In English, the verb that goes with question is ask: you "ask a question." In Italian, the verb that goes with domanda is fare: you literally "make a question" — fare una domanda. Substituting dire (to say/tell) — the verb that often translates to ask in indirect speech — produces a sentence that is not just stylistically off but plainly wrong: gli dico una domanda is the kind of error that immediately marks a learner as still mapping English onto Italian word for word.
This page covers the fare una domanda collocation, the alternative verbs chiedere and domandare, why dire is wrong here, and the broader family of fixed fare expressions where Italian uses fare in places English would use a different verb entirely. For the full breakdown of chiedere vs domandare, see Chiedere vs Domandare.
The wrong pattern
English speakers — especially when they have just learned that dire means "to tell" or "to say" — extend it to the act of asking, because in English you can say "Let me tell you my question" or "I told her a question" in some marginal contexts. In Italian this transfer fails completely.
❌ Gli dico una domanda.
Wrong — literally 'I tell him a question.' Dire is for declaratives, not for posing questions.
❌ Posso dirti una domanda?
Wrong — same error. The Italian fixed expression is fare una domanda.
❌ Il professore ha detto molte domande agli studenti.
Wrong — should be 'ha fatto molte domande'.
❌ Voglio dire una domanda al medico.
Wrong — fare, not dire.
The errors above are not random — they all reflect the same deep confusion: trying to squeeze the act of posing a question into a verb (dire) that Italian reserves for declaring, narrating, or reporting. Dire answers "what did they say?"; it does not answer "how did they ask?"
The right pattern: fare una domanda
The fixed Italian collocation is fare + una domanda: literally "to make a question." This is one of the so-called verbi supporto ("support verbs") — verbs that, paired with a specific noun, replace what would be a single verb in many other languages.
✅ Gli faccio una domanda.
I'll ask him a question.
✅ Posso farti una domanda?
Can I ask you a question?
✅ Il professore ha fatto molte domande agli studenti.
The professor asked the students lots of questions.
✅ Voglio fare una domanda al medico.
I want to ask the doctor a question.
✅ Mi ha fatto una domanda imbarazzante.
He asked me an awkward question.
Note the syntactic frame: the person being asked is marked with the dative — gli (to him), ti (to you), al medico (to the doctor) — while the noun domanda is the direct object of fare. This is the same pattern English uses with ask, but the verb is different.
The simpler alternative: chiedere
Italian also has a verb that means to ask directly, with no domanda noun attached: chiedere. Where fare una domanda is "to pose a question" (asking abstractly), chiedere is "to ask for / to ask whether" (asking specifically and content-fully).
✅ Gli chiedo l'ora.
I'll ask him the time.
✅ Le ho chiesto se voleva venire.
I asked her whether she wanted to come.
✅ Ti chiedo un favore.
I'm asking you a favor.
✅ Le chiederò il numero di telefono.
I'll ask her for her phone number.
The two patterns coexist and overlap. Posso farti una domanda? and Posso chiederti una cosa? are both polite openers, used in roughly the same situations. The first signals "I have a formal question to ask"; the second is breezier, "Can I ask you something?"
Domandare: the rarer cousin
A third verb, domandare, also exists. It is the morphological match of domanda — same root — and is largely interchangeable with chiedere in many contexts. In modern everyday Italian, however, chiedere is far more common; domandare tends to feel slightly more formal or literary, and it is used most freely with interrogative clauses.
✅ Ti domando se vuoi venire con noi.
I'm asking whether you want to come with us. (slightly formal)
✅ Mi sono domandato perché non ha risposto.
I wondered (asked myself) why she didn't reply.
✅ Ti chiedo se vuoi venire con noi.
I'm asking whether you want to come with us. (more colloquial)
In short: chiedere is the everyday to ask; domandare is its slightly fancier sibling, often used reflexively (domandarsi, "to wonder, ask oneself"); fare una domanda is the fixed phrase for the abstract act of posing a question. Dire is none of these — keep it for declarative content.
Why dire is wrong: the semantics
Dire means to say or tell. Its natural objects are propositional contents — facts, news, opinions, narratives — and clauses introduced by che:
✅ Mi ha detto che è stanco.
He told me he is tired. (dire + che + declarative)
✅ Le ho detto la verità.
I told her the truth. (dire + noun referring to a fact)
✅ Dice sempre cose interessanti.
She always says interesting things.
A domanda, by contrast, is not a fact you are reporting. It is an action you are performing on the listener — you are setting up a knowledge gap and inviting them to fill it. Italian construes that action with fare (to make/perform), not with dire (to declare). The two verbs occupy different semantic territories, and domanda belongs squarely in fare's territory.
