La signora chiede alla bigliettaia un biglietto per Bologna.

In Italian, the definite article is often used where English would not use the.

So la signora literally means the lady / the woman, but in many contexts it is simply the normal way to say the woman or the lady as the subject of the sentence.

Italian uses articles much more often than English, so learners often need to get used to seeing il, la, un, una where English might leave them out.

Chiede comes from the verb chiedere, which usually means to ask for, to ask, or sometimes to request.

Here, chiede is:

• 3rd person singular
• present tense

So it means:

• she asks
• the lady asks for

In this sentence, it is being used with a thing requested: un biglietto.

Alla is a contraction of:

• a = to
• la = the

So:

• a + la = alla

Here, alla bigliettaia means to the ticket seller / ticket clerk.

Italian often uses a with the person something is said or asked to. In English we can say:

• The lady asks the ticket clerk for a ticket or
• The lady asks for a ticket from the ticket clerk

Italian structures it as asking to someone:

• chiede alla bigliettaia...

Bigliettaia means female ticket clerk, female ticket seller, or woman at the ticket office/window.

It is the feminine form of a noun related to selling or handling tickets:

• biglietto = ticket
• bigliettaio = male ticket clerk
• bigliettaia = female ticket clerk

The ending -aia here marks the feminine form corresponding to masculine -aio.

Un biglietto means a ticket, not the ticket.

Italian uses:

• un = a / an
• il = the for a masculine singular noun

So:

• un biglietto = a ticket
• il biglietto = the ticket

Since the sentence is talking about asking for one ticket, not a specific previously mentioned ticket, un is the natural choice.

Here per Bologna means for Bologna, as in a ticket for Bologna.

With tickets, destinations, and travel, Italian often uses per to mean:

• for
• to
• bound for

So:

• un biglietto per Bologna = a ticket for Bologna / to Bologna

You may also see a Bologna in other contexts, but after biglietto, per is the normal choice:

• un biglietto per Roma
• un treno per Milano

Yes, the word order can change.

Both of these are possible:

• La signora chiede alla bigliettaia un biglietto per Bologna.
• La signora chiede un biglietto per Bologna alla bigliettaia.

The first version puts the person being addressed earlier:

• asks the ticket clerk for a ticket

The second puts the thing requested earlier:

• asks for a ticket ... from/to the ticket clerk

Italian word order is often more flexible than English, although some orders sound more natural depending on emphasis and context. The given sentence is completely normal.

Yes, it is functioning as an indirect object.

In this sentence:

• La signora = subject
• chiede = verb
• un biglietto = direct object, the thing being requested
• alla bigliettaia = indirect object, the person to whom the request is directed

That is why Italian uses a:

• chiedere qualcosa a qualcuno = to ask someone for something / literally to ask something to someone

Bologna is a proper noun—the name of a city—so it normally does not take an article in this kind of sentence.

So:

• per Bologna = for/to Bologna

You would not normally say per la Bologna here.

This is similar to English, where city names usually appear without the:

• to London
• for Rome
• to Bologna

A very natural replacement would be:

• La signora le chiede un biglietto per Bologna.

Here:

• le = to her
• it replaces alla bigliettaia

You could also replace un biglietto with a pronoun in other contexts, but in this sentence the simplest pronoun version is usually with le.

If both objects were replaced, the sentence would become more advanced and depend on exactly what you want to emphasize.

Chiede is pronounced approximately KYEH-deh.

A few helpful points:

• chi- in Italian sounds like kee / kyee, with a hard k sound, not like English ch in chair
• the e at the end is pronounced, not silent
• Italian words are usually pronounced much more consistently than English spelling would suggest

So chiede does not sound like English cheed or chide. It has three clear parts:

• chie-de

A useful pattern here is:

[subject] + chiedere + [thing] + a + [person]

So:

• La signora = subject
• chiede = asks for
• un biglietto = thing asked for
• alla bigliettaia = to the person

You can build many similar sentences with this pattern:

• Marco chiede al cameriere un caffè.
• La turista chiede all'impiegato informazioni.
• Il ragazzo chiede alla signora un aiuto.

This is a very common structure in everyday Italian.