La dottoressa mi chiede quali sintomi ho da ieri sera.

In Italian, job titles and professions often take the definite article when you are talking about a specific person:

• la dottoressa = the (female) doctor
• il dottore = the (male) doctor

So La dottoressa mi chiede... literally means The doctor asks me...

Italian uses articles more often than English does in cases like this.

Dottoressa is the feminine form of dottore.

• il dottore = male doctor
• la dottoressa = female doctor

Here, the sentence is referring to a female doctor, so Italian uses the feminine noun and article.

Mi is an unstressed object pronoun, and in normal Italian it comes before the conjugated verb:

• mi chiede = asks me

This is the standard order with pronouns like:

• mi = me
• ti = you
• ci = us
• vi = you all

So:

• La dottoressa mi chiede... = The doctor asks me...

You do not normally say chiede mi.

Mi means me. It is the indirect object pronoun here.

So:

• chiedere qualcosa a qualcuno = to ask someone something

In this sentence:

• La dottoressa = subject
• mi = to me / me
• chiede = asks
• quali sintomi ho = which symptoms I have

So the doctor is asking me which symptoms I have.

Both can be possible in Italian, but quali sintomi is especially natural when asking which symptoms in a more specific or careful way.

• quali sintomi = which symptoms
• che sintomi = what symptoms / which symptoms

In many contexts, che and quale/quali can overlap, but quali more directly matches English which.

Since sintomi is plural, quale becomes quali.

Because it refers to sintomi, which is plural.

• singular: quale sintomo = which symptom
• plural: quali sintomi = which symptoms

So the form of quale changes to agree with the number of the noun it goes with.

In Italian, you normally use avere with illnesses, symptoms, sensations, and physical complaints:

• ho febbre = I have a fever
• ho mal di testa = I have a headache
• ho sintomi = I have symptoms

So quali sintomi ho literally means which symptoms I have.

Using essere here would be incorrect.

This is a very important Italian pattern.

Italian often uses the present tense + da to express something that started in the past and is still continuing now.

So:

• ho ... da ieri sera = I have had ... since last night / since yesterday evening

It is present tense in Italian, even though English often uses the present perfect:

• Italian: Ho sintomi da ieri sera
• English: I have had symptoms since last night

So quali sintomi ho da ieri sera means the symptoms began yesterday evening and are still present now.

Here da ieri sera means since yesterday evening / since last night.

With a present tense verb, da gives the idea of starting point + continuing until now.

Examples:

• Studio italiano da due anni. = I have been studying Italian for two years.
• Ho la tosse da lunedì. = I have had a cough since Monday.

So in this sentence, da ieri sera tells you when the symptoms started.

Italian usually leaves out subject pronouns like io unless they are needed for emphasis or contrast.

So:

• quali sintomi ho = normal
• quali sintomi io ho = possible, but emphatic or unusual in neutral speech

Since ho already means I have, adding io is not necessary.

Because quali sintomi ho da ieri sera is not the main sentence. It is an indirect question.

The whole sentence is:

• La dottoressa mi chiede... = The doctor asks me...

And what she asks is:

• quali sintomi ho da ieri sera = which symptoms I have had since last night

In English, compare:

• direct question: Which symptoms have you had since last night?
• indirect question: The doctor asks me which symptoms I have had since last night.

Italian works the same way here: no question mark, and no special inversion.

Italian does not usually invert subject and verb the way English sometimes does in questions.

So in a direct question, you can have:

• Quali sintomi hai? = Which symptoms do you have?

And in an indirect question:

• La dottoressa mi chiede quali sintomi ho. = The doctor asks me which symptoms I have.

The structure stays straightforward. Italian relies more on question words and context than on word-order changes.

Yes. Domandare and chiedere can both mean to ask.

• La dottoressa mi chiede...
• La dottoressa mi domanda...

Both are correct. Chiedere is extremely common and very natural here.

Just remember that chiedere can also mean to request/ask for, depending on the structure, so context matters.

You would change the noun and article:

• Il dottore mi chiede quali sintomi ho da ieri sera.

Everything else stays the same.

So the only change is:

• la dottoressa → il dottore