Learn Italian: Che cosa studi con l'insegnante? - What do you study with the teacher?

Che cosa studi con l'insegnante?

What do you study with the teacher?

Breakdown of Che cosa studi con l'insegnante?

Questions & Answers about Che cosa studi con l'insegnante?

Why use che cosa instead of just cosa to say 'what'?

In Italian, you can use che, cosa, or che cosa to ask 'what'. They all mean the exact same thing! Che cosa is the most traditional and complete form, literally translating to 'what thing'.

How do we know who is studying if there is no word for 'you'?

The verb ending gives it away. Studi comes from the regular verb studiare (to study). The -i at the end tells us it is the tu (informal 'you') form. Italian usually drops the subject pronoun because the verb does the work for you.

Why does l'insegnante have an apostrophe?

The word for teacher is insegnante. Since it starts with a vowel, the word for 'the' drops its final letter to make pronunciation smoother. Instead of saying lo insegnante or la insegnante, it shrinks down to l'insegnante.

Is insegnante a male or female teacher?

It can be either! Many job titles ending in -nte work for both men and women. Because the word for 'the' is shortened to l', we can't tell the teacher's gender just from looking at this sentence.