in gender and number with the noun.

• Quale romanzo preferisci, quello di Tabucchi o quello di Pennacchi?
  Which novel do you prefer, the one by Tabucchi or the one by Pennacchi?
• Quali libri hai letto quest’estate?
  Which books did you read this summer?
• Quale giacca ti piace di più, la blu o la grigia?
  Which jacket do you like more, the blue one or the grey one?
• Qual è il problema, esattamente?
  What is the problem, exactly?

Quanto: how much, how many

For quantity, Italian uses quanto (how much) and quanti/quante (how many). The form agrees in gender and number with the noun.

• Quanto costa una giacca su misura da Caterina?
  How much does a tailored jacket from Caterina cost?
• Quanti libri vendi al giorno, in media, a Lucca?
  How many books do you sell per day on average in Lucca?
• Quante persone sono venute alla serata di letture?
  How many people came to the reading evening?
• Quanto tempo manca al treno per Trieste?
  How much time is left until the Trieste train?

Reinforcers: mai, diavolo, cavolo

Italian likes to add a reinforcer to italian che cosa questions when the speaker is annoyed, puzzled, or emotional. The reinforcer goes right after the interrogative pronoun.

• Mai (literary, emphatic): Chi mai avrebbe potuto immaginarlo?
  Who could ever have imagined it?
• Diavolo (colloquial, slightly stronger): Ma che diavolo combini in libreria a quest’ora, Pietro?
  What the heck are you doing here at this hour?
• Cavolo (colloquial, softer than diavolo): Cosa cavolo hai combinato con questa giacca?
  What on earth have you done with this jacket?
• Mai in italian che cosa: Chi mai poteva sapere che il treno sarebbe partito prima dell’orario?
  Who could have known the train would leave earlier than scheduled?

You will hear diavolo in everyday conversation across Italy, cavolo in slightly softer registers, and mai mostly in writing or in emphatic spoken sentences. Stronger reinforcers exist but veer into vulgarity and are best left to native speakers and to dialect.

Indirect questions: mi ha chiesto cosa

When a question is reported rather than asked directly, italian che cosa keeps the same pronoun forms but the verb tense shifts according to the consecutio temporum. The reporting verb (chiedere, domandare) is followed by the interrogative pronoun and the subordinate verb in indicative or subjunctive.

• Direct: «Cosa stai facendo?»
  Indirect: Pietro mi ha chiesto cosa stessi facendo.
  Pietro asked me what I was doing.
• Direct: «Chi è venuto in libreria?»
  Indirect: Elena mi ha chiesto chi fosse venuto in libreria.
  Elena asked me who had come to the bookshop.
• Direct: «Quale libro preferisci?»
  Indirect: Caterina mi ha domandato quale libro preferissi.
  Caterina asked me which book I preferred.
• Direct: «Quanto costa la giacca?»
  Indirect: Il cliente ha chiesto quanto costasse la giacca.
  The client asked how much the jacket cost.

Spoken Italian relaxes the subjunctive into the indicative (mi ha chiesto cosa stavo facendo), and both are accepted in conversation. Formal writing keeps the subjunctive. For the full tense-shift map of italian che cosa reported questions, see the companion guide on Italian Indirect Speech.

Cheat sheet: italian che cosa at a glance

One table, all the italian che cosa interrogatives. Keep it open while you draft your next question in Italian.

Pronoun	Asks about	Register / region	Example
cosa	thing / fact (neutral)	national default	Cosa stai facendo?
che	thing / fact (formula)	central-southern, formulas	Che vuoi per cena?
che cosa	thing / fact (formal)	journalism, writing	Che cos’è il copyright?
chi	person	universal	Chi viene con noi?
quale / quali	which (+ noun)	universal, agrees gender/number	Quale romanzo preferisci?
qual è	which is (no apostrophe!)	universal	Qual è il problema?
quanto / quanti / quante	how much, how many	universal, agrees	Quanto costa?

Three common mistakes

Three errors in italian che cosa flag a B1 sentence as written by a learner. Fixing them is fast.

Mistake 1. Writing qual’è with an apostrophe. Wrong: qual’è il problema. Correct: qual è il problema. The shortening of quale to qual before è is morphological, not orthographic; no apostrophe needed.

Mistake 2. Using che instead of quale before a noun for “which”. Wrong: Che romanzo preferisci? meaning “which novel” (intended choice between known options). Correct: Quale romanzo preferisci?. Che + noun exists but means “what kind of”, not “which from a set” (che lavoro fai? = “what work do you do?”).

Mistake 3. Forgetting the preposition before chi when the verb requires one. Wrong: Chi hai parlato?. Correct: Con chi hai parlato?. Verbs like parlare con, pensare a, fidarsi di, ricordarsi di take the preposition into the interrogative as well.

Where italian che cosa lives in real writing

The three italian che cosa forms split along register lines that you can spot in the Italian press, in fiction, in everyday speech. Tracking which form a writer or speaker picks tells you something about the surrounding context.

Newspapers and news headlines. Italian newspapers lean on cosa for headlines (snappier, shorter) and che cosa for opinion pieces or feature articles where the journalist wants a measured tone. A typical Corriere headline might read cosa succede ora in Medio Oriente, while an editorial in the same paper might open with che cosa significa, oggi, parlare di democrazia.

Literature and fiction. Contemporary Italian fiction since Manzoni has largely adopted cosa. Calvino, Pavese, Ginzburg, Tabucchi, Ferrante: all use cosa as the default in dialogue and free indirect speech. Che cosa shows up when a narrator wants a slightly formal or reflective register, or when a character is being deliberately precise.

Spoken conversation. Northern speakers use cosa across the board. Roman, Neapolitan, Sicilian speakers default to che for italian che cosa questions. Tuscans split: Florence prefers cosa, smaller towns and surrounding areas keep che. The fixed formulas (che dire?, che ne so?, che c’è?) are universal across regions.

Bureaucratic and academic prose. Documents from ministries, contracts, university papers favour che cosa, the most formal of the three. Cosa is acceptable in academic writing in humanities, less common in law and economics. Che alone is rare in this register, except in the fixed formulas.

A small dialogue: at Pietro’s bookshop

Count the italian che cosa interrogatives Pietro and Elena slip into the conversation: cosa hai, che genere, quali nuovi autori, cosa cerchi, che umore, di chi è, quanto vuoi spendere, che diavolo è, qual è, a chi. The whole system, in a single fitting visit.

Test your understanding

Ready to test italian che cosa in context? The quiz below mixes all the interrogative pronouns, with a few traps on qual è spelling and on the che vs quale choice.

Frequently asked questions

Five questions about italian che cosa interrogatives come up in every B1 cohort. The answers below draw on real usage and on the Treccani entry on interrogative pronouns.

Related guides

• Italian Relative Pronouns: Che, Cui, Il Quale, Whose: che as a relative pronoun versus che as italian che cosa interrogative.
• Italian Indirect Speech: the full tense-shift map for reporting italian che cosa questions.
• Italian Indicativo Tenses: the consecutio temporum that drives the subjunctive in reported italian che cosa questions.
• Accademia della Crusca: institutional source for the qual è / qual’è debate and other italian che cosa spelling questions.