This is also why dire una domanda is not a question of register — it is not "informal but acceptable" or "regional." It is structurally wrong, the way English I made him a question is structurally wrong.
The English angle
There is an important nuance to flag for English speakers: the English construction "tell me a question" is also wrong. So this is not pure transfer — you are not making the mistake because you would make it in English. You are making it because, when juggling Italian verb choices, you reach for the verb you happen to know best (dire) and force it into a slot it doesn't fit.
The remedy is not to "translate from English better"; it is to memorize the Italian collocation directly. Fare una domanda is one block. Chiedere qualcosa a qualcuno is another block. Plug them in whole; don't try to assemble them piece by piece from English parts.
The wider fare family
Fare is the most productive support verb in Italian, and fare una domanda is one entry in a much bigger list. English speakers regularly mistranslate these because the English verb is different in each case (take, do, have, give, pay) — but in Italian, all of them collapse onto fare.
| Italian | Literal | English idiom |
|---|---|---|
| fare una domanda | make a question | ask a question |
| fare una passeggiata | make a walk | take a walk / go for a walk |
| fare colazione | make breakfast | have breakfast |
| fare la spesa | make the shopping | do the grocery shopping |
| fare le spese | make the purchases | go shopping (clothes etc.) |
| fare una foto | make a photo | take a photo |
| fare un esame | make an exam | take an exam |
| fare attenzione | make attention | pay attention |
| fare un viaggio | make a trip | take a trip |
| fare un sogno | make a dream | have a dream |
| fare la doccia | make the shower | take a shower |
| fare benzina | make gas | get gas / fuel up |
| fare un favore | make a favor | do a favor |
| fare festa | make party | celebrate / have a party / take a day off |
| fare amicizia | make friendship | make friends |
| fare male | make bad | hurt / be bad for you |
| fare bene | make good | do good / be good for you |
Domani facciamo colazione al bar prima del lavoro.
Tomorrow we'll have breakfast at the café before work.
Le faccio una foto qui davanti alla fontana.
I'll take a photo of you here in front of the fountain.
Devo ancora fare la spesa per il fine settimana.
I still have to do the grocery shopping for the weekend.
Fai attenzione, l'asfalto è bagnato.
Watch out, the road is wet.
A subtle one: fare un esame vs dare un esame
Italian distinguishes between taking an exam and giving an exam, and the choice of verb encodes which side of the desk you are on.
- fare un esame (make/take an exam) — what the student does. They sit for it.
- dare un esame — also "to take an exam," from the student's perspective, common in university contexts (a student says io devo dare l'esame di storia).
- fare un esame can also mean "to administer an exam" depending on context.
✅ Domani devo dare l'esame di matematica.
Tomorrow I have to take the math exam. (student speaking, university context)
✅ Ho fatto l'esame di guida la settimana scorsa.
I took the driving test last week.
The takeaway: dare un esame is not "to give an exam" in the sense of administering it. It is a fixed expression that, in university Italian, means the student is sitting for it. Fare l'esame is the more general "take/sit an exam." Use whichever feels natural for the context — but never translate "I took an exam" with prendere un esame (a tempting Anglicism, also wrong).
Drill: paired wrong/right
❌ Posso dirti una domanda veloce?
Wrong — fare, not dire.
✅ Posso farti una domanda veloce?
Can I ask you a quick question?
❌ La giornalista ha detto al ministro tre domande.
Wrong — fare.
✅ La giornalista ha fatto al ministro tre domande.
The journalist asked the minister three questions.
❌ Vorrei dirvi una domanda alla fine della presentazione.
Wrong — fare.
✅ Vorrei farvi una domanda alla fine della presentazione.
I'd like to ask you a question at the end of the presentation.
❌ Mi ha detto se ero d'accordo.
Borderline wrong — for direct asking, chiedere is the right verb. Dire + se in indirect speech does occur, but it is much rarer and feels off here.
✅ Mi ha chiesto se ero d'accordo.
He asked me if I agreed.
❌ Dico al cameriere il conto.
Wrong — for ordering or requesting, use chiedere.
✅ Chiedo al cameriere il conto.
I'll ask the waiter for the bill.
❌ Dimmi una domanda, qualunque cosa.
Wrong — should be 'fammi una domanda'.
✅ Fammi una domanda, qualunque cosa.
Ask me a question, anything.
❌ Gli studenti hanno detto domande dopo la lezione.
Wrong — fare.
✅ Gli studenti hanno fatto domande dopo la lezione.
