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

In short: How to say what in Italian depends on the sentence: you can use che, cosa, or che cosa, and all three are correct and interchangeable in most situations. For who you always use chi. For which you usually pick quale. This guide walks through every Italian question word (i pronomi interrogativi), the regional and register preferences that real speakers follow, and the small traps that English speakers keep falling into.

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What’s the quick answer?

Italian has a small set of question words (pronomi e aggettivi interrogativi). Each one points to a specific kind of information: person, thing, choice, quantity, manner, place, time, or reason. Here’s the whole toolkit on one page, before we look at the two or three cases that actually confuse English speakers.

Italian	English	Used for	Example
Chi?	Who? / Whom?	People (always)	Chi è? Who is it?
Che? / Cosa? / Che cosa?	What?	Things, actions, abstract ideas	Cosa fai? What are you doing?
Quale? / Quali?	Which?	Choice among known options	Quale preferisci? Which one do you prefer?
Quanto? / Quanta? / Quanti? / Quante?	How much? / How many?	Quantity (agrees in gender and number)	Quanti ne vuoi? How many do you want?
Come?	How?	Manner, condition, appearance	Come stai? How are you?
Dove?	Where?	Place	Dove abiti? Where do you live?
Quando?	When?	Time	Quando parti? When are you leaving?
Perché?	Why? / Because	Reason (same word asks and answers)	Perché? Why?

Six of those are straightforward: come, dove, quando, perché, quanto, quale map neatly onto English. The ones that need a closer look are chi and the three-way question che / cosa / che cosa, because English hides distinctions Italian makes explicit (and vice versa).

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When do we use chi for “who”?

Chi is the Italian question word for people. Only people. It never changes form (no singular/plural, no masculine/feminine), and it works as subject, object, or after a preposition:

• Chi ha vinto?
  Who won? (chi as subject)
• Chi hai chiamato?
  Who did you call? (chi as object)
• Con chi esci stasera?
  Who are you going out with tonight? (preposition + chi)
• Di chi è questo libro?
  Whose book is this? (possession)
• A chi lo hai dato?
  Who did you give it to?

Notice the last three: in Italian the preposition always comes before chi. English lets us say “Who are you going with?” but Italian speakers would never split con from chi. A sentence like *Chi vai con? sounds completely broken to a native ear.

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Cosa, che, or che cosa for “what”: which one?

Here’s the short answer to how to say what in Italian, the one most textbooks bury: in everyday Italian all three are correct, and most native speakers use them interchangeably. Cosa as an interrogative pronoun is simply short for che cosa, and the three forms belong to the same everyday repertoire. They differ in register and rhythm, not in meaning.

Where they differ is in register and rhythm, not in meaning:

• Che cosa is the full, neutral form. It sounds a touch more deliberate and is the safest choice in formal writing. Che cosa hai detto?
• Cosa (on its own) is extremely common in conversation, especially across the North and Center. It’s short, fast, and entirely correct. Cosa hai detto?
• Che (on its own) is equally correct and slightly more colloquial or elevated depending on context. Older speakers and more literary registers lean on che. Che hai detto?

You will hear all three on the same street in the same afternoon. Pick whichever rhythm fits your sentence. If in doubt, cosa is the most neutral choice in spoken Italian and che cosa is the most neutral choice in writing.

A few more working examples:

• Cosa vuoi mangiare?
  What do you want to eat?
• Che stai leggendo?
  What are you reading?
• Che cosa pensi di lui?
  What do you think of him?
• Di cosa parlate?
  What are you talking about? (preposition + cosa; di che cosa parlate is fine too)
• A cosa servi questo?
  What’s this for?

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Is there a regional preference between cosa and che?

Yes. Once the three neutral forms are familiar, the regional tilt becomes the next layer. It’s one of those small markers that Italians notice unconsciously even if no one teaches them in school. Broadly:

• North and Center means cosa dominates in casual speech. Cosa fai?, Cosa c’è?, Cosa vuoi?
• Center-South and literary writing means che on its own is slightly more frequent. Che dici?, Che fai?, Che vuoi?
• Che cosa is understood and used everywhere, and is the default in news, formal documents, and careful speech.

None of this is a hard rule. A Milanese will ask Che fai? without a second thought, and a Roman will ask Cosa fai? just as naturally. But if you listen to enough Italian radio or podcasts you’ll start to pick up the tilt.

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How does interrogative che differ from relative che?

It helps to know that che has two jobs in Italian. One is interrogative (the one we’re studying here): Che vuoi?
What do you want? The other is relative, where it means “that / which / who” inside a longer sentence: Il libro che leggo
The book that I’m reading.

English keeps these separate (what asks questions, that/which/who connect clauses), so English speakers sometimes try to import the split into Italian. Don’t. Interrogative che stands at the start of a question. Relative che lives inside a clause and connects the two halves:

• Che film hai visto?
  What film did you watch? (interrogative)
• Il film che ho visto era lungo.
  The film that I watched was long. (relative)

Same spelling, two completely different functions. The position in the sentence tells you which one is doing the work. Italian relative pronouns are a topic on their own, with their own rules for che, cui, il quale. That’s a separate guide. For asking questions, the interrogative che is the one you want.

