Interrogative Pronouns: chi, che cosa/cosa, quale, quanto

Italian asks questions with a small, well-organised set of interrogative pronouns. Four of them do almost all the work: chi (who), che cosa / cosa / che (what), quale (which), and quanto (how much / how many). Each has its own logic of agreement — some inflect, some don't — and each pairs with prepositions in predictable ways. This page lays out the system from the start, with the forms, the rules, and the small but important orthographic traps that even native speakers occasionally trip over (the most famous: qual è without an apostrophe).

By the end you will know which pronoun to use for which kind of question, how each one behaves with prepositions, and how to keep their agreement straight.

1. The master table

A bird's-eye view before we work through each pronoun.

Compare this with English: who doesn't change form (matches chi), what doesn't change form (matches cosa), but which doesn't have a plural in English even when Italian quale gains quali, and how much / how many in English is essentially Italian quanto with its four agreement endings showing through. So Italian sets two of these pronouns to inflect — quale lightly, quanto fully — where English uses different lexical items.

2. Chi — who, whom

Chi is the simplest of the four. It is invariable, refers exclusively to people, and works as both subject and object of the question.

The same form covers singular and plural, masculine and feminine. Chi sei? and Chi siete? differ only in the verb; the pronoun stays the same.

2.1 Chi with prepositions

Because Italian doesn't strand prepositions, the preposition always comes before chi:

The combination di chi deserves special note: it asks whose in a possessive sense. Di chi è questo libro? — Whose book is this? This is the standard Italian way to ask about ownership.

3. Che cosa / cosa / che — what

Italian has three interchangeable ways to say what in a question:

• cosa — most common in everyday speech.
• che cosa — slightly more formal, "fuller" feel.
• che — shortest, also conversational, but watch out for confusion with relative che and conjunction che.

All three mean the same thing and can be used in the same slots:

In writing, cosa and che cosa are both standard; che alone is acceptable in casual writing and dialogue. Across regions, cosa dominates the north and centre, che is more common in Tuscany and parts of the south, and che cosa fills careful middle ground everywhere.

3.1 Cosa with prepositions

A small register note: with prepositions, the short form che (di che parli?, a che pensi?) is more conversational and a little brusque. Cosa and che cosa both sound smoother. In writing, prefer cosa or che cosa.

4. Quale / quali — which (one)

Quale is the question word for which — meaning which one out of a known set. It's the pronoun you use when there are options on the table and you're asking the listener to pick.

Crucially, quale inflects only in number, not in gender. The same form quale covers masculine and feminine singular; the same plural quali covers masculine and feminine plural.

4.1 The "qual è" trap

Italian truncates quale to qual in a single fixed context: directly before singular forms of essere beginning in e or è. The result is qual è, qual era. This is not an elision — it's a truncation (troncamento) — and therefore takes no apostrophe in modern standard Italian. Note that the truncation applies only to the singular quale; the plural quali never truncates: quali sono, quali erano, never qual sono or qual erano.

You will sometimes see the apostrophe written (qual'è) in older texts, signs, and casual messages. Modern style guides (the Accademia della Crusca, Treccani, all major dictionaries) consider qual'è incorrect. The reasoning: an apostrophe marks elision (a vowel dropped because of the next vowel), but here quale is shortened by troncamento, an entirely different process — and the modern conventions reserve the apostrophe for elision.

A useful test: you can have qual è but you can also say qual buon vento ti porta? (what good wind brings you here? — a fixed greeting), where no vowel follows. The truncation isn't triggered by elision rules, so no apostrophe.

4.2 Quale with prepositions

The combination per quale motivo is a slightly more formal way to ask why, often used when perché would feel too casual. Lawyers, journalists, and teachers use it routinely.

5. Quanto / quanta / quanti / quante — how much, how many

Quanto is the most heavily inflected of the four. It agrees in gender and number with what is being counted or measured.

The most common A1-level uses are quanto costa? (how much does it cost?) and quanti anni hai? (how old are you?). These are absolutely fixed: ask a price and you ask quanto; ask an age and you ask quanti anni.

5.1 Quanto with prepositions

The construction in quanti / in quante (how many of us/you are there) is idiomatic — it counts the members of a group. In quanti siete a tavola? (How many are at the table?) is a normal restaurant question.

6. Same word, two roles: pronoun vs adjective

Three of these four words also serve as interrogative adjectives when they directly modify a noun. The forms are the same; the function is what differs.

Chi differs: it is only a pronoun, never an adjective. You can't say chi persona — you have to say quale persona or simply chi.

Cosa is also primarily a pronoun, though che cosa and che in their adjective-like uses (che cosa fai? che ore sono?) are common.

7. Quick-reference question patterns

These four interrogatives map to a small set of A1-level sentence patterns that you can drill until they're automatic.

8. Common mistakes

9. Order of words in interrogative sentences

A small but useful rule of thumb: with these pronouns, Italian generally puts the interrogative first, followed by the verb, followed by the rest of the sentence — exactly like English questions but without auxiliary inversion (Italian doesn't have do-support).

The subject pronoun, when expressed, usually comes after the verb in questions: Cosa fai tu? But Italian's pro-drop nature means the subject pronoun is typically just absent.

Key takeaways

• Four core interrogative pronouns: chi (who), cosa / che cosa / che (what), quale / quali (which), quanto / quanta / quanti / quante (how much / how many).
• Chi is invariable and refers only to people.
• Cosa, che cosa, che are interchangeable; cosa is most common in speech.
• Quale inflects in number only: quale / quali. Same form for masculine and feminine.
• Quanto inflects in gender and number: four forms — quanto / quanta / quanti / quante.
• Qual è is written without an apostrophe — troncamento, not elision.
• After prepositions, all four pronouns follow the preposition without modification (con chi, di cosa, per quale, da quanti).