The students asked questions after the class.
❌ Ti voglio dire un favore.
Wrong — for favors, use chiedere (asking) or fare (doing).
✅ Ti voglio chiedere un favore.
I want to ask you a favor.
✅ Ti voglio fare un favore.
I want to do you a favor.
❌ Ho detto al medico se la medicina aveva effetti collaterali.
Wrong — chiedere for asking whether.
✅ Ho chiesto al medico se la medicina aveva effetti collaterali.
I asked the doctor whether the medicine had side effects.
❌ Se hai dubbi, di' una domanda.
Wrong — fai una domanda.
✅ Se hai dubbi, fai una domanda.
If you have doubts, ask a question.
❌ Il poliziotto mi ha detto i documenti.
Wrong — chiedere for asking for / requesting.
✅ Il poliziotto mi ha chiesto i documenti.
The officer asked me for my documents.
❌ Vorrei dire una cosa al direttore.
Borderline — if you mean 'ask', this is wrong; chiedere or fare una domanda. If you genuinely mean 'tell, communicate', dire is fine.
✅ Vorrei chiedere una cosa al direttore.
I'd like to ask the director something.
Common Mistakes
❌ Lasciami dire una domanda.
Wrong — fare una domanda is fixed.
✅ Lasciami fare una domanda.
Let me ask a question.
❌ Dimmi se hai fame.
Acceptable when 'tell me whether you're hungry,' but wrong if you intend 'ask me' / 'are you hungry?' — that's chiedimi or just dimmi se… The point is dire ≠ chiedere here. Dimmi se… is asking the listener to declare an answer, fine in casual speech.
✅ Chiedimi qualunque cosa.
Ask me anything.
❌ Ho detto un'informazione al receptionist.
Wrong — chiedere un'informazione is the fixed expression for 'ask for information'.
✅ Ho chiesto un'informazione al receptionist.
I asked the receptionist for some information.
❌ Posso dirvi un piccolo favore?
Wrong — chiedervi.
✅ Posso chiedervi un piccolo favore?
Could I ask you all a small favor?
❌ Il bambino ha detto al padre un sacco di domande.
Wrong — fare.
✅ Il bambino ha fatto al padre un sacco di domande.
The kid asked his father a ton of questions.
Key takeaways
- The verb that goes with domanda is fare, never dire. Fare una domanda a qualcuno — "to ask someone a question."
- For asking content directly (without the noun domanda), use chiedere: chiedere qualcosa a qualcuno, chiedere se, chiedere di.
- Domandare is largely interchangeable with chiedere but feels slightly more formal or literary; the reflexive domandarsi means "to wonder."
- Dire is for declarative content — facts, opinions, narratives, news. It does not pose questions.
- Fare is a productive support verb in Italian: many things English does with take, do, have, pay are fare in Italian — fare una passeggiata, fare colazione, fare la spesa, fare una foto, fare un esame, fare attenzione.
- The error gli dico una domanda is structurally wrong, not stylistically off; treat it the way you would treat I made him a question in English.
- Memorize the collocations as whole blocks. Don't try to translate the individual pieces from English — Italian assembles them differently.
Now practice Italian
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Open the Italian course →Related Topics
- Chiedere vs Domandare vs RichiedereB1 — Three Italian verbs for 'to ask' — chiedere is the everyday workhorse, domandare leans deliberative, richiedere is formal or means 'to require'. The distinctions are subtle but real.
- Dire vs Parlare vs RaccontareA2 — Three Italian verbs for English's say/tell/talk — but Italian carves them by what comes after them. Dire takes content, parlare takes a topic, raccontare takes a story.
- Fare IdiomsA2 — Fare is Italian's support verb par excellence — fare colazione, fare la spesa, fare attenzione, fare male, fare il medico. Master these collocations and a huge slice of everyday Italian opens up.
- Fare: Full ConjugationA1 — Complete paradigm of fare (to do/make) — irregular -are verb with the hidden Latin stem fac-, the truncated imperative fa', and the high-frequency causative construction faccio fare.
- Dire: Full ConjugationA1 — Complete paradigm of dire (to say/tell) — a Latin contraction whose hidden stem dic- shows up across nearly every tense.
- Common Mistakes: OverviewA1 — A map of the patterns English speakers consistently get wrong when learning Italian. From auxiliary selection (avere vs essere) to piacere inversion (mi piace vs io piaccio), pro-drop violations, double-negation resistance, and the article-with-family-member trap (mio padre, not il mio padre). Each pattern links to a dedicated subpage with drills and explanations. These are the patterns; here is how to fix them.