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When do we pick quale over che for “which”?

Both quale and che can translate “which” or “what kind of”, but they push the question in slightly different directions. When you actually mean “which one” among a known set, quale is your word. Quale asks you to choose among a known set; che asks an open question about type or identity.

• Che libro leggi?
  What (kind of) book are you reading? (open: could be a thriller, a memoir, anything)
• Quale libro leggi?
  Which book are you reading? (closed: picking from a set, maybe the two on the table)
• Quale preferisci, il rosso o il bianco?
  Which do you prefer, the red or the white?

Quale has a plural quali and agrees with the noun: Quali film ti piacciono? (Which films do you like?). Che is invariable: Che film ti piacciono? works too, with a slightly more open flavor.

One quirk: before the verb essere in some fixed questions, qual drops the final -e and is written without an apostrophe: Qual è il tuo nome?
What’s your name? Qual è il problema?
What’s the problem? Writing *qual’è with an apostrophe is one of the most common spelling mistakes even native speakers make. The correct form is simply qual è, two words, no apostrophe.

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How do we ask “how much” and “how many”?

Quanto is the Italian “how much / how many”, and unlike the other question words it agrees in gender and number with whatever it asks about:

Form	Used for	Example
quanto	masculine singular, or uncountable when general	Quanto costa? How much does it cost?
quanta	feminine singular, uncountable	Quanta acqua vuoi? How much water do you want?
quanti	masculine plural, countable	Quanti anni hai? How old are you? (literally: how many years)
quante	feminine plural, countable	Quante persone? How many people?

Used on its own, quanto also asks a general “how much / to what extent” question: Quanto ti piace?
How much do you like it? Italian uses quanto in a lot of idiomatic age and time questions where English uses a noun, which catches beginners off guard. Quanti anni hai? is literally “How many years do you have?” and that’s the normal way to ask someone’s age (avere, not essere, which surprises most learners). Quanto is not strictly a “what” word, but it lives in the same family of question words because English speakers reach for it whenever they’d say “how much” or “how many”. This “have” pattern is one reason we recommend getting comfortable with the four Italian modal verbs and avere / essere patterns early.

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What about “how”, “where”, “when”, and “why”?

These four are the easy ones. Once the che / cosa / che cosa triplet is settled, the remaining wh- words are a free ride: they never change form and they work just like their English counterparts:

• Come means “how”: Come ti chiami?
  What’s your name? (literally: How do you call yourself?); Come sta?
  How are you (formal)?
• Dove means “where”: Dove sei?
  Where are you?; Di dove sei?
  Where are you from? (preposition + dove)
• Quando means “when”: Quando arrivi?
  When are you arriving?; Da quando?
  Since when?
• Perché means “why” (and also “because”): Perché ridi?
  Why are you laughing? Perché sono felice
  Because I’m happy.

That last one is worth a pause. In Italian, the same word perché asks the question and gives the answer. Context disambiguates. If the word starts a question (intonation rising, question mark at the end in writing), it’s “why”. If it starts a reply or a subordinate clause, it’s “because”.

One curious Italian habit: we can start an elided question with just E + a name or a pronoun to mean “What about X?”. E Mario? E tu?
What about Mario? What about you? It’s idiomatic and everywhere in conversation.

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What mistakes do English speakers make?

Five slips English speakers most often make when learning how to say what in Italian and the other question words in the first weeks:

1. Splitting the preposition from the question word. In English “Who are you with?” is fine. In Italian the preposition sticks to the question word at the front: Con chi sei? (not *Chi sei con?). Same for di cosa, a chi, per quale motivo, da dove. If you want a refresher on how Italian prepositions behave in general, see our complete guide to Italian prepositions.
2. Using chi for things. Chi is only for people. Chi è? at the door means “Who is it?”, not “What is it?”. For a thing, use cosa / che / che cosa.
3. Writing qual’è with an apostrophe. The correct form is qual è, two words, no apostrophe. Native Italians make this mistake constantly, but it’s still wrong.
4. Agreeing quale incorrectly. Quale is singular, quali is plural. No gender change. Quali libri?, not *Quale libri?.
5. Forgetting the four forms of quanto. Ask Quanta pasta? at an Italian dinner, not *Quanto pasta?. Pasta is feminine, singular, uncountable.

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A bar conversation with real question words

Two friends, Ethan and Chiara, meet for a quick espresso before work. This is how Italian question words land in a real-world exchange. Watch every question word in action:

That short scene covers eight different question words: come, cosa, quanti, quale, perché, con chi, dove, a che ora, quando. Read it aloud twice and you’ll hear how they flow, and you’ll get a feel for how to say what in Italian without having to think about it.

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Now you know how to say what in Italian three different ways, when to reach for chi, and when quale beats che. Want to push these question words into real conversation? Join our A2 to B1 Italian course in Milano to drill exactly these patterns with a live teacher, or book a private one-to-one lesson shaped around your weak spots.

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FAQ: Italian question words